The Open Bar

Most you know . . . I sold out. I took a job in corporate law. I now go to cocktail parties, attend martini hours, and rub elbows with people who will make more money in a year than I will likely make in my life time. Parts of it are wonderful, others make me curl up my nose and wonder how people with so much could act like so little (more on that comment in later posts).

Last weekend I had a formal gala to attend. I should actually say that Curtis and I had a formal gala to attend. The event was at the Ritz. There was an open bar.

Now what you may think that you know about your colleagues before you go to an event with an open bar may leave you quite surprised. For people with way too much money in an individual bank account you would think they never had access to top shelf liquor. It's just crazy. There are stories I could tell, but I would not want to incriminate myself or my place of employment by giving too much detail.

However, I did have an interesting conversation with a few drunken colleagues I thought was post worthy. As the lower level employees, we often get dumped on. Things are thrown on our desks and orders are shouted from behind closed doors (even when a speaker phone would be much easier on the vocal chords). But these qualities of our superiors did not make sense to myself or my colleagues.

If you've seen movies about the upper class, you've seen etiquette and at least a show of good manners when in front of others. Those manners just don't seem to apply in real life. The more money an individual makes, does that mean that he has to be increasingly meaner to his subordinates.

So although these people took advantage of an open bar, I think there is some insight to be gained from their drunken comments.

Thoughts?