QUESTION...
How Much is Alcohol Costing Your Company?
Many businesses glorify alcohol – as a feel-good social lubricant, a we're-all-in-this-together stress reliever – but it comes at a high cost to both the organization and the individual. It's time for leaders to take a sober look at the role of alcohol in workplace culture.
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The book is an Amazon best-seller and is available in physical and e-book form
Bottling Up Trouble Interactive Assessment
The Bottling Up Trouble Assessment Tool is an interactive online tool which explores all the various ways that an organization may be creating an alcohol-centric culture. Questions cover contracts and policies, management attitudes, corporate entertainment, staff entertainment, expenses policies and gift policies. Respondents receive a bespoke analysis and recommendations.
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"This book will change your organization and all who work in it for the better. Drinking deeply on its words will help you realize the truth about the harm that alcohol can do to companies and employees. This book is both life-enhancing and company-saving."
– Sir Anthony Seldon, author, educator and cofounder of Action for Happiness
"A much needed, insightful resource on a critical, often overlooked topic."
If leaders read this book and take it to heart, they will be able to create healthier and more effective organizations, and help employees have healthier lives.
– Tara Mohr, author of Playing Big and founder of the global Playing Big leadership programme for women, and expert on women’s leadership and well-being
What's In the Book:
Your organization may be condoning, or even encouraging, an alcohol-centric culture, in the interests of building team spirit.
But do you know what it is costing you? Alcohol may not appear on the balance sheet, but the loss of productivity and the human suffering that it causes mean leaders can't afford to ignore this elephant in the board room.
There used to be three taboo subjects at work; mental health, menopause and alcoholism. We are now much more open about the former, leaving alcoholism as the last taboo. But it can’t stay that way.
Younger people are actively choosing not to drink, and the sober-curious market is growing exponentially. Good leaders are beginning to realize that by confronting the issue of alcohol they can liberate people from shame and stigma, boost wellbeing and productivity, support diversity initiatives and create positive, lasting culture change.
Let's stop bottling up trouble.
"Comprehensively researched and engagingly written..."
Tabbin cuts to the heart of the economic and moral arguments for why many employers should re-evaluate their alcohol cultures. The blend of personal stories, expert analysis, and depth of evidence provides a useful toolkit for companies that want to improve workplace productivity while supporting the health of their employees.
– Dr Katherine Severi, Chief Executive, Institute of Alcohol Studies
"Some great insight into alcohol, performance, and team culture."
Reading sections of this book has given some great insight into alcohol, performance, and team culture. Times change, and so culture changes along with it, books like this may help shed some light to anyone that is curious as to what that change may look like and why it may be necessary.
– Don Armand, Business owner and former Exeter Chiefs and England rugby player
"I urge you to read this book, and assess and change your own corporate culture, so that your business and your employees can thrive."
This is a much-needed book. Tabbin challenges the alcohol-centric culture that still prevails in many workplaces and points out what a high price we are paying, both economically and in human terms...The western world is facing something of a crisis in mental health, and alcohol is a contributory factor in this. I completely agree with Tabbin when she calls for alcohol awareness to be included in Wellbeing and Stress Management programmes and for those who become addicted to alcohol to be treated with compassion and not stigmatized...I urge you to read this book, and assess and change your own corporate culture, so that your business and your employees can thrive.
– Annie Grace, founder of This Naked Mind, and author of This Naked Mind – Control Alcohol – find freedom, discover happiness and change your life
"Such an interesting and thought-provoking read..."
This is such an interesting and thought-provoking read. Tabbin highlights the way that alcohol has had a free pass in society and how good it would be if we could change that.
– Sue Cleaver, Coronation Street actor and Loose Women presenter
"This book is impactful because it’s written from someone who has experienced the issues that are described..."
This book is impactful because it’s written from someone who has experienced the issues that are described and has walked the path that you may be facing. Everyone in a business has a role to play in ensuring that their colleagues thrive. As managers, as colleagues, as fellow human beings, we have a role to play in ensuring that people thrive.
– Kathryn Jacob, Chief Executive, Pearl & Dean
"It offers practical, stigma-shattering strategies for creating a healthier, more inclusive, and ultimately more successful workplace."
Bottling Up Trouble is a much-needed wake-up call for corporate culture right now. Tabbin, with her compelling personal journey from advertising powerhouse to highly sought-after sobriety coach, brings a raw and insightful examination of alcohol’s hidden toll on businesses. Her book doesn’t just shed light on the issue – it offers practical, stigma-shattering strategies for creating a healthier, more inclusive, and ultimately more successful workplace. A must-read for any leader serious about nurturing wellbeing and boosting performance in their organization.
– Christy Osborne, Sobriety Coach, author of Love Life Sober: A 40-Day Alcohol Fast to Rediscover Your Joy, Improve Your Health and Renew Your Mind
"Tabbin’s treatment of the subject in this book is incredibly insightful."
Bottling Up Trouble is long overdue! It tackles the way alcohol on so many levels is undermining personal and organizational health and productivity, as well as the way that for many organizations it is often seen as ‘rite of passage’ and even progression in some cases...Organizations have allowed it to become part of their fabric; its consumption is touted as the elixir of life whilst its destructive power on multiple levels is overlooked. Tabbin’s treatment of the subject in this book is incredibly insightful. It is well thought out, factual, and helpful. It will equip organizations to rethink, re-evaluate, and reorientate but also will help to create space for healthy conversations, de-stigmatizing where necessary and supporting individuals to be their best and to better optimize health and wellbeing, alleviating stress and improving personal resilience. Organizations really can change their culture and narrative concerning alcohol and there is no time like the present to do this! Bottling Up Trouble will help you to uncork your organizational potential in an unprecedented way.
– Retired Chief Superintendent Maria Fox, [(served in Derbyshire constabulary, West Midlands Police, and Greater Manchester Police)
"A thought-provoking and practical guide that will be relevant to anyone who is an employer or employed."
Tabbin Almond provides a thought-provoking and practical guide that will be relevant to anyone who is an employer or employed. It sets out a long overdue agenda for change to a culture that I have personally witnessed throughout my working career. From my time at medical school through to international conferences, or even dinners in the Palace of Westminster, the content of this book sadly resonates with behaviour for which I have not only been a willing participant but also regrettably a cheer leader. This did not end well for me. I now count myself now among a rising tide of people who, like the author, feel that we urgently need more recognition of the problems that alcohol can cause and compassion for those who, through no fault of their own, have developed issues with controlling their consumption. A good starting point is the workplace.
– Professor Charles Knowles, Queen Mary University of London, author of Why We Drink Too Much
"Courageous, authoritative, and important contribution, tackling an issue of national importance."
Working as a consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist in the NHS has left me in no doubt about the devastating consequences of alcohol dependence on the lives of patients and their families. Tabbin Almond’s book Bottling up Trouble is compelling and essential reading for all employers with an interest in the productivity and wellbeing of their workforce. Its publication comes not a moment too soon given the 32.8% increase in alcohol-related deaths since the Covid pandemic. In her punchy readable style, drawing on her personal and professional experience Tabbin takes the reader on a journey through the causes and consequences of dependent alcohol use, its impact on productivity at work, the working culture that promotes drinking and stigmatizes the drinker culminating in a Charter for Change detailing how employers can embed help with problem drinking in the wellbeing programmes in their organization. I can only congratulate Tabbin for this courageous, authoritative, and important contribution, tackling an issue of national importance.
– Dr C. Susan Mizen, Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy
"Tabbin’s book is a must read for all corporations who need to understand the potential harm"
Bottling Up Trouble is an important book that shines a light on an issue rarely discussed. Whilst I am sure that many companies will have their own corporate support and wellbeing policies, and many will provide comprehensive health insurance, I have seen little evidence of industry or corporate responsibility. Which leads me to the importance of this book for not only providing a clear and pragmatic strategy for how individuals and companies can help get through this situation, but also, and equally importantly, how they can put things in place to avoid them happening in the first place. This involves a cultural change that cannot take place over night. Tabbin’s book is a must read for all corporations who need to understand the potential harm of any culture that glorifies alcohol to achieve their own goals, whilst stigmatizes those who fall at a wayside.
– Liz Landy, Global CEO, Audience Measurement, Ipsos
"Tabbin draws attention to the many ways in which the boozy culture of workplaces is harming society."
As a young journalist, I considered that booze (much of it free) was part of the job. This thought-provoking book has opened my eyes to the downside of the laissez-faire attitude to all this free alcohol. Tabbin draws attention to the many ways in which the boozy culture of workplaces is harming society. It will strike a chord with the growing number of people who are questioning the role of alcohol in society, and it provides practical advice on how we can improve things.
– Mike Carter, author of three books, including the best-selling One Man and His Bike, and freelance journalist writing for The Guardian, The Observer and The Financial Times, among others
"It doesn’t just push at an open door but smashes through it."
Bottling Up Trouble is refreshingly optimistic. It doesn’t just push at an open door but smashes through it. Anyone running a business or sports team should embrace it. It provides a roadmap to reframe beliefs to everyone’s benefit.
– Jeremy Cowdrey, Vice President, Kent County Cricket Club
