Dry January®: A Gentle New Year Reset for Employers and Employees

Last month, Leeds City Council’s Public Health Drugs and Alcohol Team spoke to the Leeds Mindful Employer Network about helping employees navigate the festive drinking culture. 

As we approach the New Year, this team is providing insights into the physical and mental benefits of participating in Dry January®. Here, they share how employers can promote the initiative within teams.

The start of a new year has a very specific feeling for most people. It is a chance to pause and think about what we want for our lives and to decide how we might want to get there. That could be part of why Dry January^® has become so popular in recent years. The challenge is a campaign (first registered by Alcohol Change UK in 2014) where people sign up to abstain from alcohol for the month of January.

While Dry January^® is a personal choice, it can also have ripple effects into the workplace. It’s the perfect time to reflect on how workplace drinking culture impacts both our personal lives and our performance at work.

In this article, we look at why it might be helpful and share practical ways employers can help. Employers can have a significant influence on their employees’ wellbeing. By creating alcohol-free spaces, promoting inclusivity, and supporting employees who may be struggling with alcohol use, they can make a lasting difference.*

The Hidden Costs of Drinking that Workplaces need to know

• Health Risks

Alcohol is linked to over 58 acute and chronic illnesses, including liver disease, certain cancers, and mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. Even moderate drinking can increase long-term health risks. In England alone, there were 339,916 alcohol-specific hospital admissions and 8,274 alcohol-specific deaths in 2023—a staggering 63.8% increase since 2006.

Leeds faces significant alcohol-related challenges with nearly 300 alcohol-related deaths per year and an estimated 10,000 adults that are alcohol-dependent. Hospital admissions and mortality rates in Leeds are also above the England average.

These figures highlight why Leeds City Council’s Drug and Alcohol Strategy 2025–2030 prioritises prevention, harm reduction, and recovery support.

• Impact on Productivity

According to the Institute of Alcohol Studies, alcohol-related harm costs the UK economy £7.3 billion annually, with workplace hangovers alone accounting for £1.2–£1.4 billion per year. Heavy drinking can lead to absenteeism, presenteeism, and even workplace accidents. Studies show that heavy episodic drinking increases the risk of disability leave across all socioeconomic groups.

• Inclusivity Challenges

Around 34% of employees avoid work socials because alcohol will be present, according to research by Easy Offices. This creates an environment that unintentionally excludes those who abstain for health, cultural, or personal reasons.

The Employer’s Role and Offering Support

Everyone has a different experience with alcohol but there are some signs that could indicate that someone’s working life is being affected negatively by alcohol. These include:

• Low-grade anxiety on mornings after drinking (the so-called “hangxiety”)
• Poor sleep, leading to tiredness, irritability or difficulty focusing the next day
• Relying on alcohol to “switch off” after work or cope with stress
• Struggling to meet the Chief Medical Officer guidance of having several drink-free days per week.
• Missing deadlines or calling in sick after drinking.

Employers can make it easier for people to look after themselves. A supportive employer might:

• Share trusted resources such as Alcohol Change UK.
• Normalise the conversation. A simple mention of Dry January^® in internal newsletters or meetings can help make the topic feel less awkward.
• Influence the workplace culture to be sensitive to those who don’t drink. This can include offering alternatives at events and parties (catch up on last month’s special feature, Season of Support: Helping Employees Navigate Holiday Drinking Culture for practical tips on this).
• Encourage wellbeing without judgement.
• Lead by example.
• Train managers to support employees who might need help in a safe manner and with empathy.
• Signpost to services that are able to help such as GPs or Forward Leeds

The possible benefits of Dry January^®

As an employer, you could share the information below as a gentle motivator for employees to join the campaign in January.*

Dry January^® can be a powerful way to implement other healthy habits because it provides a structured, short-term challenge. It can help in the following ways:

• Breaking the Cycle

Taking a month off drinking can help reset a person’s relationship with drinking. It can show that socialising and relaxing doesn’t have to involve alcohol, and it can expose problems where they exist.

• Physical Health Improvements

A month without alcohol can help to reduce blood pressure, improve the immune system, and improve liver health. A lot of people notice weight loss and better skin too.

• Mental Clarity

Alcohol can adversely affect mood and mental health. Therefore, a break from alcohol can reduce anxiety, improve sleep and boost overall emotional wellbeing.

• Financial Savings

Cutting out alcohol for a month will save money, which can motivate people to keep going.

• Building Momentum

Completing Dry January^® can inspire people to set other health goals, like eating well or exercising more.

Choosing Better: How One Month Alcohol-Free Changed Everything

Richard Casement, founder of Clean Break Coaching

Richard Casement is Founder of Clean Break Coaching, which seeks to help people flourish through movement, mindset, and lifestyle choices to improve their overall health and wellbeing.  Richard’s clean break journey began with the decision to try out Dry January^® to see did it have an impact for his health and wellbeing.

“For most of my adult life, alcohol was ever present. It shaped relationships, events, experiences, holidays, and even my career which included 10 very happy and rewarding years in hospitality followed by a decade cutting my teeth in sales roles, travelling the world, and climbing the corporate ladder. When I look back on those years, they were (in the most part) filled with gratitude and joy that I had the opportunity to do a job that felt more like a hobby.

But as I progressed through my 30s, got married, bought a house, and had kids, the negative effects of alcohol, even in small amounts, became progressively harder to deal with. Hangovers lasted days not just a few hours, headaches became more intense, my mood swings became more aggressive, my self-worth slowly declined, my ambition slipped away, feelings of anxiety increased, periods of low mood were drawn out and turned in to depression, and I began to question whether alcohol still served me and if the trade off was still worth it.

I wasn’t even at the sharp end of the alcohol use disorder spectrum. I’d been steadily reducing my alcohol consumption levels over several years to the point whereby I wouldn’t drink through the week, I’d regularly take breaks from drinking alcohol of more than a week at a time, and when I did drink it was generally just a couple. But when I did drink, it made me feel like crap!

Working in the alcohol industry, Dry January was seen as sacrilege. Our careers depended on the sales of alcohol, so why would you not support this?!! But deep down inside, there was a shift happening within me – my values were changing.

People often refer to midlife as a crisis. But here’s the thing…it’s not a crisis; it’s an opportunity for rediscovery, reinvention, and redesign through a new phase. And a new phase requires a new approach, new beliefs, and new values.

At first, Dry January was an excuse – an excuse to take a step back and reset. Because we all need an excuse to NOT drink alcohol, right?! But over the course of a few years, it became a welcome celebration and an opportunity to reconnect with my truest self, without the mask, or the expectation to behave in a way that no longer aligned with my values.

“Dry January Opened the Door — I Decided to Walk Through It”

After a couple of years, Dry January led into February, which then led into March the following year. It offered me a safe environment to let go of the pressure to imbibe and gave me space to embrace the benefits of a life less intoxicated. Then at the end of 2021, I decided I would take a six-month clean break from alcohol, starting on 30^th December 2021. I’m now coming up to 4 years of alcohol-freedom.

I’ve never said I’ll never drink again. I’m grateful that my decision not to drink is one of personal lifestyle choice and not one of need. But it’s been the greatest gift of self-care that I’ve ever given myself, and it’s hard to find a reason why I ever would drink again. And the Dry January campaign had a huge role to play in this, for which I’m incredibly grateful.

The biggest lesson I’ve learnt along the way – you don’t need to have a problem to wish for better outcomes in life. Dry January opened the door to better outcomes for me in my life.”

From Dry January to Sober Socials: When a month-off becomes a movement

Hannah Taylor is the Founder of  Sober Butterfly Collective 🦋, a venture sparked by trying out Dry January®.  Many Leeds professionals now join Sober Butterfly events, which include quiz nights, coffee meetups, and games, showing a growing trend for alcohol-free networking.  Read more about Hannah and Sober Butterfly below.

“Sober Butterfly Collective was sparked by my first conscious break from alcohol, a simple Dry January® experiment in 2019, but was solidified on 27th September later that year, after a particularly hazy, hangxiety-filled summer, when I took a more intentional break aligned with Sober October, ultimately leading to my breakup with booze. Combining my sober curiosity with a deep desire for belonging, an idea began to evolve from a humble coffee catch-up in Leeds and has now grown into a national community, hosting monthly Curious Coffee Catch-Ups from London to Glasgow.

Sober Butterfly is a volunteer-led alcohol-free community and Lived Experience Recovery Organisation (LERO), facilitated by Butterfly Buddies. By encouraging and empowering members to organise their own meet-ups, we build confidence, foster transformation and nurture a sense of belonging. As a result, thousands of meaningful friendships and authentic connections have flourished within our community. Sobriety not only allowed me to find myself, discover my purpose and cultivate joy but also inspire and create it for others too. 

Dry January® often gives people the confidence to take that first step in an alcohol centric society and I truly believe that as we begin to normalise the conversation, encourage people to take a break and support their decision without judgement, it can create a ripple effect of wellbeing that genuinely changes and even saves lives.”

Dry January^® is a great way to help workplaces and employees reset and a chance to focus on wellbeing. If you or any of your colleagues would like to join, Alcohol Change UK have developed a great app called Try Dry, available on their website.

Try it, see how you feel!  Encourage your employees to give it a go too.

Resources

• The Dry January® challenge | Alcohol Change UK
• Home – Forward Leeds
• Leeds Sober Socials | Meetup
  

The Leeds Mindful Employer Network would like to thank the Public Health Colleagues below for their knowledge and expertise shared in this feature.

Anja Henning– ST1 Public Health Registrar, Public health Unit, Leeds City Council

Ikechukwu Opara – Advanced Health Improvement Specialist (Drugs and Alcohol), Public health Unit Leeds City Council.

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