pp. 3-36

This study, based on observation and interviews with employees and managers of the French postal service « La Poste », was conducted to improve knowledge of the alcohol consumption and alcoholism specific to this occupational milieu. Neither of these practices can be studied in isolation from employee socializing and workplace mutual assistance practices, or from the social control practices that regulate routine production activity and, specifically, require managers to report « intemperate agents ». Analysis of interdependence between routine work and alcohol consumption practices sheds light on why managers often manifest a passive attitude despite regulations requiring them to report so-called alcoholic employees.