Six shades of grey: Identifying drinking culture and potentially risky drinking behaviour in the grey zone between work and leisure. The WIRUS culture study

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore drinking culture and drinking situations that employers and employees encounter in the grey zone between work and leisure, and identify what might affect employees’ risky drinking behaviour. Methods: We used eight focus groups to interview 61 core company informants from eight Norwegian companies (private and public sector) participating in the WIRUS – Workplace-based interventions preventing risky alcohol use and sick leave – project. The informants represented employers and employees with a diversity of roles at multiple organisational levels. The transcribed interviews were analysed by applying a phenomenological hermeneutical approach. Results: The analysis revealed six dimensions of drinking culture representing potentially risky drinking behaviour in situations that fall in the grey zone between work and leisure: (1) “Who invited me?” (Degree of obligation towards inviter), (2) “Do I have to participate?” (Degree of participation volunteerism), (3) “To drink or not to drink?” (Degree of drinking volunteerism), (4) “Work talk or small talk?” (Degree of work-related conversation), (5) “Are there any drinking rules to follow?” (Degree of regulation), and (6) “The influence of being away from home” (degree of distance to home). Conclusions: The findings reveal that employers and employees’ experience of drinking culture can be categorised as six different “shades of grey”. The grey zone is shaded from light to dark grey, indicating how risky the informants perceive the grey zone to be. The findings may be useful when designing workplace health promotion programmes and alcohol regulations in the workplace. SIGNIFICANCE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: Identifying potentially risky drinking situations in the grey zone between work and leisure is of relevance for public health as use of alcohol is considered a threat to public health. Alcohol is causing ill health and premature death, as well as physical and social problems. Work related use of alcohol is one arena influencing the alcohol consumption, and therefore a significant arena for a public health perspective on employees’ alcohol habits. In Norwegian working life, the use of alcohol takes place in the grey zone between work and leisure time, to a small degree at work, and identifying risky drinking situations in the grey zone, is of value in order to develop efficient and effective alcohol prevention strategies. The model developed in this article for identifying potentially risky drinking situations can help improve interventions for health outcomes for working population, significant for public health.