Here's a spirited story a colleague and I recently wrote on new financial-district-area bars: Watering holes for urban wildlife
The reporting for this story entailed going to six bars in four nights, on the company dime. We even got to bring some other co-workers with us. Which all sounds really fun. But you know what? It wasn't.
I mean, OK, yes, absolutely, it was fun at times. And, yes, I know there is just no credibility whatsoever in complaining about being sent for free to bars, for work.
But drinking night after night, for a couple of hours after work is supposed to be over, and then not working out, and not seeing your girlfriend until 9 or 10 pm, is actually pretty stressful. I would feel run down at work and all tight in the chest. I didn't get to make dinner with Anne or spend time talking to her. Not because it is hard to go to a bar, but because lack of exercise and more-than-usual of alcohol is detrimental to my system.
Spreading an assignment like that out over a month would be a blast. Over five days was not such a blast.
There is talk around the office of doing something like this every month. If it happens, and if I am involved, I do any future assignments only if Anne gets to come too.
| 
