Hey everyone, I wanna start out by saying I’m the anxious type and that I already recognize my actions were wrong. I’m a nineteen-year-old working a serious internship at a big law firm. These past few months, I’ve given it absolutely everything I have to be successful. However, last night, I feel like I put that in jeopardy. I’ll keep it short. My co workers (my boss was NOT present, but all of my co workers were older) went out for a few drinks. One kept insisting that I have a glass. I kept saying no, repeating things like “I’m fine with soda. I don’t drink. I’m sorry. I’m can’t. I’m content. Thanks anyway etc.” The same co worker flagged down a waiter at the bar and got me a glass of beer. I felt totally conflicted. He had just ordered for me, and I had absolutely no idea what to do. I felt it would be rude to drink and that it would be even ruder to ignore the fact the he just ordered for me. Everyone else was drinking, so I felt it was the right thing to do socially. There’s no excuses for my actions, but everyone else was drinking heavily and I felt totally pressured despite saying no many times. Long story short, I kept drinking and ended up having four glasses of beer over a period of about four hours. It wasn’t anything too drastic as most others had 6-8 drinks, but I’m a lightweight and got completely wasted. I even accidentally spilled some of my water on a coworker by dropping the glass (it broke). I don’t know how to feel, and I sure as hell will NEVER underage drink in a company setting again, but I’m worried that this event has sullied my professional relationship with my coworkers. Things were incredibly awkward in the office today. Even though everyone else was drunk (other coworkers got loud and said inappropriate/personal things), I still felt like it was the elephant in the room. Everyone knew that I was wasted and that I dropped a glass and was most likely boisterous. I feel like a complete buffoon. My question is: in your opinion, have I recked my professional image here? Also, should I approach the person I spilled on/my other co workers and apologize? I see a future for myself here, and I’m devastated by this situation. I was put in an incredibly awkward position, and I will never make the same mistakes again. What are your thoughts?
I don’t think you need to do anything. Perhaps the perceived awkwardness in the office was due to someone realizing that they could have gotten in trouble for purchasing drinks for an underage person. Maybe that person is worried about what could have happened if you had stepped in front of a train. And spilling water on someone is nothing like barfing on a colleague, which you didn’t do. Good job for that.
Seems like your coworkers sullied their reputation. Applying peer pressure to get someone to drink when s/he does not want to falls short of what should be expected from coworkers. This is especially true when they are pressuring you to do something that may be illegal (especially when they are lawyers).
I think you are fine. They are all probably ashamed of their own actions and think they are the elephant in the room because they had 8 drinks or whatever it may be. I’ll bet if you apologized, he’d just blow you off and say something like ‘are you kidding? We were all so wasted. That was you? I don’t even remember that but I noticed it when I got home, haha’ or something like that. Don’t worry, it’s not like anyone is going to tell the boss, because then they’d have to admit to their own actions as well. They’d catch some of the blame at for you drinking.