Binge drinking is news now in the UK. What nobody seems to realize is that sooner or later, it will translate into a lawsuit against a firm that encourages ill health by alcohol.

Many firms give employees a so-called perk of client entertainment, where the employee is encouraged to drink alcohol.

Many firms encourage a Friday night get-together in the pub. Many others have a monthly get-together where much alcohol is consumed.

Perhaps you work in such a firm yourself.

Are you such an employee? Maybe you feel it is normal to binge-drink, after all, everybody at work does it. But maybe you can ask yourself a few questions and look at the bigger picture here. Ask yourself, why is it in your employer’s interest to drug you with alcohol? Why is it that your employer needs to pickle your brain? Can they not deal with thinkers? What are they hiding from you? What will you stop doing for this employer if you are sober? And why on earth do you let your employer deliberately, systematically and regularly harm you in this way?

Are you such an employer? Ask yourself, why do I need to control my staff with a known harmful substance? Why do I need to control my clients with drugs? What strategies can I take to be successful without the need to drug others?

And if you are an employer who binge-drinks and encourages their staff to do the same, you have three choices. Ignore your wrong-doing and get sued, ignore your wrong-doing and hope you will not get sued, or get help for the whole company so you can all be healthy and in control.

Are you perhaps in Human Resources and are partial to a glass of wine or three yourself?

Whatever your position in the company, binge drinking is bad for you. This is now a proven fact.

Maybe your friends drink. Maybe this is your work ethic. Maybe you are a wine connoisseur. Maybe if you are not drinking in the pub, you will miss out on that promotion. Maybe if you give the weekly bonding session at the local bar, you risk losing your job. Maybe the company parties are loved world-wide. Maybe you enjoy yourself so much at company events. Maybe this is the way you can relax with the fun people. Maybe your doctor said a glass of red wine a day is good for you. Maybe you are grateful the company foots your drinking bill and cannot see what all the fuss is about. Maybe your friends at work are your true friends and drinking buddies and you value that. Maybe you need a little reward to help you unwind at the end of a hard day’s work.

Maybe part of you wants to be in control of alcohol whereas the other part needs to carry on drinking more than you can handle.

Perhaps part of you wants a solution and part of you is unsure of the consequences.

Perhaps part of you feels worthy of good health and part of you feels unworthy of being the real you without alcohol.

For employees who feel their life is being compromised by work-related alcohol, find a good lawyer. Write to your MP. Publicize this travesty of employee rights. Take action. If enough people sue their employers over this, employers will have to stop this heinous practice. Making your staff sick and unhappy is wrong, and sooner or later there will be a test case. An employee will win. This will change policies throughout the country.

With a little effort and commitment, your firm can do an alcohol control program. This can take two simple forms.

For employers and management, all employee coercion and encouragement to go drinking after work has to stop. No exceptions. Even at the Christmas party, no employee should be encouraged to drink. Anything short of this has the potential to land a company with a lawsuit bigger than any drinks bill.

For the whole company, professional help can be sought to help staff and management gain control of alcohol, de-stress, and improve health.

Personally, I think it will take a sizable settlement before employers care enough for change. I hope I will be proved wrong.

My name is Suzanne Zacharia and I am committed to spreading the word about health options. I believe that the more and better options one has, the more choice there is.

A virus caught along with 5 other students at university at the end of 1986, plus medical negligence, meant that I got smokers lung at a relatively young age. In desperation for help with my symptoms and quality of life, I turned to complementary therapy, and this is the 11th year I have outlived one doctor’s prognosis.

I am now a complementary therapist, author and trainer specializing in “energy” therapy. My company is called New Age London, named by my clients, with some carefully-chosen experts in their fields working with me under the New Age London banner at http://www.NewAgeLondonTherapies.com
You can quote my article if you credit me and invite your readers to subscribe to my FREE newsletter with monthly international holistic health tips at http://www.newageinternationaltraining.com/contact.php

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