Troubling personal situations can arise for anyone. How you decide to han- dle them can affect your work, your co-workers, and your prospects for career advancement in the future. Individuals who don’t handle these situations very well can affect the overall well-being and productivity of their workplace.
In a productive workplace, morale is high, relationships between co-workers are positive, and self-esteem is maintained.
When employees bring personal problems to work, these problems can affect the entire workplace. When employees abuse alcohol or drugs, have conflict in their marriage or family life, or have financial difficulties, their struggles (although not necessarily their fault) can create problems on the job. These problems do not always happen alone; many people experience combinations of them, sometimes because one problem triggers another.
Employees, managers, and entrepreneurs are all responsible for han- dling situations in their personal lives effectively. The problems addressed here are serious, but can be overcome with determination and effort. They do not need to diminish the productivity of any workplace, and they do not need to wreck people’s careers or lives!
Substance Abuse: Alcohol and Other Drugs
Substance abuse is one of the most common—and expensive—employee problems that companies face. Abuse of alcohol and other drugs together cost the American economy an estimated $276 billion per year in lost workdays and lowered productivity (mistakes on the job, incomplete work, tardiness).
Health-care costs also add to this amount (emergency room visits, treatment for overdoses, mental health problems, alcohol-related heart disease, stroke, or cancer). Crime-related costs, motor vehicle crashes, and early deaths also add to this amount. What does this mean at the individual level? Each of us pays out more than $1,000 each year for these damaging effects of other peo- ple’s substance abuse. 4 The rates for alcohol abuse are about the same as they
substance abuse The continued use of a psychoactive substance even though it is causing increasing problems.
REDUCED PRODUCTIVITY AT WORK
Even though you may do your best at a job, sometimes situations out of your control can affect your productivity, and it’s up to you to handle them successfully. When you had a situation that reduced your productivity at a task, what steps did you take to correct it?
What advice would you give to a friend with a similar situation?
Kathleen’s marriage was falling apart. It was easier to join co-workers at a local bar than go home at night and argue with her husband. At first she went to Happy Hour two times a month, but gradually this increased to four times per week. Her work performance began to drop, and she was no longer saving any of her paycheck. Her arguments with her husband became more serious: He accused her of abandoning their children and becoming an alcoholic. He threatened to take custody of the children, which caused her already low self-esteem to plummet further. As a result, she drank even more.
One night, just before leaving work, Kathleen contacted her company’s confidential employee assistance program and explained her situation. They gave her a consultation the next evening, during which they recommended fam- ily counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings.
Kathleen went home and talked to her husband. To her sur- prise, he was supportive and not only agreed to the counsel- ing, but also agreed to accompany her to her first few AA meetings. As Kathleen began to piece her life back together, she realized that she could have sought this help at any time;
it was there for anyone in her company who needed it.
Alcoholism is a chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors in its development and outcomes. This dis- ease is often progressive and fatal. About 10–20 million Americans are alcoholics.
About half of high school students say they drink. Alcohol is involved in about half of all murders and domestic violence incidents, about one-third of suicides, one-quarter of accidental deaths, and about half of all high- way deaths in the United States. In fact, the American Medical Association lists alcohol as the most dangerous and physically damaging of all psychoactive drugs. 7
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Treatment Options: The 12-Step Program
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) invented the 12-step program to help recovering alco- holics. Modified versions of the 12-step approach also work for drug addiction and various psychological problems.
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were 20 or more years ago, and they are continuing at about the same rate; rates for prescription and illicit drug abuse, on the other hand, have shown a steady pattern of increase. 5
Since at least 80 percent of heavy drinkers work, and 76 percent of people who abuse illegal drugs work part- or full-time, no business can consider itself immune to the problems of employee substance abuse. 6 These statistics can be overwhelming to digest.
Perhaps a more important point to remember is that everyone pays for these costs when tax dollars pay for government services such as highway safety, criminal justice services, and special education for babies dam- aged prenatally by drugs or alcohol. Everyone also pays more consumer dollars when the costs of goods and services increase due to reduced productivity.
Recognizing Alcohol Abuse in the Workplace
Who is likely to be an alcoholic? Alcoholics may be difficult to identify because they can be found in all occupational groups;
they can be any age, gender, race, or ethnic group.
Changes may arise in the person’s appearance (e.g., unsteady walking, or smelling of alcohol) or behavior (e.g., slurred speech, missing work, reduced produc- tivity, taking long breaks, irritability).
Employee Drug Abuse and Dependency
When people think of drug abuse, they usually think of illegal drugs such as cocaine or heroin. However,
legal drugs can also be abused, including prescription drugs such as tran- quilizers or pain-killers (for example, oxycodone or hydrocodone) and over-the-counter drugs, such as diet pills. Substances that aren’t normally thought of as drugs, such as nicotine and caffeine, can also be abused. Any substance that affects a person’s judgment, behavior, mental processes, mood, conscious experience, or perceptions is referred to as a psychoactive drug. What qualifies as drug abuse really depends on the user’s dependence on the drug and how the substance affects his or her behavior.
The Effects of Substance Abuse in the Workplace
Substance abuse is a very expensive employee problem for the employee with the problem, but also for everyone else. There is no way to quantify the loss to employee morale and group unity when employees are substance abusers, or when nonabusing employees work with substance abusers. Non-substance-
abusing employees may resent the abusing employee’s lost time or productivity, they may feel obligated to pick up the slack, or may even feel obligated to protect the substance-abusing co-worker from getting into trouble. Nonabusing employees may also feel less safe, especially if substance-abusing employees are operating machinery. A substance- abusing employee may also go into withdrawal at work, which can cause distress for everyone in the workplace.
Marital, Family, and Other Personal Problems
Employees often bring family difficulties to work, whether they are mar- ital conflicts, separation or divorce, difficulties with child care or elder care, or other family-related issues. These can reduce workplace pro- ductivity when employees miss work, have accidents at work, make poor decisions, pay poor attention to detail, have conflicts with co-workers, or relate poorly to customers. These effects along with lost productivity
Manuel noticed that his brightest junior accountant, Therese, seemed to be changing. She was late for work almost every day, she took long lunch breaks, and she was alienating her clients. In fact, one just called him to say that she showed up late for a meeting, and when she did show up, she was belligerent and her breath smelled of alcohol.
He called Therese into his office and repeated the client’s story to her. Therese denied it immediately, and said the odor was from mouthwash. Manuel genuinely cared for
Therese, and wanted to try to offer her some advice, but he knew that he was not a trained counselor and his efforts could backfire.
Instead, he reached into his desk and handed her a card. Therese read it; it was for the firm’s Employee Assis- tance Program (EAP). “It’s your choice, Therese,” he said levelly, “but your work performance is beginning to go below average, and I suggest you think about what needs to be done.”
FUNCTIONING ALCOHOLICS
Eighty percent of heavy drinkers work, and many are highly functional;
they perform well at their jobs and conceal their problem successfully.
When should an
employer intervene with an employee’s suspected alcoholism?
and increased turnover that occur in less productive workplaces can cost American businesses as much as $150 billion a year. 8
How can managers spot employees who are troubled by family conflict?
Some warning signs include excessive tardiness or absenteeism, unusual behavior such as crying or losing one’s temper, a decline in the quality of work or work performance, trouble concentrating, and a decline or change in appearance.
The end of a marriage or a relationship can lead to depression, with problems in sleeping (too much or too little) or eating (loss of appetite and weight), inability to work, and feelings of hopelessness. Even people who have been unhappy in their marriages and asked for the divorce or sepa- ration may still become depressed. Because it is considered more accept- able for women to openly express feelings such as depression, they are more likely to seek help for their problems, while men may feel too humiliated or embarrassed to do so. For men, the marriage may have been the major (or only) source of social support, and nationally, men are three times more likely than women to become depressed due to divorce. Family situations such as divorce may also lead to financial problems and to other problem behaviors, such as substance abuse. 9
Family violence , which can be defined as physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual violence against a family member, is another problem that spills over into the workplace. About one out of every four women is abused at some time in her life. 10 About 9 out of 10 victims are women abused by men. 11 Cur- rent estimates are that domestic violence costs American businesses up to
$10 billion a year in absenteeism, lower productivity, and health-care costs. 12 When costs for emergency shelters, police and court costs, foster care, and so on are added in, the costs to the American economy can more than dou- ble. 13 In addition, substance abuse may be linked to family violence and abuse problems. 14
Employees affected by family violence may also have conflicts with co- workers, and may become so preoccupied with their problems that their pro- ductivity suffers. To make it worse, the employee often feels too ashamed or embarrassed to admit the abuse or seek help. If the employee is the abuser,
family violence
Violence that can be defined as physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual against another family member.
Joe began taking a prescription sedative to relax from the pressures of his fast-paced career as an assistant district attorney. It worked very well—so well, in fact, that he requested a larger prescription and began taking it nightly.
Soon he found that he was running out of energy at work, getting sick more often, and not sleeping as soundly as before. He tried reducing the dosage and instantly felt withdrawal symptoms. Frightened, he called his doctor
for help. His doctor recommended a weeklong drug treat- ment program.
Joe almost laughed; he didn’t need a drug treatment program—he wasn’t a drug addict. Or was he? Slowly he realized that he needed the program, and he agreed to it.
It wasn’t easy taking the time off from work, especially on such short notice, but if he didn’t, he would end up even more dependent—and the results could eventually be fatal.
Tim, Viraj, and Sandra worked in the same department for five years as an interdependent team that created and distrib- uted important monthly reports for a large IT firm. Over the last year, Tim started showing signs of substance abuse. He came to work every Monday bragging about the heavy par- tying he had done all weekend. His previously near-perfect work was full of errors, such as running the wrong reports or including the wrong data. One night, after Tim had left 45 minutes early to meet some friends, Viraj and Sandra had to stay late and rerun reports Tim had done incorrectly.
“It’s not just that I’m getting tired of this,” Viraj said to Sandra. “It’s that he’s getting worse, and soon we won’t be able to cover for him even if we wanted to.”
“I know,” she admitted. “The supervisors have been noticing the change in him and asking me about it. I don’t feel good lying to them by glossing things over. This has to stop. Let’s talk to Tim tomorrow; if that doesn’t work, let’s talk to our supervisor.”
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence can occur between married or unmarried partners. Child abuse occurs in 30–60 percent of family violence cases. About one-third of female murder victims were killed by partners.
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he or she may be afraid to ask for help for fear of possible legal action. To add to the problem, co-workers may be fearful of violent acts occurring in the workplace because of the employee’s situation, either as a victim or as an abuser. 15
Financial Problems
Employees who are under severe financial pressure may experience diffi- culties, such as lowered productivity and increased
stress levels. Financial problems can also make the employee susceptible to stealing from the com- pany in some way (time or resources).
Financial pressures may be tied in with other problem behaviors as well, such as substance abuse, or even domestic violence. For example, stress from financial problems may cause an employee to start taking drugs, and the result- ing dependency can lead to financial problems because the employee needs more and more money to pay for the substance.
Some employee financial problems may transition into compulsive gambling . Compulsive gamblers are not the same as the 95 percent of the general population who occasionally play state lotteries, bet on football pools, or play bingo or the stock market; compulsive gamblers are unable to control their betting. They may also become depressed and have rela- tionship problems in their personal lives or at work. They may borrow huge amounts of money from friends and family, co-workers, or themselves (bor- rowing against credit cards, life insurance policies, their own home, or credit unions). By some estimates, as many as 5–10 million Americans, both male and female, are compulsive gamblers, 16 and their costs to the U.S. economy are enormous in terms of lost productivity, criminal acts, lost jobs, bank- ruptcy, bailout costs, and even suicide.
compulsive gambling The inability to control one’s betting habits.