By Dr Dale Masi

Substance abuse is an expensive and overwhelming issue for the workplace. Substance abuse is the most non-discriminating of workplace issues, greatly affecting all small businesses and large corporations, from CEOs to those working on the factory floor. The substance abusing employee’s problems penetrate all aspects of business, including measurable as well as hidden losses. This article will describe some of these costs and then present the ways enlightened employers are dealing with the problem, especially through employee assistance programmes and training supervisors in how to refer employees to the program to get them help.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report (2007) gives the following interesting statistics:

n 200 million people use illegal drugs every year globally

n 158.8 million global annual consumers for cannabis

n 15.6 million global annual consumers for opiates.

n 14.3 million global annual consumers for cocaine

n For most of Europe and Asia, opiates continue to be the main problem drug.

n In South America, drug-related treatment demand continued to be mainly linked to the abuse of cocaine

n In Africa, the bulk of treatment demand continues to be linked to cannabis

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Alcohol Status Report (2004) states:

n Alcohol and drug abuse costs the United States over US$276,300,000,000 each year in productivity alone

n 77.4 per cent of heavy alcohol users in the US are full-time employees

n 69.3 per cent of current illicit drug users in the US are full-time employees

Tragic and irreparable damage can occur as a result of on-the-job use of illegal drugs or alcohol, as the 1997 death of Princess Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed illustrates.

Henry Paul assistant security director of the Ritz Hotel, was found to be driving under the influence of alcohol and illegal drugs, with a blood alcohol content of three times the legal limit, while transporting Princess Di and Dodi Fayed.

Measuring the costs

The workplace costs of substance abuse can be measured in the expense of absenteeism, injuries, health insurance claims, loss of productivity, employee morale, theft and fatalities. According to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) Statistics, alcohol and illegal drug users are:

n five times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim

n three times more likely to be late for work

n three times more likely to take sick days

n 2.5 times more likely to use medical benefits

n 1/3 less productive

n Are more likely to injure themselves or someone else

n nine per cent of heavy drinkers and ten per cent of illegal drug users had missed work because of a hangover

n six per cent had gone to work high or drunk in the past year,

n 11 per cent of heavy drinkers and 18 percent of illegal drug users had skipped work in the past month

This does not include the many hidden losses, which are difficult to measure. It is, therefore, incumbent upon supervisors and managers to be trained in understanding the nature of substance abuse, what the early signs are and how to refer employees for appropriate help.

Many countries are now declaring substance abuse to be a health issue and insisting that the employer pay for treatment. Canada, under its Canadian Human Rights Law, says that the workplace must provide treatment. Brazil’s Supreme Court considers drug addiction to be a disease; one cannot, therefore, fire an employee because of an addiction. The United States’ Americans with Disabilities Act states that alcohol addiction and prescription drug addiction must be treated as disabilities.

There exist objective criteria to identify and assess whether or not an employee is abusing a substance and is a risk to himself, fellow employees and the organisation. The training for managers and supervisors on this criteria is important and should include understanding of the stages of addiction, as well as what the signs are of a troubled employee. These include attendance problems, performance issues, behavioural cues and physical signs.

Other signs can include marked personality changes, decrease in maintenance of appearance and personal hygiene, decrease in social activities, increased hostility, increased hypersensitivity, and conflict and arguments with co-workers.

Supervisors should also be trained in how to refer an employee to the Employee Managerial Assistance Programme (EMAP) such as the one offered by the Lok Jack Graduate School of Business as this is a crucial link in assisting managers and supervisors to identify and refer these troubled employees.

Employee assistance programmes (EAPs) started in the early 1940s in the US as Occupational Alcoholism Programmes when recovering alcoholics began asking their employers to allow them to start programmes because they knew there were so many other addicted persons in their workplaces.

As the programmes developed, it became clear that employees had other addictions such as legal, financial and family issues. Thus, the employee assistance concept was born.

Today, assistance programmes are on every continent worldwide. They continue to address the problems of addiction as they relate to the workplace. They have pioneered in establishing drug-free workplaces, including the development of drug testing programmes.

The EAPs continue to be the leaders in assisting workplaces with establishing policies, trainings, and counseling for employees as well as family members with problems. With the introduction of EMAP services in T&T, domestic businesses have access to critical tools for creating safer and healthier workplaces and lifting employee productivity.

Business leaders, managers and supervisors, therefore, can no longer side-step the challenge of workplace substance abuse.

Dale Masi, PhD, is an EMAP adviser at the

Arthur Lok Graduate School of Business. She will be in Trinidad on March 3, to deliver the workshop “Substance Abuse Detection & Early Intervention in the Workplace.” For further information contact 645-6700 ext 115/ 116 or log on to www.gsb.tt.