This series explores my relationship with alcohol and the impact it has had on my career and personal life. Like many Americans, I responsibly enjoyed alcohol in professional and social settings. But something changed, and it all started with a lie I told myself. Along the way I told myself many lies to excuse or justify my behavior. Though I didn’t recognize them at the time, I see them all too clearly now. Maybe you will too.
LIE: It’s not that bad
It’s just alcohol. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? Hey, we’re all adults here. We know our limits. At 100 Proof Living, we’ve heard just about every variation of these comments to allow for alcohol at team dinners and client meetings.
I’ve probably made the same comments. After all, a few drinks in a work environment is not that bad. This was the third lie I told myself. It’s not that bad. In fact, it actually is bad and far worse than I was ever willing to admit. In the end, it took a willingness to admit and a true understanding of the present and potential dangers that alcohol posed for me to ever be able to speak to you in a prevention message from a position of hope and gratitude. Think I’m exaggerating? Let’s play a little numbers game.
Picture in your mind a corporate event that serves alcohol. Scan across that room and see the group in totality. According to the CDC, one of every six people in that room binge drinks. But only one out of 10 binge drinkers has a substance use disorder. Here is where the danger comes in.
Nine out of 10 binge drinkers do not have a substance use disorder. If, “We’re not giving alcohol to alcoholics” is the litmus test for these events then companies are missing the mark. The truth is, they are still providing alcohol to binge drinkers, most of whom are not alcohol-dependent, with significant consequences.
Go back to the picture in your mind. Statistically, if there were 300 people in the room, 50 of them are binge drinkers and five of those have a substance use disorder. The company that organized this event has provided free alcohol to all of them. Imagine trying to get a business case approved for this event knowing that you are providing alcohol to 50 binge drinkers. Remember, consequences of excessive alcohol use may include increased risk of injury, increased long term health problems, elimination of productivity for the evening and severely diminished productivity the next day, increased risk for sexual harassment, increase in probability of termination. Just because it’s behind closed doors doesn’t mean that what I just described isn’t true.
But what if you’re one of the five in six that doesn’t binge drink? Then company-provided alcohol at these types of events isn’t that bad, right? Who wouldn’t enjoy being appreciated and treated by the company? As data-analysts often say, “The numbers are what the numbers are.” Which means we KNOW about the one in six who binge drink. Knowing that, how would you feel if the company provided one of those binge drinkers alcohol? And what if that binge drinker’s actions impacted you through a hurtful comment, accident, act of aggression, or worse? Lying to ourselves that it’s not that bad only allows greater potential for something bad to happen.
Looking back, I see the hypocrisy in how we treat those in recovery from addition to alcohol. We generally do not let them “back in” when we know. Yet, we feed their disease unknowingly all the time at every event. The CDC tells us that very clearly.
Alcohol is a thief. In 2014, I was promoted to the highest position I’d ever held in corporate life. In 2015, a lay off left me without work. By February 2017, the party was over. I was homeless and penniless in the middle of winter in Western New York.
My story is extreme. It’s highly unlikely that you will face such a grave circumstance. But my treacherous journey continued with another one of many lies: It’s not that bad. In fact, it is that bad for 1 in 6 of employees. Out of that 1 in 6, for 10% (like me) it is a death sentence for their careers, their lives, their homes, their families, their peace, their hope. It is that bad. It doesn’t have to come to this.
I HAVE QUESTIONS AND YOU SHOULD TOO:
Could you attend an event that served alcohol and not have a drink?
Would you still drink if you knew rising stars in your organization didn’t want to drink and only did because you did?
If you are drinking at a business event with your colleagues and another colleague chooses not to do you feel differently about that person?
If you would rather not drink at a corporate event and others around you are drinking freely if not excessively, do you feel comfortable?
Have you ever attended a corporate event or business function where alcohol is served and done something you later regret and would have never done without alcohol?
Have you ever seen somebody have a career limiting move at a company event because of alcohol?
Would the sales team in your organization be upset if alcohol was no longer paid for by your organization? If they would be, why?
When someone blames and alcohol environment for causing an issue, do you automatically think of many reasons why that isn’t true? Why is a beverage so important to you? Is it because it is far more powerful than just being a beverage?
Is it possible alcohol is dangerous in the work context?
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