Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D.

Drinking in the workplace may be an emerging trend, but it isn’t necessarily a healthy one. Although drinking on the job may not be as widespread as portrayed on the hit TV show Mad Men, it is still with us. About 8% of full-time employees report having five or more drinks on five or more occasions a month, and one survey showed that 23% of upper-level managers reported drinking during work hours in the prior month. In the United States, excessive drinking costs $223 billion a year. Some of these costs are generated by the nearly 18 million Americans who are alcoholics or have alcohol-related problems. But some also comes from a nearly invisible group, “almost alcoholics.”