A left-wing think tank is claiming after work drinks are reducing productivity and making non-drinkers uncomfortable – utter rot, says Joseph Dinnage

Another of life’s rapidly vanishing joys is in the crosshairs of Britain’s public health lobbyists: the work drinks party. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a number of Gen Z workers feel unfairly pressured to drink at workplace events – presumably by older colleagues who are more than happy to reach for the corkscrew.

A quarter of workers said they occasionally felt pressured to drink when they didn’t want to – rising to 38 per cent among the youngest employees (aged 18-24). Over a third said drinking at work events made non-drinkers feel excluded or created cliques. Strangely, I don’t recall ever being surveyed about my discomfort when surrounded by sanctimonious Zoomer teetotallers.

The report concludes that the pressure employees feel to drink is having real consequences. Apparently, due to Gen Z drinking less across the board, younger workers are more likely to feel the effects of the sexily named scourge of ‘workplace alcohol harm’. Some 43 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds reported calling in sick after drinking at work-related events – frustrating the productivity of businesses and when extrapolated, the economy at large.

Being a centre-left think tank, the IPPR tends to think of temperate young employees as victims rather than adults capable of ordering a ginger beer instead of a Guinness, so proposes a litany of interventions to protect them and our economy from the malty peril.

© City A.M.