Addiction Awareness in the Workplace
Addiction at work is about more than alcohol and drugs.
Gambling, trading, gaming and other behavioural addictions can be difficult to recognise and easy to hide, even among successful employees and senior leaders.
Project Wellbeing is led by Chris Gawor, who brings lived experience and more than 20 years in commercial leadership to awareness sessions, manager training and corporate speaking.
A workplace blind spot
An estimated 85% of UK businesses have an alcohol and substance misuse policy.
Yet fewer than 5% have a policy for gambling.
Source: Beacon Counselling Trust
For many organisations, that means gambling, trading and other behavioural harms can fall outside existing addiction policies, awareness and training.
Addiction and the workplace
1 in 10
UK adults have personally experienced addiction or dependency.
Source: Taking Action on Addiction / Ipsos, 2025
53%
of people who have personally experienced addiction or dependency would feel uncomfortable discussing it with their employer.
Source: Taking Action on Addiction / Ipsos, 2025
34%
of employees surveyed had used or witnessed substance use or addictive behaviours during working hours.
Source: Bupa, 2025
48%
of employees surveyed said they had turned to addictive behaviours to cope with workplace stress.
Source: Bupa, 2025
How Project Wellbeing can help
Project Wellbeing works with corporate, public sector and not-for-profit organisations to build awareness and understanding of addiction in the workplace.
Sessions draw on founder Chris Gawor's own experience of addiction and his 20+ years in commercial leadership. That brings a practical, workplace perspective to a subject that is often hard to recognise and harder to talk about.
Workplace Addiction Awareness
Addiction doesn't always look the way we expect it to.
These interactive sessions help employees understand how addiction can develop, why it often stays hidden, and how it can affect life at home and at work.
Sessions cover alcohol, drugs, gambling, trading and other behavioural addictions, challenge stigma, and help people understand where to find appropriate support.
Tailored to your organisation and delivered virtually or in person.
Corporate Speaking
Keynotes, panels and fireside chats on hidden addiction, gambling and trading harm, and what it's like to experience addiction alongside a successful career.
Drawing on lived experience and more than 20 years in commercial leadership, Chris brings a perspective that challenges assumptions about what addiction looks like and who it affects.
Manager & HR Training
Addiction can be particularly hard for managers to recognise and respond to.
Designed for managers, HR and People teams, this training covers how addiction may show up at work, potential warning signs, and how to approach a conversation when someone may be struggling. It also covers the limits of a manager's role and where to signpost people for appropriate support.
Many workplace policies focus on alcohol and drugs. We also look at whether your current approach recognises gambling, trading and other behavioural addictions.
The aim isn't to turn managers into addiction experts. It's to give them the awareness and confidence to respond appropriately.
Corporate Speaking with Chris Gawor
Chris experienced a 12-year addiction to stock trading, much of it while working in senior commercial leadership roles. From the outside, no one knew what was happening behind the scenes.
Today he uses that experience to challenge assumptions about what addiction looks like, who it affects, and how easily it can stay hidden at work.
Speaking topics
Hidden Addiction in High-Performance Cultures
How addiction and compulsive behaviours can stay hidden within successful careers, and their impact on performance, judgement, relationships and workplace culture.
Gambling Harm, Trading Addiction & Financial Risk
Where investing, trading, gambling and addiction can blur together: the warning signs and what that can mean for individuals and organisations.
Leadership, Addiction & Psychological Safety
Why seniority and professional success offer no protection from addiction, and how workplace culture can influence whether people feel able to speak up and ask for help.
Recovery, Resilience & Rebuilding
A personal perspective on recovery and what it means to rebuild your life, relationships and career after addiction.
Available for keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats, leadership events and corporate wellbeing programmes.
Client Testimonials
What are companies saying?
Network Rail
Chris is a passionate and authentic ambassador for addiction awareness and his lived experience really brings home the ease in which gambling can become an addiction.
Chris facilitates the sessions with sensitivity, humility but doesn’t shy away from the hard lessons he has learnt himself. The work he has done with my team has enlightened them and made them much more aware of the different types of gambling and the signs to watch out for, for themselves and also those close to them.
Whilst this is a tough topic, Chris embodies hope and hopefulness and ensures the group know where they can turn to for help if needed.
Steph Oerton - Head of People & Leadership at Network Rail
EssenceMediacom (WPP)
I would certainly recommend Chris’ training session on raising awareness around gambling harms. It was especially important to hear from someone who had first-hand knowledge and experience. Hearing Chris' personal testimony on such an important topic led to a really thought-provoking training session.
Within the session Chris challenged perceptions about gambling, helping to change thinking and introduced action points to take away. It is a vital training session on an important subject, in and out of the workplace.
I’d recommend Chris’ gambling harm session to any organisation, however big or small. To educate and advise on real life issues within the workplace that some people don’t want to face or challenge.
Avelon Thompson - Head of Inclusion & Impact at EssenceMediacom
About Project Wellbeing
Project Wellbeing was founded by Chris Gawor to help organisations understand addiction in the workplace and how it can affect people at every level.
Chris brings together lived experience and more than 20 years in commercial leadership.
For 12 years, he lived with an addiction to stock trading, much of it while working in senior commercial roles. From the outside he was successful: leading teams, hitting targets, building his career. No one knew what was happening behind the scenes.
His story shows that addiction doesn't always look the way people expect. It can affect anyone, including those who appear successful and in control, and it can stay hidden for years.
Chris now draws on his experience of both addiction and recovery to help organisations raise awareness, challenge stigma and better understand how addiction can develop and remain unnoticed at work. He has particular insight into gambling, trading and other behavioural addictions, which are often the hardest to spot.
Chris is also an ICF ACC-credentialed executive coach, working with senior leaders and founders. That work keeps him close to the pressures leaders face and to the importance of creating environments where people feel able to speak up.
Contact Us
Contact Us
Contact us directly
info@projectwellbeing.org.uk
07808 890 609
Project Wellbeing Limited
Crown Business Centre,
10 High St,
Otford,
Sevenoaks
TN14 5PQ