Food Service Employee Alcohol Use, Hangovers and Norms During and After Work Hours

AIMS: This paper presents analyses of norms and behavior concerning drinking before, during, and after work hours among U.S. bar-restaurant chain employees, with a focus on hangovers at work and their correlates. METHODS: A mixed method approach combined qualitative analysis of 64 face-to-face interviews held with randomly chosen service, managerial and kitchen staff and quantitative analyses (including multivariable linear regression and bivariate analyses) of data drawn from 1,286 completed telephone surveys (response rate 68%) with 18-29 year old employees. RESULTS: Relatively few survey respondents reported past-year drinking in the hour prior to work (5%) or during work hours (2.7%), but extensive drinking in non- work hours (85.5%), and 36.5% of respondents reported coming to work with a hangover at least once. Correlates of hangover at work were past year intoxication and holding positive norms for hangovers. These findings were elaborated by interview data describing heavy drinking after work at nearby bars, restaurants and employee homes. CONCLUSIONS: The findings illustrated that employee drinking during work hours was not normative. However, study results portrayed widely-shared norms for heavy drinking outside of work, with hangovers and related harms appearing as the primary work time repercussions of after-work alcohol consumption.