A recent study published in the British Medical Journal found that people who work over 48 hours a week have a 13 percent higher chance of engaging in risky drinking than people who work 35 to 40 hours a week. Heavy drinking, according to the study, has cost the global economy $220 billion a year. This is because of accidents and health conditions that excessive drinking can cause. The study involved data from over 300,000 people in 14 different countries and defined “risky drinking” to be 14 drinks per week for women and 21 drinks per week for men. It is important to note that the definition of risky drinking in the United States is different: seven drinks per week for women and 14 drinks per week for men. Therefore, using the U.S.’s definition of “risky drinking,” the likelihood of risky drinking behaviors for people working more than 48 hours per week is actually higher than 13 percent.

This is an issue because heavy drinking can lead to an increased risk of many health problems. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, drinking in excess can lead to increased risk of stroke, high blood pressure, liver inflammation, cancers and pancreatitis. It also can suppress the immune system. These conditions can all cause stress both physically and mentally, and among many other complications in life, may lead to decreased productivity in the workplace and at home. Additionally, in more severe cases, people may be forced to leave work due to health conditions. So, if longer work hours might lead to more health problems and a loss of productivity, is it really necessary for people to be working as much as they do?

In the United States, a full-time job can be looked at as a 40-hour workweek: nine to five, Monday through Friday. But, according to Forbes, adults who were employed full-time reported working an average of 47 hours per week. 

Are people really working during each of these 47 hours? It may be more productive to reduce the amount of hours people spend working to increase productivity during the hours that they are actually working, if possible. 

And if people are actually working during those full 47 hours, maybe it’s time to hire another employee to share the burden of that work and the stress that comes with it. Less stressed-out workers means more productivity and fewer health issues, since heavy drinking leads to more stress and more health complications. 

Focusing on the possible link between alcohol and productivity in the work place, drinking problems can lead to increased stress while working, due to taking more sick days from potential health issues, poor job performance, occupational injuries and impaired decision making, according to a Jan. 14 NPR article. And, at the end of the day, drinking problems can directly lead to unemployment.

It is important to note though that the study does not stratify the data for factors such as type of job, sex or socioeconomic status. This means that there is no way to tell if there are more men or women who are engaging in risky drinking behaviors. 

More importantly, the study does not show why people drink. People may be drinking because they aren’t making enough money, or they may be drinking to celebrate making a lot of money, or because of a combination of both, according to the NPR article. 

In order to address the problem of increased risky drinking in people who work longer hours, there needs to be much more research to discover which groups are actually drinking more than others and why. This would show what groups of people are engaging in risky drinking behavior and might be driving up this statistic.

If it is found that there is more risky drinking in some occupations than others, the company or business should institute a mandatory alcohol education class to educate the workers about the complications that come with engaging in risky drinking. 

Additionally, if a majority of a company’s employees need multiple drinks just to cope with the stress of work, it is certainly time to cut back the number of hours people are working each week. This could lead to healthier workers with increased productivity and a reduction in overall stress in the workplace.

But before any kind of program or intervention can take place, more research needs to be done to figure out how increased risky drinking and hours worked per week are actually related. 

The health implications of these findings are dramatic and shouldn't slip through the cracks as so many studies on lost production do.