My Job Made Me Do It

Come Monday morning, there are tons of people out there looking for an excuse, any excuse, to get out of coming in to work. Whether it's due to late night partying on Sunday night, wishing for a few more hours of sleep or those who don't like their job, there is probably a sizeable portion of the public out there not wanting to get up and come in on Monday. Then again, there are those who absolutely can't wait to get into work on Monday morning. They revel in the fact that they are on their way to work and have another five days before the weekend is here again. I have a friend who, when in high school, used to be one of the only one's excited to be in school on Monday morning. I could never exactly figure out why, but I guess perhaps she enjoyed being in school among her friends. Or perhaps like the one employee at Brazilian beer maker AmBev's factory, she was fulfilling an addiction.

The Brazilian beer maker AmBev is the manufacturer of a number of beers in the South American country and recently a judge ordered them to pay the approximate equivalent of $49,000 to a beer taster who worked for the company at various plants. The unnamed employee was apparently underpaid but greatly appreciated because as an alcoholic, he was paid a minimum but provided the company feedback on the numerous beer taste tests he endured on an almost daily basis. The employee reported that on a daily basis during an eight-hour shift, he would consume nearly 16 to 25 small glasses of beer as a means of ensuring that the brewing process was yielding a good product. Now as an economist, I can't argue with the logic behind the decision of the company. When you have a tester who is absolutely in love with his job and will do it solely on the fringe benefits as opposed to the pay, you have a happy employee.

What a Brazilian court decided is that the company was negligent and irresponsible based on the fact that they knowlingly employed the tester knowing that he was an alcoholic. The judge in the case ruled that the fact that the company 'compensated' the employee with free samples and a bottle of beer at the end of each shift didn't do anything to improve the state of living for the employee. The employee in question now reports that his alcohol dependence has increased and that even when on vacation, he feels compelled to drink the same amount of alcohol that he consumes on a normal day at work. That in and of itself is a disturbing thing. There's liking your job and then liking it to the point that it could kill you.

I'm curious to know whether or not AmBev is providing the employee with any medical or health insurance. I seriously doubt it but they should be; after all, they are slowly creating mockery of the man's liver. I am also curious to know that had they paid the employee for his services rather than paying him chump change and evening it out with unlimited beer, whether or not this case would have even seen the inside of a courtroom. It brings up the topic of what exactly a company is responsible for when it comes to their employees. Now I agree, a company is responsible for providing compensation for the work that an employee does. I mean translated into the corporate world, just because you have a programmer who loves programming and does nothing but eat, sleep and drink programming, does that mean that you should pay them less than a guy who likes to have a life outside of work?

Of course not! You would pay the guy more because he is probably good at his job and because he is providing a lot more in depth expertise, he should be duly compensated and in the case of beer taste testing, he was denied payment on his 'expertise'. Even then, I think it's a bit underhanded they way they went about using this guy to constantly taste the beer and not pay him amply. In certain lines of work there is an inherent risk. If you are a soldier, or a mine worker or even someone flying jets, the world is a dangerous place with or without terrorism. To give your life for your job for some is a requirement, but to say that to give your liver for your job. Well, that's something else.