A new survey looks at employees who congregate outside of the workplace. There’s some good news for employees — and some bad news for HR.

A quarter of employees say they go out for after-work drinks with co-workers, according to a survey by CareerBuilder. Experiences are mostly positive. Of the people who participate in the gatherings:

• 85% said it has helped them get closer to higher-ups, or land a better job
• 82% said they go to bond with co-workers, and
• 21% said the events were good for “networking.”

It’s not all good old-fashioned fun and bonding, though. As for the dark side, the respondents reported:

• hearing someone bad-mouth a co-worker or boss (16%)
• listening to workplace gossip (10%)
• seeing a colleague drink too much and act unprofessionally (8%), and
• seeing two co-workers kiss (8%).

What’s the lesson for Human Resources folks? It’s a good reason to remind employees and managers that harassment policies apply to conduct outside the workplace, too.

Tags: after-work drinks, alcohol, gossip, happy hour, outside the office