News

Sometimes, servers in pubs need a glass of wine like people in hell need a glass of water.

Just ask the waitresses at Fynn's of Temple Bar in downtown Toronto, where customers stay wet and boisterous into the wee hours.

"Who can blame them if they want a pint after work," says Fynn's manager Glenn Miller, tending to a sparse prenoon crowd. "It's late. The staff is young. As long as they aren't drinking while working, I don't see a problem."

It was no surprise to Mr. Miller, then, that the hospitality sector topped new rankings of industries with alcohol problems. In an analysis of U.S. census data released by George Washington University yesterday, researchers found that nearly one in seven hospitality workers has a serious drinking problem, compared with a national average of one in 11.

Construction, wholesale, professional and retail workers rounded out the top five. Public administrators came last.

Lead researcher Eric Goplerud said that the thirstiest industries tend to employ large numbers of young males.

"If you take a look at the age group that has the heaviest, most unhealthy drinking, it tops out around age 21," Dr. Goplerud said. "Add to that, that about twice as many males drink heavily as females and when you have industries that cultivate [both youth and masculinity], you will have real alcohol problems."

Mr. Miller has a different theory. "Accessibility to product has to be the easiest explanation," he said.

A list conferring such ignoble distinction will undoubtedly elicit snickers around most workplaces, but researchers appended the results with some sobering conclusions.

"Workers with serious alcohol problems cost more in lost productivity and health care costs," said Dr. Goplerud, director of GWU's Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems program.

For six years, Dr. Goplerud has run an online alcohol cost calculator where employers can punch in their industry, staff size and location and receive an estimate of how much their alcoholic employees are costing the business.

The owner of a 100-person hospitality firm in New York, for instance, would find that roughly 14 abusive employees cost their business about $50,000 (U.S.) in lost productivity and health costs.

In Canada, alcohol issues cost employers $14.6-billion (Canadian) annually, according to the Ontario Alcohol Policy Network.

"The good news is that it's really easy for businesses to do something about it," said Dr. Goplerud, who recommends that bosses counsel rather than laugh off workers with hangovers and that workplace wellness programs adopt screening programs.

But Mr. Miller, a 29-year veteran of the hospitality trade, believes a screening program might infringe on his workers' lives. He prefers to help by informal means. "I've had a few employees who've had problems," he said. "We'll talk and then I'll seek out help for them. It's usually worked in the past."

As much as the list sheds light on industries that need to address alcohol problems, it also points to sectors that have corked reputations for heavy drinking.

"For years, people who worked on the stock exchange were considered to be very, very vulnerable to booze," said Bill Wilkerson, head of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health, a Canadian non-profit. "That's not really in play any more."

Mr. Wilkerson also cautions against reading to much into the GWU list. "What I've seen is that alcoholism has more to do with the kind of lives people lead than the work they do."

***

HOW BOOZY IS YOUR WORKPLACE? FROM THE BOARDROOM TO THE SHOP FLOOR

A new U.S. study ranks industries according to the number of

alcoholics working in them.

If your job is in the top five,

then your profession could be

hazardous to your health:

1. Hospitality

2. Construction

3. Wholesale trade

4. Retail trade

5. Finance and real estate

6. Manufacturing

7. Transportation/utilities

8. Information/communication

9. Agriculture

10. Other services

11. Education/social services

12. Public administration

Source: George Washington

University