Turning to drink: booze control

Alcohol and drug misuse is rising in Britain’s accountancy sector. Contrary to popular myth, alcoholics are not the homeless or other itinerants. Indeed an emphatic 75% are in full time employment. Nor is the issue of substance misuse in the workplace confined to high-flying investment bankers or City hedge fund executives – it affects companies in every sector in every town and city.

It is estimated that 17 million working days are lost each year due to alcohol, which costs British industry £2.8bn, and absenteeism is two to three times higher for alcohol and drug users than for other employees.

Nearly six million people, two-thirds of whom are men, fall within the 'binge drinker' category and 40% of the British workforce under 40 has experimented with illicit drugs. Drug users are 3.5 times more likely to injure themselves or someone else at work.

Tackling this issue is particularly important for the accountancy sector.

Lunchtime drinking, particularly on Fridays, is endemic in accountancy practices – it is often encouraged and may almost be expected of senior partners. Drinking at lunchtime and after work may easily slip into misuse and the distinction must be made between leisure drinking and drinking that affects a person’s health, safety and productivity at work.

It is common for partners to have three or four business lunches a week, all of which are likely to include at least one or two glasses of wine. As the hours in a typical British working week increase, after-work socialising in the accountancy profession has become de rigueur to unwind and this inevitably includes further drinking.

Accountants are at a high risk of developing alcohol problems because of the very demanding environments in which they work. The nature of the work is inherently stressful and this is compounded by stress triggers like meeting deadlines, managing major clients and staff and coping with the threat of redundancy, all of which contribute to a melting pot of anxiety and worry. This stress is not just confined to the office. Most professionals are the bread winners for their families so their salary is essential to pay the mortgage, school fees, holidays and the cost of living.

In my experience, high achieving accountants place an unhealthy reliance on work for feelings of self-esteem and typically deal with these problems by self-medicating – using alcohol to relieve their emotional and psychological distress.

Accountants may drink to fill the void created by stress, anxiety, depression, fear, low self-esteem, relationship problems and other mental health issues that are an inevitable part of life. Alcohol is usually the first drug that accountants – and most other people – will take and it fits easily into their lives because it is socially acceptable, ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive. The difficulty comes in recognising when there is a problem and knowing when to stop.

Accountants in industry might find hiding an addiction relatively easy. Many work in self-contained departments with little external communication, while others are able to detach themselves from the mainstream milieu. Those in practice work in teams and, as in all other sectors, colleagues usually collude in ‘hiding’ the alcoholic’s issues from management and colleagues.

Firms and FDs cannot ignore the dangers presented by substance-dependent employees.

Reduced productivity and the tension created by cover-ups cause fractures within teams and high staff turnover, leading to increased recruitment and training costs and a huge dip in productivity during the settling-in period.

Every accountancy firm is legally responsible for preventing illegal substance-related activity on its premises. An accountant who is drinking on the job will already have lost a lot of self-respect and, once his or her issues become significant, will have lost the respect of colleagues. Left unchecked, firms will face the spiralling costs of disciplinary and legal action as well as health and safety risks if they do not take action.

ALCOHOL ISSUES

An addiction is generally a substance we repeatedly crave to experience and for which we will pay a financial, psychological and emotional price.

The weekly recommended intake of alcohol is 21 units for men and 14 for women. A pint of lager is two units, as is a large glass of wine. If you consume more than recommended levels, you are seriously damaging your physical and mental health.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Have you ever felt you should cut down your drinking?
Have people annoyed you by criticising your drinking?
Have you ever felt guilty about your drinking?
Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover?

If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, it is highly likely that you have issues with alcohol.

Recognising that a colleague is alcohol dependent is the first step in helping them overcome the addiction. Warning signs include:

●Sudden mood changes
●Unusual irritability or aggression
●Lack of concentration
●Confusion
●Poor timekeeping
●Increased absence
●Deteriorating relationships with colleagues at work

If you work with someone who you suspect is misusing alcohol speak with your line manager or HR director or, if you have one, use the whistle-blowing service to make an anonymous complaint.

A workplace alcohol and drugs policy communicates how employees will be treated if they have a problem with alcohol or drugs.

Clearly setting out the expectation of employees’ professional conduct should decrease the occurrence of substance misuse. Changing existing attitudes towards lunchtime drinking and after hours socialising is a challenge.
When a culture has been created around drinking, it can be especially difficult to remove or replace it.

●The Priory offers a free assessment with a trained addictions therapist to anyone who thinks they might have issues with alcohol or drugs; contact: 0845 60 50 121

Dr Mike McPhillips is consultant psychiatrist at the Priory Hospital Roehampton