One Night in Singapore: A Personal Encounter with Corporate Cocaine Culture
Work environments can fuel dangerous habits
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“It’s time to party,” said a sharply dressed thirty-something male through a grin so wide it could’ve split his face in two.
I know because I was looking right at it.
It was a balmy October evening, and Singapore City’s financial district was abuzz with activity. In a dimly lit corner of an upscale bar, an overt group of young professionals huddled together, their laughter drowning out the clinking of glasses and hum of the crowd. I was one of them.
Beneath the veneer of festivity and friendliness lay a secret — a potent secret that threatened to consume us all: a small bag of white powder, its contents as alluring as they were destructive.
The veil of silence
For decades, the use of cocaine in white-collar professions has been a subject shrouded in mystery, spoken of in hushed tones behind closed doors. It’s as though snorting it — or ‘hitting the slopes’ — in a jacket and tie could remove the dirtiness from it, disassociating it from an addict doing a bump on a darkened street corner.
But cocaine doesn’t care for dress codes.
As the drug has infiltrated the upper echelons of society, its acceptance and inevitability in the corporate world has grown stronger, fueled by the promise of boundless energy, razor-sharp focus, and a fleeting sense of invincibility.
And yet, for all its seductive power, cocaine’s grip on the world of high finance, law, and technology remains a largely untold story hidden beneath a cloak of silence. Or, in my case — at least up until this particular night — perhaps a mask of innocent ignorance.
Despite numerous anecdotes, whispered admissions and the occasional social media business ‘influencer’ faux pas, a concrete picture of the extent of corproate cocaine use remains elusive.
The price of success
There’s no denying that the landscape of modern business is brutal, where the pressure to excel is relentless. The quest for success often comes at a steep personal price.
As Erin Reid and Lakshmi Ramarajan write in their article “Managing the High-Intensity Workplace” for Harvard Business Review: “To be ideal workers, people must choose, again and again, to prioritize their jobs ahead of other parts of their lives: their role as parents (actual or anticipated), their personal needs, and even their health.”
Reid and Ramarajan go on to paint a vivid portrait of Carla, a senior executive at Morgan Stanley, who skillfully concealed her private passion for gospel singing during her initial tenure with the firm.
The significance of this becomes evident when it’s revealed that Carla’s musical pursuits extended far beyond a hobby. She was, in fact, a nationally acclaimed vocalist, having graced the hallowed stage of Carnegie Hall and released a discography of three albums.
“The pressure to be an ideal worker is well established, but how people cope with it — and with what consequences — is too often left unexplored,” suggest Reid and Ramarajan. In Carla’s case, her coping mechanism was to hide what she felt would be seen as a distraction, a weakness in her professional dedication. As a coping mechanism, I guess subterfuge is a pretty good one. There are much worse.
As I’ve discovered over the past decade or so (through observation — not use), for many, the pull of cocaine is inextricably linked to the pursuit and pressures of professional achievement — of being the “ideal worker”.
It’s the drug’s ability to temporarily banish fatigue and heighten mental acuity that has made it the stimulant of choice for those seeking to scale the heights of corporate power.
At the heart of this phenomenon is a simple truth: in the world of business professionals, the stakes are high, and the margin for error is razor-thin. The pressure to succeed, outperform peers and secure a place at the top of the corporate ladder can be all-consuming. And for those who choose to walk this path, the temptation to indulge in a substance that offers a fleeting taste of invincibility can be impossible to resist.
Here’s a less popular truth: Cocaine’s allure is absolutely compounded by the fact that it has long been associated with wealth, power, and glamour. For those seeking to make their mark, using the drug can feel like a rite of passage, a tangible symbol of their ascent to the upper echelons of society. It’s a signal of status, like a designer handbag is to wealthy socialites.
This, in turn, can create a sense of camaraderie and shared experience among users, reinforcing the notion that cocaine use is an integral part of the high-flying business professional’s lifestyle.
It isn’t.
The dark side of the high
The world of cocaine is a deceptive one, its flashy facade concealing a dark underbelly. For every one of those high-flying executives who dabbles in the drug and escapes unscathed, countless others become ensnared in its web, their lives and careers left in tatters.
The stories are as numerous as they are tragic: the longtime small town lawyer whose career was derailed by a crippling addiction; the brilliant software engineer whose life was cut short by an overdose; the high-flying media exec who lost everything in a desperate bid to feed his habit. These are stark reminders of what lurks in the shadows of cocaine use.
The consequences of substance abuse in the workforce extend well beyond the personal realm, permeating into the very fabric of productivity and economic stability. Employees entangled in the throes of drug or alcohol abuse often find their job performance faltering, which can result in bottom-line losses for their employers. Alcohol and drugs cost Australian workplaces an estimated $6 billion per year in lost productivity, according to a 2013 study.
Of course, the ramifications of substance abuse reverberate throughout the economy at large. A report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse revealed that in 2007, the United States faced an economic burden of $193 billion due to drug abuse. This staggering sum encompasses the costs associated with healthcare, crime, and diminished productivity.
As corporate cocaine use becomes increasingly apparent, it’s worth acknowledging the role that workplace culture plays in perpetuating it. The pressure to conform, to indulge in the same dangerous habits as peers, particularly in industries known for their high-pressure environments, can lead to a normalization of behavior that is ultimately destructive to both the individual and the organization as a whole.
Meanwhile, back at the Singaporean bar, fortunately, there was deep mutual respect among my colleagues. Despite their eagerness to partake in the nose candy, they didn’t pressure me. Still, an undercurrent of awkwardness crept around me, casting a shadow on the remainder of the evening. I grappled with the realization that perhaps I didn’t truly know these individuals — my peers and colleagues I had worked and travelled with for years.
But it’s not just peers. By fostering a culture of overwork and relentless ambition, senior leaders can inadvertently create conditions that make it easier for individuals to turn to drugs as a means of coping with the immense pressure they face.
Two industries frequently referenced in the context of management fostering a culture of overwork are the accommodation and food services industry, and the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry. Both sectors are notorious for cultivating work environments that push productivity over personal well-being, often demanding long hours and exceptional performance. A 2016 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) revealed that these two industries bear the highest rates of illicit drug use.
Is this the unavoidable consequence of leaders overlooking the human toll in their relentless quest for success? Perhaps, in the worst circumstances, it could even be leaders role modelling the behaviour.
They say the fish rots from the head — but sometimes it snorts.
The reckoning
Darkness had crept across the city. Over my colleague’s shoulder, through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I could see the three gleaming towers of Singapore’s famous Marina Bay Sands complex, lit up like a Christmas tree. Illicit drugs danced at the edges of my peripheral vision. The weight of my reality settled deep in my guts.
If I even glanced into the abyss, would I succumb to the seductive whispers of the white powder?
In these moments of stark vulnerability, you must confront the truth, peer into the depths of your soul, and ask yourself: are you willing to betray your own values for the sake of fitting in? Can you bear the burden of knowing that your participation may be encouraging others to walk a perilous path? One that may ultimately cost them their job, if not their lives?
The power to incite change lies within us all. By having the courage to break the status quo, to stand against something that threatens to wash away the lives of professionals, we protect ourselves and safeguard the lives of those around us.
So, I bet you’re wondering — did I succumb in the bar that evening all those years ago?
The answer is no. Not that night, nor the many nights after.
Some professional acquaintances and colleagues I’ve met along the journey have never found a way out of that world.
I was lucky never to find my way into it.
