London Bankers, Lawyers Choose Booze
By BankersBall on Dec 21, 2007 in Cube Life, Lifestyle, London, NYC
Boozy lunches may be a thing of the past, but that’s not stopping The City’s bankers and lawyers from hitting the bottle. London’s white collar professionals have a drug of choice for dealing with stress and long hours, and that is alcohol, reports the FT.
One banker characterizes his sloshed behavior:
“I was more of a success when I was drinking than I am now. I was earning more, I was more highly ranked in surveys and was incredibly driven and ruthless. I was a nasty piece of work,” ‘Matthew’ tells the FT
And lawyers are way above the average when it comes from death to liver cancer, behind only “pub owners, seafarers and doctors.”
So think you might be one? You can try the Paddington Alcohol Test. The general rule of thumb is for women, more than 3 drinks in one setting; or more than 7 drinks a week. For men it’s 4 drinks in one sitting; 14 drinks per week. That’s probably most working people in NYC. But it seems some of The City’s dealmakers and lawyers have a more liberal definition of working drinking levels.
One banker talks about how the wheels stay greased: “I have worked with jolly alcoholics who have a large whisky and soda before lunch, a couple of bottles of wine at lunch and some port, and get back to the office at three and just about function.”
That’s impressive.
Though llello-up bankers are somewhat of a NYC stereotype, my feeling is that NYCers are more inclined to turn to illegal substances. Thoughts?
On Dec 22, 2007, Johnny g said:
Ya Know,
Now that I think about it…
I think some of my best deals were struck having liquid lunches. I would start my workday at about 6 a.m. work my ass off all morning and go for lunch and meet uo with other business owners who have their assistants watching over the offices and just chill and talk about projects and ideas with others who have the same interest and crank out some deals with other free thinking Biz types.
Most of the guys I would put together deals with prefer’out of the box’deals. They are the types that get the deals put together in the form of Hard Money with their own money. No Banks, No accountants to drag out the deal. If we like it, see someone who is looking to get a dael put together and has some of his own money in the deal then we are off and running.
Also, by drinking with the guys looking for funding I get to see how they behave in public, How they handle themselves and how they treat others when they have a buzz on. The best of all is when they know it’s time to shut down and go home before they get to buzzed and say or do something out of line.
Tells you alot about a person……
On Dec 27, 2007, shoegazejames said:
Most Americans I know (and working in the City and married to an American I know plenty) are staggered by how much booze the British routinely knock back. Getting totally wrecked is socially acceptable for the british to a much greater degree at all levels of society.