Workplaces that encourage drinking marginalize the many Americans—as many as 30 percent—who don’t drink at all for whatever reason. Some have substance abuse disorders; others abstain for religious or health reasons or because they simply don’t like the taste or effects of alcohol. These employees can struggle in their own ways with office happy hours that put them in the awkward position of having to explain why they aren’t indulging.
In addition, the direction of the relationships between stress or job dissatisfaction and drinking is unknown. For example, drinking and other drug use could contribute to the reports of work stress found in these studies. That is, employees experiencing the ongoing detrimental effects of off-the-job drinking may have greater difficulty in coping with “normal” workplace pressures.
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Employee alcohol education programs may prepare peers to suggest assistance to one another, but this has not been documented. More specifically, the techniques of peer intervention programs may be useful for addressing early problem behaviors, as has been documented among unionized workers (Bacharach et al. 1996). Peer intervention is not applicable in all settings, only where it is possible to tap into what Bacharach and his colleagues call “communal voluntarism,” or a committed desire of workers to look out for each other’s well-being. As deviant drinking patterns become more chronic and pervasive in an employed person’s life, his or her job performance will eventually be affected.
If your employer does not already have programs in place to address substance misuse among employees, bring concerns to your HR department or boss. If you are concerned about employees you supervise, you may want to work with other management to implement new policies. Alcohol misuse, combined with absenteeism, can affect productivity.4 Productivity losses accumulate when employees miss work risks of drinking after work due to health problems. Both lifestyle risk factors and health conditions influence employee absenteeism. Other social events—such as weddings, parties, reunions, conferences, networking, and more—can all involve alcohol and cultures that support binge drinking. Binge drinking on its own can be dangerous or even deadly; it also increases a person’s risk of developing alcohol use disorder.
What Employees Want: Overlooked Insights in Employee Engagement
Online communities like Daybreak are a great way to have support at your fingertips. You could also follow blogs you like, and read up on Hello Sunday Morning’s blogs and social media posts, as they are created to inspire you with some great ideas to help you change your relationship with alcohol. Drinking alcohol before working out can reduce a person’s physical performance, abilities, and reactions. It can also make them dehydrated, and more likely to have EAC or develop potentially dangerous heart rhythms. Blood flow is essential for oxygen and nutrients to reach people’s muscles and organs. A person’s body temperature rises as they begin to exercise, and they begin to sweat.
Knowing all the negative effects alcohol has on your physical and mental health can make it easier to understand why you’re better off without it. Many over-the-counter and prescription medications can have adverse health consequences whenmixed with alcohol. These medications include many popular painkillers https://ecosoberhouse.com/ such as acetaminophen (Tylenol); sedative drugs such as diazepam (Valium); and cough, cold, and allergy remedies. People taking medications should read the label and package inserts for possible interactions with alcohol or other drugs, especially if they have multiple drinks on an occasion.
Guidelines for Alcohol Consumption after Work
Finally, data are needed on how to sustain the workplace’s attention to employee alcohol issues in light of the competition of other goals and the intervention barriers unique to the workplace setting. Developing interventions that address problematic workplace cultures is challenging. Some researchers suggest that employees should face increasingly severe punishment for repeated on-the-job AOD use as a consequence of work-place rule violations. Mangione and colleagues (1999) speculate that health promotion and wellness programming may curb risky drinking practices. Although the above studies reported statistically significant findings, the reported relationships between work-place alienation and employee drinking are not powerful. As in the case of work stress, the direction of the relationship must be considered.