Too much work and too much wine go together like biscuits and cheese, a new international study finds.
A new study of over 330-thousand people in Australia, Europe and North America shows those who work more than 48 hours a week are more likely to engage in risky alcohol consumption.
The findings published in the British Medical Journal show that across the board, more work generally means more drinking - regardless of gender, age or socioeconomic status.
The study found that people who worked more than 40 hours a week were 11 per cent more likely to be heavy drinkers than those who worked 38-40 hours.
It also found that people working from 49-54 hours a week were even more likely to be drinking at "risky" levels - categorised as more than two drinks per day for women and three for men.
Australian Drug Foundation's Phillip Collins said work can be a major trigger for alcohol abuse.
"Organisations that have high stress do have a higher rate of depression and people leaning on alcohol as a way to reduce stress."
Mr Collins said employers should take responsibility for the consequences of overworking employees.
"They need to ask themselves what sort of environment are they creating that makes somebody be stressful and therefore use alcohol to reduce that stress."
Study author Marianna Virtanen said while alcohol might help ease the stress of working long periods of time, risky consumption could lead to difficulties in the workplace, such as poor performance.
"But many people, for example well-educated managers and professionals, work much longer hours to achieve faster promotions, salary increases, and more control over work and employment," said Prof Virtanen, of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
On average full-time workers are putting in an extra six hours overtime, beyond the ordinary 38 working hours allowed per week - much of is is unpaid.
Research from the Australia Institute says about 4.9 million workers report to have no work-life balance. It said the evolution of smart phones and the mobile office is, in part to blame.
The Institute's Matt Grudnoff said for the sake of mental health, we need to be escaping with a holiday not a glass of wine.
"People feel that work life balance is getting worse and unless something is done it's likely to continue to do so as technology improves and we're able to stay in contact with each other businesses are able to use this."
"Some businesses automatically switch over to answering machin at five o'clock. Some businesses disable email while workers are on holiday, there are certainly things employers can do to make this issue better."
About 20 per cent of Australians drink at levels that put them at risk of lifetime harm from injury or disease. Drinking alcohol can affect the liver or cause brain damage, heart disease, high blood pressure and increases the risk of many cancers.
In Australia, it's recommended that healthy men and women drink no more than two standard drinks a day.
