3 ways to support sober employees during holiday party season

Whether an employee is experimenting with sobriety or is struggling to cope with holiday stress, Blassingame says having a plan is critical to navigating the holiday season while keeping self-care top of mind. Deciding ahead of time how much you plan to drink, what time you’ll leave and how you’ll get home can provide a framework and a sense of control around uncomfortable situations. 

“You make a decision: I’m going to have one glass of wine, or I’m going to have two glasses of red wine. You decide how long you’ll stay, and you create a plan around the kind of support you need going into that situation,” she says. “A lot of the time what happens is that people don’t have a plan or the support, they’re not thinking through and they end up drinking too much at the party or doing something that they didn’t plan to do. So the planning piece beforehand is critical for people who are trying to make different decisions.”