Being Hung Over Is No Excuse

Deciding to have another round of drinks won’t necessarily affect your ability to make more important decisions at the office the next day, a study suggests.

The study of 21 men found that a hangover doesn’t affect managerial decision-making ability.

“These people did feel miserable,” researcher Siegfried Streufert said. “They believed they would perform poorly. Yet their decision-making performance was not affected.”

Previous studies of drivers, pilots and doctors have shown that a hangover does indeed harm performance, said Genevieve Ames, of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

“Even if managers with hangovers are able to complete a test in a lab,” Ames said, “that doesn’t mean hangovers don’t cause problems in the workplace.”

Streufert agreed.

“This is not a license to get drunk every night before going to work,” he said. His study was published in October. Associated Press