A Boss Helps an Employee Address His Excessive and Abusive Drinking After a Ruined Relationship

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A Boss Helps an Employee Address His Excessive and Abusive Drinking After a Ruined Relationship

Posted by Rolf Joho on Feb 8, 2010

Russ got suspended from high school when he was sixteen years old and eventually got a job at a local Home Depot. For the past nine-and-a-half years he has gained a reputation as a diligent and hard-working individual who rarely calls off work because of sickness.

Approximately eight months ago he started going out with a young woman named Emma. They seemed to get along real well immediately and looked as if they had a lot of fun with one another.

The Hazardous and Abusive Drinking Begins

When Russ met Emma, he hardly ever drank. This circumstance changed when Emma and Russ began seeing each other on a fairly usual basis. Actually, everything was going great until Emma called Russ one night roughly 2 AM and said that she had to stop dating him and that she couldn’t tell him what was going on at that time.

The next morning before he went to work, Russ drove to her apartment and found out almost immediately that Emma had already moved out. Russ took this particularly hard. As a matter of fact, he was surprised because they seemed to be getting along so well.

When Irresponsible and Excessive Drinking Leads to Work Problems

So what did Russ do about Emma? Instead of working through his agony and pain, he started getting inebriated almost every night. It didn’t take long for his pals at work or for his boss to notice that Russ was coming to work late at least twice per week and that he time after time called off ill. Furthermore, some of his co-workers made an appointment with staff in Human Resources and mentioned that Russ time after time came to work with a strong odor of alcohol on his clothes or on his breath.

Russ’s boss heard about all of this from Human Resources and also from Russ’s fellow employees. So one Thursday afternoon he called Russ into his office. He told Russ that he had recently noticed a clear-cut change in his work performance, sick time, attendance, and in his behavior.

When a Supervison Can Encourage an Employee to Get Help For His or Her Hazardous and Excessive Drinking

Russ’s boss also said that a number of his co-workers reported him to Human Resources because he had been coming to work with a noticeable smell of alcohol. His boss then stated the following: “Russ, your fellow employees are not reporting you to HR to get you into trouble or because they don’t like you but rather because they care about you. And I care too. I don’t want to poke my nose into your life, but it is apparent that you are displaying some of the common signs and symptoms of problem drinking. As a result, I want you to go and see someone in the employee’s assistance program to discuss your drinking circumstance.”

“Russ, I’m no medical doctor or a therapist, but I have seen several of my relatives and friends experience some extremely bad alcohol side effects. Not only this but I have also seen the signs of alcoholism first-hand in my own family. When people suffer from problems with drinking, these problems not only affect the drinker, but they also make an impact on his or her co-workers, relatives, friends, neighbors, and family.”

Russ admired his supervisor very much and as a consequence followed through with his recommendation the very next day when he called and scheduled an appointment with a counselor in the employee’s assistance program.

Russ is Still Depressed But Experiences Some Hope That He Will Get His Life Back on Track

Although Russ didn’t automatically feel any better or less depressed about the loss of Emma, he felt some reassurance knowing that his boss and his fellow employees wanted what’s best for him and cared about him. This gave Russ some emotional relief for the first time in a number of weeks and he honestly felt some hope that he would get back on track with his life.