I (38M) work a stressful job in finance. After years of climbing my way up the corperate ladder, I finally became a VP at my firm – which comes with its own office!

I’m consider myself a ‘classic’ kinda guy, and one of the things I admire most about the workplaces of the 1960s (think Mad Men etc), is that the characters always have a jar of whiskey in their hands no matter what time of day it is. Back when I worked the trading floor, it would have been uncouth to do such a thing in front of my colleagues – but I figured no one would care about it now that I have my own office.

I recently purchased some whiskey jars, and a premium bottle ($500+) which I store openly on my desk. I work with some high-end clients, and I’ll always offer them a glass when we have important meetings. Unfortunatley, none of them have ever accepted. So, not wanting to let the whiskey go to waste, I’ve started sipping on a couple of glasses by myself throughout the day, sometimes as early as 10:30 AM.

That was until yesterday morning, when one of my bosses (CTO) burst into the office unannounced, and caught me sipping. He looked shocked, turned his back, and left. At this point the bottle was about half-empty, so it probably looked pretty bad to him. (Although I must add that this was consumed over the course of a whole week – I was drinking slowly enough that it didn’t affect my work in any way.)

He sent me a long e-mail about how I have problem and that he’s going to contact HR. In the heat of the moment, I sent him a reply telling him maybe he needs a glass or two to lighten up. (I’ll admit to being the asshole for that part.) I’m scheduled to speak to HR tomorrow and I’m shitting it. Reddit, am I really the asshole for sipping whiskey privately in my office?

EDIT: It seems that I’m TA 🙁 I’m going to ensure the whiskey / drinking is hidden from public view in the future + no drinking before lunchtime. Still sucks that I don’t get to be Don Draper though 🙁

FINAL EDIT / UPDATE:

Oh boy, so I met with the HR lady early this morning, and I, very stupidly – out of pure reflexive habit – offered her a drink before we started. She was not amused to say the least. After that I basically got on my knees and begged for forgiveness. They’ve let me keep me job, but I’m relegated to sitting at a tiny desk in a shared office under the constant eye of the CTO. Moreover, word has gotten around the floor about my old-school antics. I’ve already had a couple of colleagues jokingly call me ‘Don’, ‘Donny boy’, or even asked me for whiskey themselves. I’ll take it, but this isn’t what I imagined being a Mad Man would be like.