History Main / DrinkingOnDuty

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': In season 5, Garibaldi started drinking again, culminating in him drinking on duty. Zack Allen quickly discovers the warning signs, but President Sheridan didn't believe it at first. After the Centauri war, Sheridan calls Garibaldi out on it, and suspends him until it is resolved (Garibaldi ends up retiring to the private sector instead of returning to duty, remaining only as long as he needed to find a replacement).

--->'''Bodie:''' Doyle, you forgot to bring any beer.
--->'''Doyle:''' No I didn't--I remembered.
--->'''Bodie:''' You did?
--->'''Doyle:''' Yeah, of course I did. I remembered not to bring any.
--->'''Bodie:''' I'm like a fine piece of machinery--I need lubrication.
--->'''Doyle:''' Yeah? Well too much lubrication and that machinery will end up with a bullet up its crankcase.

** The ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Original Series]]'' episode ''The Conscience of the King'' has Dr. [=McCoy=] drinking at his desk in sickbay while giving a report to the ship's XO, Mr. Spock. To his credit, he ''does'' offer Spock a drink. But even for the sixties it's behavior that's pretty egregious for a ship's surgeon (and possibly contributed to the escape of a patient who was supposed to be confined to sickbay).

-->'''Mr. Czelanski:''' Kevin is a wonderful student, good grades... blah, blah, blah. Do you really want to hear this?\\

** Mr. Burns ends up drinking himself to a drunken stupor after Mr. Burns was given a $15,000,000 fine in regards to the hundreds of violations at his power plant.

** In "No Disgrace Like Home", Officers Eddie and Lou visit Moe's Tavern while in uniform. They turn down pretzel because they're on duty, but decide to have beer instead.
** In "Team Homer", Mr. Burns is huffing ether to avoid the pain he apparently experiences when Smithers files his fingernails. In his ether-induced delirium, he cheerfully gives Homer--who he believes to be The Pillsbury Dough Boy--start up money for bowling team. He possibly also murders the plant's janitor.
** Homer, himself, regularly drinks several 'lunch beers' during his lunch break, according to Lenny.

* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers:'' In vol 3, a just depowered [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Carol Danvers]] takes it hard, and starts drinking heavily. The only one who notices is Iron Man, who [[PoorCommunicationKills refuses to speak up]] thanks to his own history with alcoholism. None of the other Avengers realise why Carol suddenly becomes a lot more irrational and confrontational, until an incident with Kree fanatics ends with her shooting Lockjaw the dog, at which point she's given a hearing and booted off the team until she sobers up.

** Officers Eddie and Lou are no exceptions. They have ordered beer at Moe's and accept Bart's beer while both on duty in uniform.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Bender Bending Rodriguez is ''required'' to drink regularly, even during work hours, or he starts rusting as his systems begin to break down.
* One of Kevin's teacher's (Mr. Czelanski) on ''WesternAnimation/MissionHill'' has an endemic case of this. Perhaps the most notable instance is when he has to do a parent teacher interview:
-->'''Mr. Czelanski:''' Kevin is a wonderful student, good grades..." blah, blah, blah. Do you really want to hear this?
-->'''Andy:''' No, not really.
-->'''Mr. Czelanski:''' Well, we still have 14 minutes left. (He promptly pulls out a bottle of scotch and two glasses from his desk) If only more parents were like you.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' Bender Bending Rodriguez is ''required'' to do this. {{Justified}} in that he's a robot whose systems are fueled by alcohol. If he ''doesn't'' drink, he starts rusting as his systems begin to break down.
** Notably, the premise of "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" [[RecycledPremise starts out very similarly]] to "Bart After Dark" in ''The Simpsons''. The difference is, while the sea captain caused the oil tanker wreck by drinking at the helm, Bender's mishap with the dark matter spill was caused by a dangerously ''low'' alcohol content in his system.

* Defied, unsurprisingly, in the first ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest''. If Sonny tries it in uniform, it is an instant game over. The second game does allow a bit of drinking, though there are many cases where you shouldn't, lest it make it harder to do your job.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* To get the obvious out of the way, [[DontTryThisAtHome this, for a host of reasons, is not a smart thing to do]].
** Unless your profession involves drinking. Also, inverted in many people's whose jobs involves drinking tend not to drink when ''not'' on duty.
** Some bars' and pubs' mottos are even: "If you can't do your job drunk, you simply can't do your job." Justified in some places where customers often buy drinks or shots for the bar staff, so having a good tolerance is necessary.
* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was well sloshed more than a few times when he took decisions in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Although, most of the time, Churchill's preferred drink was a few spoons of Johnnie Walker drowned in an entire tumbler of soda water. The man was walking around with a perpetual buzz 24/7, but he was rarely actually full drunk, unlike the stereotype.
** As was UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt, mostly under Churchill's influence when the latter spent much of the winter of 1941-42 as a guest in TheWhiteHouse. These decisions were also typically taken very early in the morning.
** UsefulNotes/JosephStalin's alcoholism was well-known and he was notorious for leading benders in his dacha. He just didn't take a man at his word [[InVinoVeritas until he'd talked to Stalin while drunk]], as he thought (correctly) that sober people tried to hide things from him. Some were reputedly too terrified to refuse to drink. It is an interesting aside on [=WW2=] that an abstemious non-drinker - UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler - was defeated by the combined forces of three countries whose leaders were capable of drinking well to excess.
* Most programmes of UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust were accomplished with the aid of small rivers of alcohol. Drinking the job was permitted on the job, if not encouraged:
** In the 1939 ''T-4'' involuntary euthanasia programme for Germany's disabled, the Reich Chancellory personnel assigned to ''disinfiziert'' ("decontamination") and cremation duty were entitled to a free 250ml ration of Schnapps per day. Although the strength of the Schnapps is unknown (it could be anywhere between average wine and weak vodka strength, or 15-30% alcohol per volume) many chose to supplement their ration with extra alcohol. There were numerous complaints about the conduct of the T-4 personnel (trustworthy German volunteer doctors, nurses, craftsmen, unskilled labourers with high wages) - not least because high alcohol use, stressful work and close proximity of both sexes (female nurses and male unskilled labourers on harvesting and cremation duty) resulted in a wholly unsurprising amount of workplace sex.
** In the ''Generalgouvernment'' (occupied Poland) and the occupied Soviet Union, well-organised mass executions of local communities and/or Undesirable elements would of course include ''Hiwis'' (pronounced 'hee-vees', local auxiliaries 'recruited' from Soviet POW and civilians) and/or alcohol: ''Hiwis'' so that German soldiers and policemen wouldn't have to shoot anyone, and alcohol so no-one would have to remember it too strongly.
*** A notable drawback of DrinkingOnDuty was the egregious execution of field operations. Well-corroborated participant accounts (from the 101st Reserve Police Battalion) note an incident wherein the Hiwis' aim was so compromised by inebriation that their handlers were first impelled to take cover for the duration of the processing - despite being situated ''behind'' them - and then to attempt to finish the job themselves due to the exponentially less lethal nature of the wounds inflicted by the Hiwis' submachine guns. However, since the Police were also sloshed they had to physically climb down into the pit and press the muzzles of their weapons to the condemned in order to hit them. Then it began to rain, and as their boots filled with blood-mud slurry which the bodies began to float in, it dawned upon them that they had accidentally made the Hiwis dig the pit ''below the water table''.
* Any UK politician or public figure described in the press as "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_and_emotional Tired and Emotional]]" due to an infamous incident in the 1960s. This is parodied in the ''Series/YesMinister'' episode ''The Economy Drive'' with this exchange:
-->'''Bernard:''' William Hickey[[note]]a Daily Express columnist[[/note]] says you were overwrought.\\
'''Jim Hacker:''' Just overwrought? Nothing about being drunk?\\
'''Bernard:''' Just overwrought.\\
'''Sir Humphrey:''' Overwrought as a newt, actually.
* In UK Politics, former leader of the Liberal Democrat party Charles Kennedy. It was his chronic alcoholism that led to the "former" part.
* British politics provides another example, this time a responsible one: The sole exception to Parliament's ban on food and drink in the debating chamber is during the Chancellor of the Exchequer's annual Budget Speech, where tradition allows them to drink anything he likes. With a few exceptions (most recently UsefulNotes/GordonBrown and Alastair Darling), the Chancellor has opted for something alcoholic and sometimes rather stiff, since the Speech is such that he really does [[INeedAFreakingDrink need a freaking drink]].
* Legend, rumour and hearsay tell that the Skipper of the ''Exxon Valdez'', Joseph Hazelwood, was drunk on duty when the ship crashed. In 2008 it was revealed that he was below deck sleeping off a bender.
** This was revealed in ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Shipping_Co._v._Baker Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker]]'',[[note]]A [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts US Supreme Court]] case deciding exactly how much the plaintiffs could take in punitive damages from Exxon[[/note]] in which Justice Souter (who wrote the majority) saw fit to note that he had had five double vodkas, "enough that a non-alcoholic would have [[SophisticatedAsHell passed out]]."
* First Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. [=MacDonald=], was notorious for drinking in Parliament. Popular legend holds that the Conferences that led to Canadian Confederation consisted of Sir John getting everyone else drunk until they agreed to it. This is not far from the truth.
** During the 1863 election, John A showed up completely hungover to a debate, and threw up during his opponents' speech. He recovered nicely by proclaiming that [[TakeThat his opponent was so abysmal it made him sick.]]
** One of the unofficial reelection campaign slogan was: "Better John A. drunk than George Brown sober".
** Macdonald also [[HypocriticalHumor admonished one of his Cabinet ministers, Thomas D'Arcy [=McGee=], for his heavy drinking]]: "Look here, [=McGee=], this government can't afford two drunkards, and you've got to stop."
* Canadian Forces regulations allows for a maximum of two standard drinks while on duty. This is subject to further regulation by the local commanders though, so it's rare to see this fully permitted, unless you're in the Navy.
* Speaking of Her Majesty's Navies, there's the old quote about the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]] (often [[BeamMeUpScotty wrongly attributed]] to UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill[[note]]It's important to note, though, that Churchill's own secretary said that Churchill ''wished'' he had said it[[/note]]):
-->Don't talk to me about Navy tradition. It's nothing but [[TheDrunkenSailor rum]], [[HelloSailor sodomy]], and [[ATasteOfTheLash the lash]].
* Undisciplined troops, especially in rear areas, sometimes do take to drink. Not only is being drunk not a good thing for the men themselves, but it's also bad news for anyone who has to cross paths with young, strong men who are bored, frustrated, drunk, armed, and given the benefit of the doubt should any incident arise.
* In the lead-up to the 1984 general elections in UsefulNotes/NewZealand, then-Prime Minister Robert Muldoon [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLDve40cxlk drunkenly called a snap election]] after one of his [=MPs=] threatened to dissent over key legislation. This became known as the '[[JustForPun schnapps election]]'. For the record, he lost.
** Speaking of New Zealand, former MP Nandor Tanczos made the accusation in 2000 that he had seen politicians "drunk in charge of a country".
* Former Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen once did a radio interview while still drunk from the night before and was speaking with obviously slurred speech. [[BlatantLies He later claimed to have had a cold]].
* Ever hear of a business lunch? While the ''Series/MadMen'' style three-martinis lunch has long since been stopped, and most people on a business lunch will stick to water or soft drinks, occasionally someone will indulge a little and order a beer. Furthermore, it's become something of a trope itself to have someone try to negotiate a business deal after the other person has had a couple to "loosen up" and possibly agree to a deal that they might otherwise be hesitant about.
* [[VodkaDrunkenski Drunkenness was common at the Chernobyl NPP]], and may have contributed to the lax standards that resulted in its meltdown.
* In the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, Union general James H. Ledlie was removed from command after his drinking on duty contributed to the disaster at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater Battle of the Crater]]. His failure to brief or lead his unprepared troops resulted in massive Union casualties.
** On the other hand, general Grant was a much more effective commander despite his drinking, prompting Lincoln to ask what he was drinking so he could send some to the other generals. (This is because Grant didn't actually drink while conducting battle, but during long periods of inaction, such as a siege, where he had time to get bored and think about [[MyGirlBackHome how much he missed his wife]].)
* While smart bar/club owners, managers, and heads of security will go out of their way to make sure that their staff don't drink on duty, the fact of the matter is that most hosts and bartenders will probably wind up having to drink on the job at some point with groups, but any bar staffer worth their salt will heavily dilute their own drinks so as to not get hammered. Bars and clubs with legitimately inebriated staff ''never'' last long.
* Exotic dancers will sometimes drink on the job, often by encouraging patrons to buy them drinks (that inevitably turn out to be extremely overpriced). Subverted by the fact that, just like the above bar staff example, the drinks they consume are heavily diluted or outright non-alcoholic and the proceeds from said drinks are shared with the bar staff/establishment.
* In 2009, a [[VodkaDrunkenski Russian]] airline pilot was found to be drunk while flying. Radio/WaitWaitDontTellMe tells the story [[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128417651 here]]
* VodkaDrunkenski also has this tale: there is a (possibly anecdotal) story about an Aeroflot pilot who started to see pixies and fairies flying in the airspace around his aircraft. He mentioned this to the company doctor during a checkup. The doctor frowned and suggested this phenomenon was down to the two bottles of vodka the pilot consumed each day. But he suggested a solution that would allow the pilot to keep flying.
-->Two bottles is a bit excessive, don't you think? Try to cut down to no more than ''one'', comrade!
[[/folder]]

* Most programmes of the UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust were accomplished with the aid of small rivers of alcohol. Drinking the job was permitted on the job, if not encouraged:

** He's not the only one. Detectives are shown knocking back beers or liquor while at their desks, and even uniformed officers are openly guzzling beer in some scenes—without any signs of any concern about what can actually lead to serious disciplinary action in real police departments.