by Jermyn Chow

LONG live after-work drinks. If there ever was a middle-fingered salute to social networking sites, it is this time-honoured tradition.

Take it from this AWDT - After-Work Drinks Tragic - I'd rather face morning-after hangovers and jibes about my drunken faux pas than give up the chance of a tipple with my co-workers.

Whinging on Facebook could never be as gratifying - trite replies of 'Good luck!' or 'Don't worry, everything will be fine' at best offer cold comfort.

Only my work buddies can truly commiserate with me. They share the pain of cracking a story, understand the obsession with bylines, the long hours.

Simply put, my job and its attendant mournings are hard for anyone outside my work environment to understand.

Unlike offloading to friends outside the workplace, colleagues share a shorthand about context and background, so you can avoid lengthy explanations.

Besides, after surviving a nine-to-nine grind, snowed under so much work, I don't really have the stamina to forge so-called 'deep and true friendships'.

Instead, I prefer chewing on every morsel of the latest, lurid workplace gossip. Although this means my mind is still on work well into the wee hours, I find it cathartic to talk shop.

I'm not alone.

According to a recent poll by job site CareerBuilder.com of about 7,000 workers in the United States, one in five goes for drinks after work.

Yes, we AWDTs are everywhere.

At 2am, we are perched atop bar stools at watering holes, work shirts crumpled, discussing the day's events, trading industry talk over sips of martini or whisky.

The ritual is a social lubricant, a way for me to extend my network and pick the brains of my colleagues, even my bosses (higher-ranked AWDTs).

The ritual is also uplifting.

An hour in a pub can inspire you more than a week at your desk, or as occupational psychologist Sandi Mann puts it: 'You can get some good work ideas.'

Turning down a drinking session, on the other hand, could mean a lost opportunity - everyone knows alcohol loosens lips.

Of course, I am aware of the pitfalls.

A quick nightcap can turn into a big night. One big night turns into several, and soon, it's a lifestyle. Then come the health issues, and a shrinking social circle which excludes anyone outside work.

But that is a topic for another column.

In this one, I'm saying, after-work drinks is not about finding BFFs (Best Friends Forever).

It is about letting your hair down over a few bevies with your colleagues, anaesthetising yourself after a particularly tough day, and blowing off steam.

So this AWDT will be taking his seat at the bar later tonight.

Drinks, anyone?

This article was first published in The Straits Times on September 1, 2008.