Dangerous and precarious work and the high cost of emotional demands controlled by alcohol: A systematic review

Abstract

The literature review supported by six databases on the harmful use of alcohol in dangerous and precarious working conditions revealed links between alcohol and psychosocial risks that emerge from several occupational contexts. Our goal is to provide evidence whether the harmful use of alcohol has expression under such conditions and which factors favor it. In these unsafe workplaces, the emotional demand is high and the workforce is usually defined by men, among whom alcohol abuse grows both inside and outside of workplace, affecting the longevity of workers. In 2016, the global alcoholic legacy exceeded 132 million disability-adjusted life years, about a half was caused by mental disorder and 40% by traumatic injury. It also exceeded 3 million deaths, 75% occurred among men. Alcoholization may be an underlying blocking symptom during the construction of the individual’s identity, where the work has a mediator function and may not necessarily be practiced by an alcoholic. Moreover, alcoholization can be a defensive strategy created and maintained by the collective of workers to emotional demand control and make work feasible. Our review suggests that controlling the emerging emotional demand of these workplaces may cost the rise of alcohol-related illnesses and injuries inside and outside the workplace. In concrete, it is complex to characterize the causal nexus with work under the effect of alcohol and the tendency is under-reporting of work-related disorders. Intervention in “pathogenic workplace” can produce long-lasting effects and on the opposite path to the alcoholization of workers, who are still “healthy”.