A new study recently published has proven that your employer may be driving you to drink by forcing you to work long hours. The research showed that people who worked more than 48 hours in a week were much more likely to abuse alcohol than those who worked 40 hours or less per week.
The study was done by using the “gold standard” of research-a meta analysis. It examined the habits of 333,693 people in 14 countries, and included 61 studies. The results showed that those working 48 hours or more had a 13 percent increased risk of drinking too much. The results were published in the journal The BMJ.
The parameters the researchers used to conduct the study were: over 14 drinks a week for women and over 21 drinks a week for men being labeled as “risky” drinking. Those are European guidelines. In the U.S., the guidelines for risky drinking are over 21 drinks for men and over seven drinks for women every week, NPR reports.
People who worked longer hours may be trying to reduce the stress of their workloads by drinking to excess, so in some cases, it actually may be the boss’s fault if an employee becomes a problem drinker.
Excessive drinking is linked with cancer, heart disease and liver problems. In an editorial about the study, Harvard professor Cassandra Okechukwu seemed to suggest that employers must take responsibility to ensure they are not driving their employees to drink too much. “It’s really important for work places to pay attention to the productivity of their workers and work environment,” she writes.
The study was controlled for factors such as socioeconomic status, and the scientists found that increased drinking took place across a range of professions. There was no difference in level of drinking between high powered executives and service workers, for example, once a certain threshold of work hours was reached.
Despite the study results, researchers stopped short of calling for stronger legislation to protect workers, such as the type of laws in France. In that country, it is illegal to require anyone to work over 35 hours per week. Interestingly, while the French are known for wine consumption, the U.S. recently unseated France to become the largest wine market in the world. And while the U.S. is also on the top ten list of binge drinking countries, France did not make the list, according to an article from Salon.
Is your employer driving you to drink, either through forcing you to work long hours or by other means? Maybe it is time to find a way to share this article with him or her in a subtle way. Otherwise, bottoms up!
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