Alcohol Abuse in the Work Place

There are individuals suffering from too much stress or worry that would resort to drinking alcoholic beverages to calm their nerves. There is a feeling of relaxation upon taking alcoholic drinks and this is true with a moderate amount of intake.

Excessive drinking by employees will cause hangovers, a real pain in the workplace. Heavy drinkers employees is an expensive problem for many business and industries worldwide brought by their absenteeism. The losses include productivity, injuries, and additional claims on health insurance.

A moderate amount of alcoholic drinks like a  single or two glasses of wine, a shot of vodka, beer, whiskey, or whatever drinks with alcohol can relax an employee after work but the excess intake may be a defense against life problems. Alcoholic abuse becomes an issue and a serious one in the workplace.

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When an employee was hooked on alcoholic drinks, he cannot face the day without an alcoholic drink even early in the morning, cannot attend a social or professional meeting, conceal how many bottles he drank, or in denial about his drinking. The cycle of excessive alcoholic drinking will continue which will lead to job loss, financial worries, loneliness, divorce, and may even jeopardize a marriage relationship (Bartholomew 89).

Many of the excessive alcohol drinkers don’t realize that their vicious cycle of drinking can create a feeling of depression and they can only overcome the feeling by drinking and drinking until there is a feeling of numbness. Further depression leads to an increase in the intake of alcoholic drinks.

Alcoholic abuse at the workplace will be explored and analyzed to understand the reasons, symptoms, and possible plan of action to correct and prevent excessive drinking. This study will be of significance to many individuals who are currently hooked with alcoholisms, students of social sciences, families, and relatives of alcoholic drinkers, and the entire society.

Discussion

Every individual has a choice if they want to have an alcohol addiction. Alcoholic abuse in the workplace does not only harm the excessive drinker but threatens the company and co-employees safety affects their job performance and result in great loss in productivity (Lehman 88).

The immediate superior and co-workers of the alcoholic employees are in an awkward position to decide whether to report their alcoholism or to cover up their mistakes. There are circumstances that employees do not drink at  the workplace but  prior to work reporting were already equipped with a full tank of alcoholic drinks inside his body, this will definitely affect the individual’s job performance, prone to accident and became less productive. The workload is not accomplished on time and other employees are affected by work backlogs.

There are many signs and symptoms that an employee is into alcoholism while at the workplace such as unexplained, prolonged, and frequent absences, prone to accidents while out or in at work, reduced productivity, overreactions to criticisms, suspicious of other workers, erratic work patterns, hard to conceal hangovers in the morning, indifference with personal hygiene, exhausted easily, slurred speech and unsteady walking. The signs of physical deterioration and loss of productivity are prominent. There are circumstances that other co-workers covered up the alcoholic drinkers, lend them money, and patched their workload (Bartholomew 89).

This instance will not be of help to alcoholic drinkers at the workplace for they have all the chance to continue their bad habits of drinking. Other co-workers will attempt to handle the situation of alcoholic employees and will not seek assistance or advice from qualified personnel of the company.

This act of co-worker is not enough to correct the alcoholics from their vices and it is advisable to report their co-worker (Spiderman 65). The threat of losing his job is present but it may be the other way around, he may intend to seek help from qualified personnel and correct the wrongdoings.

The employers of alcoholic drinkers have much larger problems than their afflicted employee and it is detrimental to the company’s productivity. Absenteeism for employees under the influence of alcohol has a higher percentage than other employees, prone to claim more sickness benefits and account that intoxicated people are more prone to accidents at the workplace.

The incident of alcoholism was not limited to lower-level workers but even those employees in rank positions are prone to alcoholism (Lehman 86). Taking steps in assisting the alcoholic drinkers at the workplace is significant in preventing their addiction to alcohol and possible remedial action that would not only beneficial to the employee but as well as to their co-workers and families. The workplace is one of the community’s vital component in changing the attitudes of alcoholic abuse victims towards an intoxicated consumption of alcoholic drinks (Bartholomew 91).

Paying close attention to alcohol abusive employees of the company is an approach to warn the alcoholics that a company can enforce action against alcohol abuse. Interventions by employers such as talking directly to the alcohol-intoxicated employee and informing them of possible actions for their misdeeds can improve the rate of recovering from alcoholism. Alcoholism can be regarded as a health issue but at the same time is an integrity issue in the corporate world. By helping an alcoholic employee at the workplace is a plan to restore the confidence of the company and the employee himself.

Creating positive changes in the workplace will only happen with alcohol-free policies, programs, and possible consequences at the workplace. Improving the worker’s environment will provide benefits to everyone in the workplace (Lehman 89).

A clear message that an employee’s alcoholism is not only his problem but the entire company’s problem and working together to solve alcoholic abuse will be one of the best course of action.

Various conditions and situations accompanied alcohol abuse, an example is an alcoholic employee with mood swings and depression and its can be observed when he is having difficulty focusing on his work and meet their schedules. The outburst of temper, restlessness, poor attention to details, impatience, tolerance to boredom, disorganized thoughts, and working table, impaired concentration, procrastination, inability for relaxation, and no follow-through are symptoms that an employee is into alcoholism.

Alcohol abuse is a kind of psychological disorder with an individual’s difficulty to control the excessive intake of alcohol with recurrent negative outcomes. The amount and frequency of alcohol intake may differ from one individual to another but the preoccupation with alcohol with negative effects matters.

The urbanization of society explains the theory that alcohol has been discovered and utilized as a replacement for the unclean water reservoir and it is not surprising that there are individuals with high alcohol tolerance (Bartholomew 94).

The range of alcohol abuse damage the different aspects of individual life and possibly others. The overabundance of alcohol will have an impact on the physical aspect of an employee such as cirrhosis of the liver, alcohol dementia, heart disease, sexual dysfunction, and even death. In the social aspect, the impact of alcohol abuse includes jeopardy in marriage, divorce, and anti-social behavior because of alienated consideration by society.

In terms of economic, there is a possibility of losing one’s employment, poor judgment, incapacity to pay the living quarters, and financial difficulties. Alcohol abuse may also have legal consequences when an individual was charged for public disorders or driving under the influence of liquor (Lehman 85).

The emotional consequences of alcohol abuse will damage the relationship to their children when a father or head of the family is the alcoholic, chance for verbal abuse to his coworkers and family members and loss of one’s self-respect.

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