30-something with kid here...

I enjoy cracking open a beer and playing some foosball with my team members before going home. I don't get to go to meetups as much as I used to and it's a good chance to socialize.

Also, as a manager it helps me keep my pulse on things. People open up after a beer. Foosball has become a problem... I've gotten really good and sometimes it takes some coaxing to get people to play... "hey, if you don't play you can't get better"

I doubt it's just the beer, associating with your subordinates 'outside' work as a peer when nobody is being paid is good leadership and earns you trust and respect.

Yeah, I wasn't really saying it in a "alcohol loosens you up sort of way"... no one really gets too buzzed on one beer. More of a camaraderie sort of way.

eh it's okay if you are 20 something and single. If your goal is to fill your office with 20 something single workers, it seems fairly effective..

You can have it both ways. I don't think older and attached people would be put off by that necessarily, you would just have to encourage them with other perks.

So I have worked in the young hip free beer in office environment full of 20 somethings.

I have worked in the Fortune 1000 company full of older "lifers"

I think it would be really hard to mix both together? Like just the offering of free beer and encouraging employees to stay after work and work till sundown.. that is going to build social circles among those people. How do you get the unwanted older guys with families to stick around? Pay them more than their worth to make up for it?

You give them windows to socialise during office hours like potlucks and other organised events. I've never worked somewhere where I am not the youngest person upon joining so I'm on the other side of this, but that seems to work.

If people don't want to associate with coworkers and just clock in and clock out I think they probably don't belong in their job.

Cracking open a free beer and playing COD on a console somebody else paid for at 5:01 PM on a Friday sounds fantastic to me. Working with people you consider friends is awesome, and this sounds like a great way to facilitate that.

No, not really. I enjoy doing those things in the office.