Last week, at a social event for senior bankers, I found myself standing in a circle with six men making small talk. As I looked around the group, I noticed that five were clutching tumblers of sparkling water, while only one had joined me in accepting a flute of cold champagne offered by a waiter in a tailcoat.
I made the mistake of remarking on the abstemiousness of the group — with the result that a desultory conversation struck up about everyone’s dry January. After a while the man with the champagne glass declared that he had given up something much harder than alcohol.
His resolution was to abstain from excessive work, not just for 31 days, but for the rest of his life. He was fed up with pointless meetings and of emailing at 11pm.