Overly industrious people are more likely to become alcoholics

A person may develop a destructive addiction to alcohol for various reasons – stress, heavy losses (for example, the death of a loved one), problems at work, etc.

Recently, experts have identified another cause of alcoholism – an excessive desire to work (workaholism). People who are very tired at work often try to relax and relieve psychological stress with the help of various alcoholic drinks.

Scientists came to these conclusions after studying more than three hundred thousand workers from different countries, including Germany, the United States of America, and Great Britain.

In the countries of the European Union, the working week is forty hours. In some companies, employees work more hours per week. Experts have found that with a 48-hour working week, the risk of alcohol addiction increases by 11%, with 56 hours of work per week - by 13%. Such conclusions are based on a survey, scientists assume that in reality the situation may be much worse.

Psychologists have noticed one trend – workers often reward themselves with alcohol for a job well done or a productive week. This is their personal motivation, and neither social status nor country of residence mattered.

Also, according to the study, alcohol addiction was more common in male workaholics.

Also, experts do not exclude that people in a depressive state often resort to alcohol to improve their mood, but it takes them several times longer to complete work assignments, and it is possible to redo work assignments several times. At the same time, the more hours a week a person worked, the lower his physical activity was.

The findings of the experts will form the basis for new recommendations to be made by the European Union on occupational health.

Earlier studies have shown that the skills and abilities of an employee are influenced by the economic situation of the company at the beginning of the career. As the research of specialists from Toronto has shown, the productivity of a person will be higher if the initial experience of work in the company coincides with the experience gained later. In other words, the quality of the experience gained is important for success, but not its quantity.

If a person came to work for a company in a favorable period, then many prospects for developing their professional skills open up for them. Employees who began their careers in difficult times for the company gain experience in adapting to difficult situations. But when the situation changes in one direction or another, both types of employees find themselves in a disadvantageous position. For example, an employee who gained his first experience during the company's heyday is, in most cases, unable to come up with a way out of a crisis. And for someone who came during a crisis, it will be difficult to start working at a new, faster pace in favorable times for the company.

As experts noted, the optimal option for an employee would be the period when the company operates in the normal mode, in which case the first work experience gained will coincide with the skills acquired in a later period.

Experts suggest that the employer should provide the new employee with the opportunity to work under normal conditions; if the period of the new employee's arrival coincided with the period of prosperity or crisis of the company, the pace of his work should be slightly slowed down or accelerated by assigning him appropriate projects.

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