Almost one in three working people in Germany drinks alcohol several days a week, and one in ten almost every day.
The reasons for this include better switching off from everyday life, habit and stress reduction.
This is the result of a Forsa survey commissioned by the KKH Kaufmännische Krankenkasse, one of the largest statutory health insurance companies with around 1.6 million insured persons.
Around 1,000 people aged 16 to 69 were surveyed in July, including 702 employed people.
Peter Philipp Schmitt
Editor in the department "Germany and the World".
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One in nine employees stated that they had consumed more beer, wine, sparkling wine and spirits since the corona pandemic.
The KKH has also evaluated anonymous data from its employed insured persons for the years 2011, 2019 and 2021 and found that more and more of them are alcohol dependent.
According to this, the number of working people with excessive alcohol consumption rose by around a third (32 percent) from 2011 to 2021, and by as much as 88.5 percent in the thirty-five to thirty-nine age group.
Corona influences drinking behavior
Corona influenced the drinking behavior of many employees.
From the pre-Corona year 2019 to 2021, the health insurance company recorded an increase of more than four percent in binge drinking, alcohol addiction, withdrawal symptoms and mental behavioral disorders due to alcohol, among other things, and in the age group of forty to forty-four even 18 percent .
In addition to the doctor's diagnoses, the average length of sick leave per employee addicted to alcohol has also increased, the KKH said.
In the first Corona year, 2020, there were almost 41 sick days, in 2021 and 2019 the average was around 38 days each, and in 2018 and 2017 around 31 days each.
"Especially in times of crisis, intoxicants are a kind of coping mechanism because they relax, calm and supposedly drive away fears and worries," said Michael Falkenstein, an expert on addiction issues at the KKH.
For many working people, there is also competitive pressure and overwork, as well as money worries and existential fears since the corona and energy crises.
A number of employees also find it difficult to cope with the isolation in the home office.
Those who no longer drive to work every day easily lose their daily rhythm and have less social control.
"The inhibitions with regard to alcohol consumption are falling," says Michael Falkenstein.
According to the German Center for Addiction Questions (DHS), five percent of employees and up to ten percent of managers are alcohol dependent.
These employees posed a risk to themselves, the company and their colleagues. Addicts also often develop other illnesses, they miss work, have more accidents at work than healthy colleagues and are also less productive.
The result is major economic damage.
The working atmosphere also suffers.
The result is skepticism, distrust and conflict.
"The dangers of alcohol are often underestimated and only perceived as a problem when the border to abuse and dependence has already been crossed," says Michael Falkenstein.
He recommends that professionals who observe alcohol problems in their colleagues
to contact the next higher manager or the company doctor.
"Under no circumstances should problem use be covered and the effects offset by others."