Drink beer... that's why it's not as bad as the article says. I've never worked for a company that would allow alcohol at a company-sanctioned event. Ever.

Even worse, some companies prohibit alcohol consumprion over lunch even if you're not in the office.

Does any work actually get done?

We usually only have a Friday Fun half-day - a full 8 hours of movie-watching, beer-drinking times is probably a bit much. Work in the morning, have lunch, wrap up your work and unwind until hometime. It works pretty well.

As other poster mentioned, the presence of beer is what makes this tick - and adds an important layer of non-corporate-ness which is crucial to this sort of thing. If it feels like an HR-approved activity, nobody will have fun.

Also, the lack of any senior management is what really makes this tick. For us it's just the engineers, bizdev guys, and a couple managers we work with daily. No big bosses present.