Company Gives Employees Thousands For Drinks Every Month

Drinking late into the night might give you coherent speech, but a Japanese company is betting it will make employees communicate better. And it's even willing to pay for it.

Japan General Estate says it is planning to dole out thousands of dollars a month for its employees to go on the town in a bid to help communication. The company plans to offer managers who supervise 20 or more people up to $3,000 a month for drinks. Managers with fewer than 20 workers will get $2,000.

Japanese companies routinely offer generous expense accounts to entertain clients, but the real estate company is going a step further by covering drinking sessions with staff. After-hours drinking is encouraged in Japanese corporate culture as a way to break the ice.

Critics say drinking is why Japan's population is declining as since men spend little time at home, but the company has now made somewhat of a strange concession, that the drinking benefits can also be used for wedding and funeral expenses.

The firm is known in Japan for its unorthodox work policies, such as paying a $1,000 bonus to employees who do not smoke.

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