One in five Brits turns up to work with a hangover at least once a week, a study has found, with five per cent admitting to falling asleep on the toilet.
A national study of 2,000 working British adults revealed that 17 per cent experience regular hangovers on the job.
Of these workers, a quarter say they spend the day clock-watching, while 17 per cent admit they are completely useless.
In general, Britons say their productivity drops by a third when they have a hangover – so much so that 62 per cent confessed that they’d perform much better at work if they cut back on their drinking.
The study, carried out by alcohol reduction method Nul, found that on average, Brits get tipsy or drunk three times a week.
Four in ten people who participated in Dry January this year said that taking a complete break from alcohol made them want to drink more when it was over.
This was so prevalent that 75 per cent of those who took part got stuck into a few drinks in the first weekend of February.
When it comes to hangover fixers, 37 per cent admitted to relying on coffee and caffeine drinks, while nine per cent tuck into a big fry-up, and eight per cent order fast food to the office.
Hungover on the job? A national study of 2,000 working British adults revealed that 17 per cent experience regular hangovers at work
As for those who don’t make it into the office, twenty-six per cent admitted to calling in sick and six per cent said they pretend to have a doctor’s appointment to sneak off early.
A quarter of those who admitted to being hungover at work said they feel annoyed at themselves, with many describing it as stressful and embarrassing.
One in three try to hide how they are feeling from their work colleagues, while 32 per cent prefer to be open about feeling rough.
Even though Brits have developed various coping mechanisms, one in ten admit they have fallen asleep at their desk when battling a hangover, while eight per cent have had to leave a meeting to be sick.
Six per cent said they have sent the wrong email to a client, four per cent have ended up sitting in the wrong meeting, a further four per cent have sent an inappropriate email to a colleague and three per cent have complained about a colleague on email and accidentally cc’d them in.
Some 86 per cent said that there is nothing worse than going to work hungover, with 60 per cent going a step further and saying they regularly vow never to drink again when they are nursing a heavy head.
Dr Zandra Bamford, consultant clinical psychologist and therapy specialist at Nul, said: ‘These findings demonstrate a classic alcohol deprivation effect response (ADE).’
‘Because effectively cutting down on alcohol consumption isn’t as simple as doing Dry January for most people.
‘In fact, when a person has been abstaining from alcohol, they can experience a surge in craving and consumption when drinking is resumed, a response to the deprivation.
‘This is often confused for a total lack of willpower, but in actuality, it’s a biological response that is linked to the brain’s reward system.
‘During cold turkey detoxes or abstinence-based rehabs, changes to this reward system take place, which cause the alcohol to become more potent and more rewarding.
‘This is why the ADE plays such a critical role in understanding relapse rates.
Matus Maar, founder of Nul, said: ‘People are waking up to the negative ways alcohol can impact life beyond just feeling hungover.
‘This en masse return to drinking following Dry Jan shows why short-term, all-or-nothing approaches to alcohol reduction typically don’t work.
‘When people feel deprived for a month, they often end up drinking more heavily than before.
‘That’s where treatments like Nul come in, based on a science-backed approach called The Sinclair Method to actually help reduce cravings and alcohol dependence gradually.
‘Whether you want to quit drinking altogether or just get better at knowing when to stop, like after a glass rather than a bottle, Nul helps people do it on their own terms.’
The World Health Organisation now warns that no level of alcohol is safe for health. It is classed as a Group 1 carcinogen – the same category as tobacco – and has been conclusively linked to at least seven types of cancer.
Studies also show that even light or moderate drinking raises the risk of myriad health issues from heart disease, liver damage and even depression.
Alcohol is one of the biggest causes of preventable disease. It costs the NHS £3.5billion a year and was responsible for 10,470 deaths in the UK in 2023. In the US, 95,000 adults die each year from excessive drinking.
The NHS recommends no more than 14 units a week – the equivalent of six pints of beer or 10 small glasses of wine.
But experts stress there is no guarantee that this will help you avoid a hangover.
