Managers hampered by Christmas hangovers

Behaviour / 09 December 2011

With the Christmas party season now firmly upon us, Matt McAllister examines how Britain’s festive drinking culture can take its toll on work

As the Christmas party season begins, new research has revealed that 67% of middle managers admit they are likely to come into work with a hangover during December.

Londonlovesbusiness.com polled 500 middle managers in London about how their alcohol consumption during the festive season affects their work. The results make for sobering reading.

It appears that all those glasses of festive fizz are taking a toll, with 39% admitting that their Christmas drinking was likely to affect how well they could conduct their job, while 17% said they would be suffering with a hangover at least three days out of their working week.

The fact that Londoners, and Britons as a whole, enjoy a drink during the Christmas party season may not come as a surprise. But what is surprising, says Londonlovesbusiness.com’s editor Sophie Hobson, is that people are letting it affect their working day by drinking heavily during the week. "The results show that almost a fifth of intermediate managers will come into work with a hangover at least three times in a week. That indicates they are not just having a couple of glasses of mulled wine, they are drinking to excess."

Students and teenagers are often targeted to be the main culprits engaging in binge drinking, but, in fact, our survey polled intermediate managers who have proven to be equally as engaged in that culture.

Sophie Hobson, editor, Londonlovesbusiness.com

Drinking culture

The results also highlight a big drinking culture among middle managers throughout the year. More than three quarters (82%) of the female managers polled said they had a big company drinks culture as a whole, with almost a tenth (9%) of women admitting to doing so at least once a week or more. Overall, 35% of all respondents revealed their firm either has a strong drinking culture or that they often drink together with colleagues, though 30% do say they only get drunk at special occasions such as Christmas parties.

"Our survey supports the notion that it’s a widespread problem," says Hobson. "Students and teenagers are often targeted as the main culprits engaging in binge drinking, but, in fact, our survey polled intermediate managers, who have proven to be equally as engaged in that culture."

The fact that so many middle managers constantly suffer from the ill after-effects of alcohol probably doesn’t set the best example to other members of the team. "I think it is important for business leaders to consider that although it is important to encourage and support a sociable working environment, they need to ensure that their employees know where to draw the line," stresses Hobson.

For those who about to embark on their latest Christmas social, the responsible drinking charity Drink Aware has a couple of other facts that drinkers should be aware of: three 50ml Irish cream liqueurs is equivalent to eating all the chocolates in an advent calendar (525 calories), while four pints of 5% lager has the same number of calories as an entire Christmas dinner (969 calories).