Rite of passage: why is alcohol our go-to for adulting, sophistication and fun? (featuring Karolina Rzadkowolska)

Show Up and Stay | Sober Positive Workplace

On this week's episode of our Sober Positive Workplace Series, DeAnn speaks with Karolina Rzadkowolska, author of "Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You". Karolina is a powerhouse in the alcohol-free movement. She has helped countless gray-area drinkers reconsider their relationship with alcohol. The episode discusses alcohol culture and its impact on the workplace, generational considerations for how we think about alcohol and alcohol-related marketing, and the shifting expectations of the next generation who are the future leaders of our workforce.

Realities and disconnects of alcohol culture:

• Alcohol became a tool for Karolina to get out of her shell and meet new people, and she had no boundaries around it in college.
• Drinking alcohol makes you feel like an adult. It gives you independence, a sense of rebelliousness, glamour, or sophistication.
• Drinking during the week is a socially acceptable means of doing it without having to explain it to anyone.
• 60% of people overdrink in the United States, meaning that a woman has more than one drink, is now considered heavy risky drinking, according to the medical establishment, and it gets even lower in Canada, where the drinking limits have gone lower and lower.
• Most people over 52% wish they didn't drink at all, and most people recognize that they don't like it and wish they were drinking less.

Karolina shares her workplace experience:

• She was one of the first people in her known sphere in her workplace to go alcohol-free, and she chose to adopt that story. People started coming out of the woodwork and saying that alcohol-free living is better for most people.
• One thing about a workplace scenario is that there's this assumption that what everyone wants to do and is fun for them is drinking.
• Holistic health is becoming more important to young people, and there is more of a lens on the importance of taking care of yourself.
• Why more and more CEOs are drinking less?

Karolina shares thoughts on how we can work to bridge non-drinkers:

• The odd division that exists in the world of non-drinkers and the spectrum of beliefs around substances.
• Being willing to evolve and change some of the language and the methods that are used to reevaluate is super helpful, but it doesn't go to say that the other methods don't work.

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