Drink, smoke, work, succeed?

‘Alcohol misuse is a major issue affecting employers and employees in the UK, impacting on the health, safety and welfare of staff as well as on business productivity and profits,’ they say. Absenteeism costs British industry an estimated £2 billion a year and has been shown, in their studies, to have a strong relationship to occasional excessive or inappropriate drinking.

‘It may take longer than one day to recover from a heavy binge, and an employee may experience fatigue, depression or anxiety at this time,’ reports Alcohol Concern. ‘This in turn can affect colleagues and workplace morale.’ Then there are the safety issues: Alcohol Concern says that as many as 20 to 25 per cent of workplace accidents cite alcohol as a contributory factor.

‘Face it,’ says Fiona. ‘If you come back from lunch half tanked you’re not going to be particularly sharp, are you? And you’re not going to be the kind of person I want to delegate more responsibility to.’

She suggests that ambitious young women who want to bond with their work colleagues look for alternatives. ‘Ladette culture is definitely out,’ she says. ‘We’re all domestic goddesses now. For our Christmas party last year, instead of going out for a boozy lunch, we went and spent the afternoon at a health spa. It might not be for everyone, but there’s nothing like seeing your boss or secretary in a bathing suit to really break the ice.’

Not everyone might want to replace bonding over a glass of wine with bonding in a Jacuzzi, but Fiona makes a valuable point. With a little imagination on the part of her and her colleagues, maybe even Bridget Jones could be persuaded to cut down on the booze and the fags and start investing in her new career as a millennial goddess.