Liquid Conversation
January 25, 2011 by Peter van Aartrijk · 5 Comments
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When I started work in New York City back in the 1980s, I caught the tail end of the era of the famous “two-martini lunch.” Or infamous, depending on your view.
Yep, it was real: For purists, it meant two martinis. Two meals. Two hours. And, usually, two business people discussing challenges of the day and actually working on solving them.
It was a wonderful time. Not because of the booze, although that sometimes made it interesting. It was the art of conversation. Yes, people actually sat down face-to-face during the business day and talked with each other for two hours without checking a BlackBerry. Imagine that?
More specifically, here’s how the lunch went: One attendee would book a table at a favorite spot. The waiters knew everyone, and what they liked to sip: typically an exquisitely made vodka or gin martini. In well-staffed locations, you’d have a drink before your butt even hit the seat. For those who dabbled in two martinis (not for me—I wasn’t smart after one), you’d have a second drink and a menu delivered together. Food would arrive with steaming hot coffee. Around 2 or 2:30 p.m., you’d go back to the office—to work on something, ostensibly.
Work? Even if you didn’t have any martinis, how did you work back then? For many in the early ‘80s, it was all on typewriters. Then, as we got into the mid-1980s, business folk in New York were issued big, bulky, slow desktop computers. They weren’t connected with other computers. There were no cell phones, no Internet, no e-mail, no texts, no faxes (at least not legible ones), no voice mail, and certainly no ergonomic chairs. While you were at lunch, your secretary or receptionist (an essential employee) would write messages on slips and neatly cascade them on your desk so you could see who called first, or who was most important to call back.
So beyond nearly zero technology, what was the net-net of the time of the two-martini lunch? To be sure, the sad part I saw for some was the debilitating effect of too much booze. The good part, though, was simple—and simply wonderful: People actually talked with each other, in person. That was a big part of the work day. I absolutely loved it.
What do we have today, besides ice tea in a plastic cup and a quick sandwich to go? We have social networking, which is so popular because human beings are, well, social. Sure, I love Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and Aartrijk’s intranet, a service called Yammer. We’re more connected than ever—or are we?
As you can tell, I get all nostalgic thinking about the two-martini lunch. Perhaps that’s why I’m one of few business folks I’ve met in the last two decades who sometimes will—surprise!—order a glass of wine at lunch. Shocking, eh?
So what’s your version of the two-martini lunch—even if actual martinis aren’t included? While it doesn’t always seem possible in the nutty business world, in my corner nothing beats face-to-face.
To your conversations…Cheers!
About Peter van Aartrijk
Never did the two martini lunches myself…but recall having an underwriter who often did. If we needed to talk to him in the afternoon, we would call his assistant to find out how sloshed he was. Depending on the situation, sometimes he was easier to deal with when sloshed, but if we needed to have a serious coverage/exposure issue we needed him sober, and it was better to wait till the morning.
I remember the first time we had fax in an agency. We had to go to the manager and get a key to unlock the closet it was in … right next to the teletype machine!
Now even faxes are basically obsolete. As for conversations…practically nonexistent these days. .
I remember an issue with a commercial lines account manager who I was supervising. She would trade emails back and forth with a client for hours on end … all on the same issue. I asked her “why don’t you pick up the phone and call your client?” – Her reply? “that takes too long”.
Of course, an email only takes a matter of a few short minutes, but what about the total time across ten emails? Not only is the phone conversation likely to resolve the issue in about the same amount of total time…but you will also be creating real rapport with your clients!
Hey Peter,
Long time… nice article and I too miss those good ole days.. Miss you here in Florida and good to see you doing just fine. Next martini lunch, I’ll drink to your success and good health!
Tim Shaw, CIC
CEO
Tim Shaw Insurance Group, Inc.
Amen to that! Face time is underrated and technology is over used. Too much instant access, this is where mistakes are made, having time to formulate a constructive answer is a good thing.
I’ll drink to that.
Peter: I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments. I was at Citibank then where we had an Executive Dining Room. Only VPs and above and their guests could use it. Charges were billed monthly. Waiters were professionals and knew us and our choices. I had a standing table every Friday for 6. I had two colleagues who wanted to participate in extending our reach at Citi so we challenged each other to bring people to the table that we should be talking to. My liquid of choice was sherry on ice. Fond memories, for what seemed like a luxurious amount of time.