A Guide to Workplace Inclusion During the Holiday Season: How Employers Can Support Sober and "Sober-Curious" Employees

A carefully crafted non-alcoholic cocktail can become a powerful tool for fostering inclusion and belonging in the workplace—this is the consensus among experts in substance use disorders. As winter holidays approach, HR teams are planning their annual holiday parties. Professionals in this field are making a key appeal to HR leaders: don't forget employees who abstain from alcohol and those who are "sober-curious" when planning party options.

How can employers respect employees' decisions not to drink? One way is to offer non-alcoholic beverages alongside holiday cocktails, presented with the same level of sophistication. This is what Ashley Loeb Blassingame, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of telehealth recovery company Lionrock, recommends to employers. Beyond her professional background in healthcare, her advice also stems from her own experience of over 16 years of sobriety.

Speaking of parties, she told HR Dive: "The issue isn't that I go to a party and want to drink, it's that I go, there's an open bar, but I have to pay for a bottle or glass of water... it's very conspicuous." This not-so-subtle financial transaction or dramatically displaying a water bottle forces employees to reveal their sober identity. Blassingame said that if HR teams want to support this group, they should offer more than just water.

If employees order a non-alcoholic cocktail, they should be able to drink it from a glass that looks like an alcoholic beverage. "If they want, they can choose to be inconspicuous. They can still participate without having to engage in conversations about sobriety when they don't want to."

For employees in recovery, Marc Turner, interim CEO of the substance abuse treatment center Gateway Foundation, told HR Dive that employers should strive to build a culture where people don't feel pressured to drink. Turner explained that overall, American culture encourages binge drinking and excessive consumption; he cited a statistic from the National Institutes of Health indicating that among those who meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder,only one in tenwill seek help.

The nuanced discussion about alcohol misuse covers a population far beyond those actively seeking addiction treatment. It also includes"sober-curious" employees; Turner defines "sober-curious" individuals as those "exploring changing their relationship with alcohol," who may not yet have identified their use as a problem. This category also includes people concerned about alcohol's "empty calories" or interactions with prescription medications, he explained.

"If a party is full of people, then there must be a group among them who have this disease. There may be a small number who have received treatment and are in recovery. There may also be people who, before receiving treatment, exhibit certain behaviors due to the disease," Turner said.

He further analyzed: "Once the disease develops, people may not be able to stop drinking. Employers may need to consider how to ensure people aren't over-pressured to drink."

It's worth noting that non-alcoholic cocktails are increasinglyhaving their culinary moment, and their significance extends beyond serving people in recovery. In early 2022, Bloomberg analyst and Vanderbilt University journalism professor Amanda Little observed the rise of products like non-alcoholic beer and zero-proof spirits, noting the increase in U.S. participation in "Dry January" 2022, and thatnon-alcoholic beverage sales grew by 33% the previous year。

Little also observed that these products' branding or advertising made no mention of sobriety factors at all. She believes health concerns, as well as ethical and environmental factors, are contributing factors to non-alcoholic cocktails becoming "gold in the millennial market."

Ultimately, experts told HR Dive, to promote workplace inclusion, business leaders should engage in conversations about sobriety not only in winter, but also in spring, summer, and fall. Turner advises employers to provide employees with more access to such healthcare. He said this should be a priority because a previously undetected alcohol use disorder could "surface at holiday events."

Conversely, Blassingame explained that employers can send a strong signal simply by paying for a speaker who openly discusses their own recovery journey. By investing funds in speakers on leadership, DEI, mental health, recovery, or other topics, executives demonstrate which topics or causes matter most to them. Her two suggestions: either invite a leadership speaker who is openly sober and can weave that experience into their talk, or specifically invite a professional to speak on the topic of sobriety.

Acknowledging that she holds a certain degree of privilege, Blassingame suggests that company executives (if applicable) talk about their own recovery experiences. "If you can do it—if you're in recovery and have been for a long time, being public about it is incredibly helpful for breaking the stigma," she said.

She cited the leader of Salesforce's sober employee resource group (ERG) Soberforce as a model example. Blassingame said that by being public, leaders show they are not ashamed of their journey and believe they can hire talent who are on their own recovery journey. Perhaps their employees don't have a substance use disorder now, but may face this issue in the future.

"When employees know that their supervisor or someone in the company has been able to successfully maintain sobriety while working—that there are experiences similar to theirs—they may seek help earlier," she said, "rather than trying to hide it."