Coworker drinking during the workday - what would you do?

Parent Cafe
141

Many years ago, when I was the manager of technical publications for a large software company, I hired someone who turned out to be an alcoholic. I actually did not realize it until after I fired him, which was after I put a remediation plan in place for him that he completely failed to complete. (This was something I initiated on my own, since the company did not have what I would consider to be a professional HR department.) As part of the hiring process, I had had him interview with several people in the development group with which he would be working, as well as my boss, who was the Director of Communications. (Who had previously held my job. That was an issue in and of itself.) He snowed us all.

When I eventually decided that it simply would not work, I gave him an unusually long period of notice, something like 5 weeks, because I felt sorry for him, and referred him to several headhunters, none of whom he contacted. (At that point, I thought the problem was that the job was too technical for him, and he would be fine in a more appropriate setting.) He went to my boss to attempt to prove that he was being unjustly terminated. He told all of the other people in the department that I was firing him with no notice. Of course, I couldn’t say anything. After he left, I told my staff that he had had a remediation plan, that he had had plenty of notice, and that they need not fear that they would be fired abruptly!

My boss, who had started asking me how he was doing frequently weeks before I initiated the remediation plan, and pushed me to deal with him, subsequently claimed that this was a “personality problem” between me and him!!! She was a real piece of work.

This definitely taught me a lesson. I became much more sympathetic to the “You’re fired, security will escort you out” method of severance.

Ironically, it was one of my other staff members who subsequently pointed out to me that he was clearly an alcoholic, and that some of his issues–excessive absences, for example, often due to supposed household accidents–fit a pattern. Needless to say, Sleaze, Inc. did not have any kind of employee welfare plan to which I could have referred him.

142

If he’s drinking several times per day and comes back smelling “strongly” of alcohol, how is the smell dissipsting in 5 minutes? If you have a shot every couple of hours, shouldn’t both your BAC and the smell of alcohol increase as the day progresses?

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^The average person’s liver can process roughly one alcoholic drink every two hours. So if he only had one shot at a time, waited two hours between every drink, and never consumed more than a standard shot(1.5 ounces), you would expect his BAC to fluctuate around 0.03 for the day. If he was consuming more than one shot at a time or drinking more often than every two hours, you would expect his BAC and the smell to increase throughout the day.

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That’s why I would entertain the possibility that he is trying to maintain. Unfortunately, I strongly doubt that he wouldbe able to do so in the long run.

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Today most companies have an Employee Assistance Program. You usually can anonymously report an employee who you feel might have a problem. This might be one way to handle a situation like this.

Years ago my husband had a co-worker who “fell off the wagon” at a company function where alcohol was served… The company’s EAP took care of finding her help for her alcoholism and I believe she was put on a leave of absence (not sure paid or unpaid).

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From an article in HuffPost:

While EAP purchase is spreading, it is difficult to find any figures on really small companies. Companies like this are not required to provide even basic health insurance, but if they do, some plans tack on a “free” EAP which consists of a 24-hr phone line, and that’s it.

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Unless the drinking is impacting the employees job I tend to agree with others, that there isn’t much you can do. While the three martini lunch is mostly a thing of the past, unless they specifically say employees should not consume alcohol during the day as company policy, since alcohol is legal there isn’t much they could do. Usually when people operate heavy equipment companies have policy about alcohol on the job, though how much and where it is enforced depends (you would hope the high crane operators who do skyscrapers and such would be under such a policy), but in most cases from what I have seen it is pretty much if it doesn’t affect the job performance or is a safety/liability issue, they won’t do anything.

As far as the company being liable if he gets drunk then let’s say gets into an accident, that would only apply if he was drinking at an official company function. If the employee nips during the day and gets drunk like that, it would be very hard to claim liability on the company I would guess (not a lawyer, but have had a lot of management/HR training over the years), the company has no duty to police its employees like that. On the other hand if the firm has a party in house or hosted elsewhere and employee gets drunk and drives, they can be held liable from what we were told.

In the end, it more than likely will come down to job performance, if the guy can’t do the job for whatever reason, that will end up being the determinant.

148

The person who was drinking and driving and hit my dad was on her lunch break and driving back to work. He was on his way from the office to an on-site job.

She nearly killed my dad and shattered all of our lives. He didn’t know who I was and he is a shell of who he was before the accident, even over a decade later.

So forget liability, if you think he’s drinking and driving then lives could be at stake.

I don’t believe in MYOB when people are endangering others. If he is taking public transportation or is otherwise not driving, then whatever.

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First, how do you define drinking and driving? If it’s having a BAC over 0.08, a 175lb man could have two, maybe three regular beers over a hour lunch and still be under that. If you think that BAC threshold should be lowered, your time might be better spent trying to get the laws changed than your coworkers fired.

If I stop by any of the local bars, I bet 90% of drivers consumed some alcohol before leaving. If you see someone weaving all over the road, sure call the cops, but short of that I don’t view it as my job to be the self appointed civilian DUI police.

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It may not be your “job” but if you aren’t comfortable getting invol, then talk to the waiters, bartenders or managers at the restaurant. It is their job to intervene with customers who appear intoxicated.

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It is only an issue if the person is driving. I am in the MYOB camp.

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At the beginning of this thread, I was in the MYOB camp. And now after reading through the entire thread, I still am.

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Still not a scrap of evidence of actual drinking, but we now have envisioned our nefarious culprit mowing down innocents on the freeway.

I would be the first to say lock him up if indeed he is drinking and driving. Zero tolerance for DUI. I am pretty sure the MYOB camp isn’t advocating for a carefree tipple-and-cruise. Just some proof before our man is sent at high noon to some obtuse, avenging HR admin a la Cruella de Vil.

And @kiddie with all due respect (you have been helpful and generous to me on CC), anonymous reporting must be an absolute boon to the silently seething corporate Iagos of the world. The perfect mechanism for ressentiment.

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binky17
I have seen group behavior at work where one person with an aggressive/domineering personality “marks” or “targets” someone for whatever reason (maybe they see the new person as a threat to their job or whatever) they start pushing a narrative which is 100% bull---- and people start buying into it and some join into feeding the narrative…which further pushes the false narrative …until something gives. do some people drink at work?? sure. does that mean this is not a mass hysteria lead by a ringleader…I can not say. but as a fellow employee MYOB or you maybe the one who gets fired when it is all said and done.

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Is there any chance

  1. you just don’t like this person
  2. you think person is the wrong gender/race/sexual orientation for this job
    3)you don’t think this job should exist
    4)you wanted this job yourself

Finally are you sure that your work ethic is so above reproach that it could with stand any questioning along these lines? Because HR may very well think that is a possibility if you report it.

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michigangeorgia
points 1 and 4 are excellent points.

point 2 is not really relevant for self assessment but , I can almost bet you every penny I have that if you complain to HR about the person. that person will turnaround and claim you and or the company are using age,race,gender,sex orientation, religion or whatever else is in that basket that you do not share in common with them… and scare the company to move against you. this (not so secret) weapon is an effective tool . which again brings me back to the best advice MYOB!

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People, this is a very small office where “HR” is apparently a temp to hire. There isn’t some vast HR entity to either support anyone or maneuver anyone out.

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@fendrock

Any updates on the situation?

159

MYOB. Sounds like you have something against him.