Pounding headache, nausea, dizziness, and the desire to immediately down a whole gallon of water? Yep, you’re hungover, and if you’re feeling that way before you need to clock into work, odds are you’re calling out.
Every year workers take, on average, two sick days to nurse their hangovers from the comfort of their own bed, according to a new survey of 1,003 full-time employees by Delphi Behavioral Health Group, an addiction treatment company.
Two sick days might not seem like much, but given that the median U.S. salary is $46,072, companies are essentially paying workers about $355 a year for being hungover. That costs U.S. businesses about $41.8 billion a year in sick pay for staff who’ve over-imbibed.
Companies in the tech, construction and legal industries take on the biggest burden for funding hangover days. Tech workers take, on average, eight sick days to cure their hangovers. Meanwhile, construction workers and legal professionals each use four sick days.
Medical, retail and government workers were the most teetotaling (or maybe just the least likely to call out when they’d overdone the booze.) Employees in these fields admitted to taking only one sick day, on average.
Despite how crippling a rough hangover can be, more than 75 percent of workers have opted to save their sick days or paid time off and instead come into the office and attempt to fulfill their work responsibilities.
Men and millennials are the two groups most guilty of this behavior. Nearly 80 percent of men admitted to working hungover compared to 70 percent of women. While almost 78 percent of younger workers said they’d done the same vs. 70 percent of Gen X and Baby Boomers.
The industry you work in also seems to be have a big impact on how comfortable you are showing up with sunglasses, a liter of water, and a headache in tow.
The legal profession had the most employees clocking in while hungover; almost 94 percent admitted to the act. The construction industry claimed second-place with nearly 86 percent of its workforce saying it’s shown up hangover before.
More than 80 percent of transportation, advertising, hospitality and technology workers have also come in while feeling the after effects of a boozy night out.
Education workers were the most responsible. Only about 64 percent said they’d ever worked while hungover.
Altogether, the nation’s workforce shows up to the office six days a year hungover, and when they do, they only spend about five hours on their assigned tasks (which seems surprisingly high, if you’ve ever tried to be productive while in such a state.)
So what do these hungover staff members do at work if they aren’t actually doing any of the things they’re paid to do? Turns out about half of us are pretending to do work — think randomly color-coding spreadsheets to appear busy.
More than 45 percent say they seek refuge in the bathroom, visiting an excessive number of times throughout the day, while 35 percent of us just opt for the simpler (and arguably, more hygienic) long lunch.
Finally, almost 20 percent of people manage to get in a cheeky nap somewhere amongst the desks, swivel chairs and open office floorplan.
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