Unless you're a bartender or a high-functioning alcoholic, it's unlikely that you're drinking during office hours. But has your teetotaller boss been wrong to keep you from indulging in a few brewskies over your burrito? Matthew Yglesias over at Slate tackles this all-important taboo, revealing what the Don Drapers of the world knew before you were born: a few cocktails during the work day actually increases productivity.
Yglesias points to a 2012 study delightfully titled "Uncorking the muse: Alcoholic intoxication facilitates creative problem solving" which discovered that individuals with a blood alcohol content of .075 "solved more [Remote Associates Test] items, in less time, and were more likely to perceive their solutions as the result of a sudden insight." In other words, having a buzz on might make you file those TPS reports faster than your sober cubicle-mate.
At .076 BAC you shouldn't be operating a car—god bless public transportation—but it does lend credence to the long-gone Three Martini Lunch. For a 180-pound man to achieve that BAC that means between 3 and 4 drinks in one hour; for a 180-pound women, it's just over 3 drinks in one hour. Time to start a happy hour at 1 p.m. petition.
