back to article Xmas hangovers to cost UK biz £790m

Hangovers provoked by wild Xmas alcoholic excess will cost British business £790m* this festive season as workers stagger around their offices looking for a nice place to have a kip or puking up the previous night's intake. That's according to hotel outfit Travelodge, which claims 4,500 Brit workers "predicted that their …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Is that all?

    I waste that daily just reading this website.

    Anon? You betcha!

  2. Steve

    Another Math Myth

    You can't lose what you never had. Given how long Christmas binging has been around it's not lost money, it's a predictable seasonal cost of doing business.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rubish!

    I don't beleave that EVERY worker gose out on the lash. Probably 10% maximum, and if those 10% mean that we are spending that long stairing in to space, then that means that they are spending, on avrage, 3 working days doing sod all. I don't beleave it at all.

    I think they are lieing about that, and working out how long people who do do that are waisting, and saying "well everyone dose it".

  4. Fancy
    Joke

    Toilet Humour

    "77 per cent mercifully insisted they'd made it to the toilet for a quick chat with God on the big white telephone"

    I still prefer the classic 'driving the porcelain truck', a euphemism I picked up in Australia of all places....

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And how do they get sick?

    By purchasing large amounts of alcohol and food.

    normal month < normal month - losses due to holiday excess + purchases due to holiday excess

  6. The Other Steve
    Flame

    Well fuck you, Travelodge

    Is this some kind of twisted conspiracy ? Reading the headline, I expected this to be yet another mewling pseudo study by unpopular slave masters the CBI, or another desperate 'don't shove your arse in the photocopier' story from the HSE. Now bastard Travelodge are getting in on the humbugging.

    WTF is a cheap and nasty (well, nasty anyway) shag motel chain doing conducting 'research' like this ??? I mean, why ? Is this somehow supposed to make me want to stay in one of their turgid little establishments ? Where's the hook ?

    Get a grip, it's christmas, everyone is going to be shit faced, if you don't like it, close your eyes. It has been like this for as long as I can remember and as long as my father can remember, and, oddly enough, as long as his father could remember. That's within delta of forever for planning purposes. And let's not forget that not to many years ago it was considered allowable (sometimes mandatory) to be shit faced IN the office at christmas.

  7. Red Bren
    Unhappy

    On balance, who is the winner?

    Unless UK Biz is going to be uncharitably generous and give us an extra day's pay, this £790M they are losing will be dwarfed by the £2,719M* worth of free work they will gain this coming leap year!

    Not to mention the free overtime they get from this country's long-hours culture...

    * Using the same calculations and assumptions as the original.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    @Rubish!

    Literally the worst spelling I've ever seen. Ever.

  9. Stone Fox
    Alert

    Christmas!?!

    I'm guilty of the pub flu sickie on a weekly basis! :D

  10. Ian Ferguson
    Flame

    FFS

    Will you stop reprinting crappy 'XXX will cost the UK economy £YYYm... study sponsored by ZZZ' press releases! With the combined cost to our economy of the World Cup, Facebook, long lunches, Christmas boozing, texting, office affairs, bunking off five minutes early on a Friday and junk email, we apparently shouldn't have an economy left, according to this PR fairytale bullshit.

    Tell you what, here's another one: Ill fitting bras are costing UK industry £300 BILLION A YEAR in lost productivity! Study sponsored by, I dunno, Wonderbra, for a bit of free publicity.

    It's nearly as bad as the BBC and their dumbass reprinting of 'Scientists discover a formula to predict how much toilet paper you will use... sponsored by Charmin' press releases.

    Bloody lazy journalists, grr.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Possibly, you could shut up.

    I don't live in England but if I did you'd be seeing me (with a clue bat) the last thing anyone needs is this sort of crap. We need our office parties we need to get loaded and have inappropriate sex we have Travel Lodges here too I could burn one down in sympathy.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Red Bren

    free overtime? who works overtime for free?! i work long hours, but only because i get generously paid for it.

    people who work excessive OT for free need shooting in the head. And don't give me all that bollocks about 'commitment' and 'job pride', if there's a requirement for constant OT in your workplace, it's because of bad management and/or planning, and that's not your fault...so don't dig your employer out of the shit in your own time!

  13. Tim Croydon

    What about gains to UK biz?

    Using their ridiculous assumption that all of the 29m workers drink, then they only need to buy 10 drinks each over the festive period (using 'bargain basement' price of £2.70 per drink) to keep the economy in balance.

    I feel sure I'll be able to do my bit to bring things back in line! (hic!)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder

    How much El Reg costs Uk biz each year? You should do a study... which may cost even more with the time spend filling out the survey...

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    is it just me....

    ...or does the author completely overlook that fact that tight companies will always choose to have their xmas parties on school nights to keep the costs lower.

    If the parties were on friday nights, people wouldnt need to take sick days the following morning!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    two sides of the coin

    Is this the same Xmas that is worth some £15bn to business and commerce in sales and services?

    http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2204573/online-spend-reach-15bn-3681370

    You can't have it both ways for every action has a reaction eh...

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