Workplace factors, including working conditions, workplace customs, practices and environments can increase the risk of individual alcohol use and influence individual drinking patterns including:

• isolation e.g. employees working in isolated areas who are separated from family and friends may be more likely to consume alcohol as a result of boredom, loneliness or lack of social activities, or social activities where the priority focus in drinking;
• extended working hours or shift work;
• interpersonal factors including workplace relationships, bullying and harassment;
• poor working conditions including hot and dangerous environments;
• inadequate supervision;
• inadequate job design and training, which may lead to low job satisfaction and/or work-related stress; and
• Organizational change e.g. restructure, job transfer or redundancy.

Workplace statistics are sobering:

• Workers with alcohol problems are 2.7 times more likely than workers without drinking problems to have injury-related absences.
• An emergency department study showed 35 percent of patients with an occupational injury were at-risk drinkers.
• Breathalyzer tests detected alcohol in 16% of emergency room patients injured at work.
• Analyses of workplace fatalities showed at least 11% of the victims had been drinking.
• Large federal surveys show that 24% of workers report drinking during the workday at least once in the past year.
• One-fifth of workers and managers across a wide range of industries and company sizes report that a coworker’s on- or off-the-job drinking jeopardized their own productivity and safety.