It hit the news back in Tuesday, April 9, 2019, is alcohol
and drugs really a big problem at Lloyd’s of London?
By: Ringo Bones
Wasn’t the world-famous insurance corporation Lloyd’s of
London started a coffeehouse? During the beginning of the 18th
Century, Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse was one of the foremost places where
insurers, brokers and underwriters of common interests meet. It is of interest
to note that Mr. Lloyd would not allow a man to write his name under a contract
of insurance in his coffeehouse unless certain of the underwriters’ ability and
willingness to pay up in the event of loss.
Fast forward to April 2019, Lloyd’s decision to finally ban drunkenness
in the workplace was in part to the rise of complaints of sexual harassment and
related disgraceful behavior during the past few years that was caused
primarily by personnel who got a bit too much wine during lunch. Which is quite
ironic, really, given that Lloyd’s of London was originally a coffeehouse. And
as part of a code of conduct to be unveiled this week, people attending to
enter the market under the influence of drugs and / or alcohol will have their
passes confiscated.
Whether this is actually enforceable, only time will tell, but
pity the security guards who will be in the front line of this. The security
guards will now have the unenviable task – I mean how will they react when a
powerful and influential broker staggers in at one in the afternoon after
having a bit too much to drink at lunch and starts making threats when they are
told to surrender their pass and told to go home?
