Hangovers are not just horribly painful, but have a huge impact on worker productivity. In the U.S. alone, hangovers result in $148 billion lost productivity each year!¹ This is due to absenteeism and lost productivity. A recent British study found that work missed because of hangovers accounted for 2 billion pounds ($3.3 billion in U.S. dollars.)¹ If you think this isn’t important to your boss, you would likely be mistaken.

“In the medical community, we tend to focus on alcoholics. But that’s a very small number of people, whereas being hung over is a common thing,” said Dr. Jeffrey Wiese, medical professor at the University of California, San Francisco. He and colleagues at a San Francisco veterans hospital reviewed medical studies on alcohol use published between 1966 and 1999.¹

Everybody know’s the misery the day after an epic night out. The symptoms are all productivity killers: headache, nausea, exhaustion, lack of appetite, shakiness, sometimes even diarrhea (yikes!) and an overall feeling of being sick. Your productivity is definitely going to suffer. Scientifically speaking, if you had an EEG (a test that measures brain electrical activity) taken of your brain several hours after all the alcohol has left your body, you would see a widespread slowing of your brain waves. Additionally, your muscle control is impaired long after the alcohol has left your bloodstream.² Amazing how much money a “next day” day off costs you, your company, and the economy.

[1] T, Buddy. “Hangovers – A Pain in the Workplace.” [Online] Available

http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/work/a/aa000613a.htm

[1] Minocha, Anil, M.D. “Alcohol Hangover.” [Online] Available

http://www.diagnosishealth.com/hangover.htm