As more and more people started working from home over the past couple of months, some surprising facts came out. Not only are people taking the opportunity to ditch the dress code, and possibly ditch the idea of getting dressed altogether (could be they’re even working in the altogether, although nude Zoom meetings are still not a thing), but evidently there’s a sizable subset of home-based workers who are performing their job duties with the aid of a beverage other than coffee.
Yep, surprisingly enough (since you maybe thought it was just you?), Alcohol.org reveals that one out of every three Americans is more likely to drink on the job while working from home than they’d be while working in their actual workplace. That begs the question, does that mean that two out of three were actually drinking in the office? Presumably the 66 percent includes those not drinking on the job at all, although the survey was a bit ambiguous, perhaps on the grounds of people’s tendency to avoid self-incrimination. That question aside, Alcohol.org has now followed up with another survey of workers in all 50 states and determined the average time of day everyone is starting to drink. Guess somebody better break the news to Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett – it seems as though it’s now 4:36 p.m. somewhere.
Where do the most at-home workers who day drink live?
The state with the earliest start time appears to be West Virginia, where happy hour begins at 3:24 p.m. Next come Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, and Montana, all starting at 3:36 p.m. Oddly enough, Delaware also ranks among the states having the lowest overall number of day drinkers with Alcohol.org reporting that only 15 percent of Delawareans imbibing while working from home. And Arkansas, the state with the lowest number of day drinkers (just 8 percent), also gets an early start with their first drinks of the day at 4 p.m.
On the other end of the spectrum is Hawaii, where residents start drinking the latest at 7:30 p.m., but come in first place for day (or early evening) drinking with 67 percent joining in the festivities. And the state with the second-latest drinking time of 7:18 p.m. is also the one with the second-highest rate of workers who drink (or drinkers who work). That’s you, New Hampshire, where 50 percent of “Live Free or Die” staters exercise their freedom to enjoy adult libations from their home offices.
One additional finding of interest from this survey: It seems as if weekdays are the new weekends, at least for 20 percent of us. One out of five surveyed, who formerly only drank on weekends, are now indulging on weeknights (and days) as well.
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