Working while drinking/drunk
Member
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 1,601
Originally Posted by Soberpotamus 
In true alcoholic fashion, I drank to obliteration the day I got my first client. It was like I couldn't handle the success. I don't know why. Still just really bothers me that I did that, and it's because, for me, there's always been a pattern of binging just before a significant moment, or just after.
Learning to feel all my feelings, and to get things in balance since getting sober has been the thing I've had to do to handle my life sober. Accepting defeats and successes, highs and lows, equally, and realizing there are no guarantees -- there are actions and consequences. And that I need to be willing to let go of attaching myself to outcomes, and not be afraid to face things squarely, and to keep going.
Learning to feel all my feelings, and to get things in balance since getting sober has been the thing I've had to do to handle my life sober. Accepting defeats and successes, highs and lows, equally, and realizing there are no guarantees -- there are actions and consequences. And that I need to be willing to let go of attaching myself to outcomes, and not be afraid to face things squarely, and to keep going.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Vashon WA
Posts: 1,035
I set my life up so that I could drink whenever I wanted to, which turned out to be all the time. I married someone who didn't mind my drinking, was a self employed artist, really didn't associate with non drinkers, I didn't go to the doctor unless I was broken or bleeding, I was an awesome drunk driver, the list goes on and on. I was always hungover, drunk, or somewhere in between but I would take care of important phone calls in the morning before I really got my drink on. One habit that I have kept was to write "punch lists" of stuff that had to be done so I wouldn't lose track of what needed to be attended to.
In the end, drinking interfered with my work and work interfered with my drinking. I think I probably scared some customers off here and there. The thing that really got to me was that I "let some people in" that I really shouldn't have, fellow drinkers who just stood around and got in the way or, worse, concocted and acted on bad ideas. It's happened over the years and honestly it had led to some cool outcomes sometimes but I became a father and I just couldn't justify mindlessly risky behavior anymore. Call it a moment of clarity.
I knew that I was capable of doing pretty well when I was drunk and stoned all the time but I couldn't help but wonder, what was I capable without being tied down with the lead bags of inebriation? My original slogan of sobriety was "channel my inner badass". I guess that was a way of deciding to stop sabotaging myself, vocalizing that decision. Whatever, I digress. In the end I've discovered that I work much better without being drunk and stoned. It is literally better in every way that I can think of or measure. The best part is that it keeps getting better!
In the end, drinking interfered with my work and work interfered with my drinking. I think I probably scared some customers off here and there. The thing that really got to me was that I "let some people in" that I really shouldn't have, fellow drinkers who just stood around and got in the way or, worse, concocted and acted on bad ideas. It's happened over the years and honestly it had led to some cool outcomes sometimes but I became a father and I just couldn't justify mindlessly risky behavior anymore. Call it a moment of clarity.
I knew that I was capable of doing pretty well when I was drunk and stoned all the time but I couldn't help but wonder, what was I capable without being tied down with the lead bags of inebriation? My original slogan of sobriety was "channel my inner badass". I guess that was a way of deciding to stop sabotaging myself, vocalizing that decision. Whatever, I digress. In the end I've discovered that I work much better without being drunk and stoned. It is literally better in every way that I can think of or measure. The best part is that it keeps getting better!
Member
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 315
I'm ashamed to admit how many times I've drank on the job. Mostly vodka in a water bottle (unique, I know). My way of covering it up was to constantly be using the alcohol-based hand sanitizer that is all around my work. I doubt it covered it, but I was never called out on it.
I have a good job. I still can't believe I would jeopardize it with that type of behavior. So foolish.
I have a good job. I still can't believe I would jeopardize it with that type of behavior. So foolish.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Arizona
Posts: 107
Lost a good one
I cant believe I lasted so long at a manafacturing plant being a machine operator. I never drank on the job but had some truly horrible hangovers while running my machine.
I remember being so sick after working half my 12 hour shift that I ended up puking in a trash can behind my machine. This happened on 3 different occassions. Its a wonder no one saw me and turned me in.
I lasted 10 years before my drinking caught up to me and wvwntually done me in. However, I did set a record during my drinking period. A few months later after sobering up fot 35 days I broke it. Just goes to show that we are truly better workers when we sober up and don't drink.
I remember being so sick after working half my 12 hour shift that I ended up puking in a trash can behind my machine. This happened on 3 different occassions. Its a wonder no one saw me and turned me in.
I lasted 10 years before my drinking caught up to me and wvwntually done me in. However, I did set a record during my drinking period. A few months later after sobering up fot 35 days I broke it. Just goes to show that we are truly better workers when we sober up and don't drink.
Matt M
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 490
I'm 36 next week and my serious problems (including drinking in the morning and at work) started when I was about 26/27.
I had a fairly stressful job (and worked with some fairly stressful young females!) so for me the drinking calmed me down, made me less anxious and oddly enough made me more motivated for my work.
This went on for a couple of years but after I hit 30 things started to change.
9 times out of 10 it worked and I was fine in work, but then 1 time out of 10 I just couldn't function and it began getting out of control.
I used to go on my lunch at about 12pm, go to the shops, buy a bottle of vodka and a bottle of lucozade, then I'd go into the toilet in the betting shop, drink some of the vodka, half fill the lucozade bottle with vodka and then go back to work and steadily drink it until it was time to go home.
It was insane thinking back. If I had money I could do this routine three or four days in a row.
People knew I liked a drink but nobody had any idea how far it had gone.
Thinking back to the anxiety it caused me is crazy.
I had a fairly stressful job (and worked with some fairly stressful young females!) so for me the drinking calmed me down, made me less anxious and oddly enough made me more motivated for my work.
This went on for a couple of years but after I hit 30 things started to change.
9 times out of 10 it worked and I was fine in work, but then 1 time out of 10 I just couldn't function and it began getting out of control.
I used to go on my lunch at about 12pm, go to the shops, buy a bottle of vodka and a bottle of lucozade, then I'd go into the toilet in the betting shop, drink some of the vodka, half fill the lucozade bottle with vodka and then go back to work and steadily drink it until it was time to go home.
It was insane thinking back. If I had money I could do this routine three or four days in a row.
People knew I liked a drink but nobody had any idea how far it had gone.
Thinking back to the anxiety it caused me is crazy.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Wareham, Mass
Posts: 7,067
Yep. I would fix myself a cocktail just before leaving work to sip on the drive home. How stupid is that? Had my special opaque thermal cup to hopefully fool people that I wasn't drinking. Do you ever wish you had a memory wipe eraser like that Mr. Clean thingie? I do.
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