Discussion»Questions»Life and Society» When an employee returns to work after being intoxicated to the point of obnoxious, do you treat them differently when they return?
Honest to GOD? I am amazed. It has nothing to do with stupid and everything to do with a disease the poor sot has no tools in his toolbox to thwart when the boogymen come knocking on his brain pan.
There is nowhere to hide when the nerves start acting up and you must function anyway. It is quite daunting. I am rooting for a one-timer. A two-timer needs TREATMENT or firing. A three-timer is on his own because he has the tools to get better by now and he has to act on legal or employment orders that will force him to be a responsible professional or a street bum panhandler. The choice is often not obvious to the really sick and I pity them.
One may accidentally get drunk the first time. (not knowing your tolerance) That's usually not the case. Most people who get drunk the first time, do so on purpose. Which is stupid.
One has to be stupid to get drunk the second time.
That is because you are not one. May you never know someone you are close to, one that you love, one that is NOT stupid having this disease. It makes one act INSANE. Forget stupid. I mean if you knew a glass of milk could get you fired, would you drink it? No matter how good it felt to drink it? No one but an addict could even contemplate such a choice. No brainer. Yet, many non-stupids are addicts because they did not have the power to help themselves. I had a boyfriend in intenisive care for 6 weeks, I think. It was LONG. He had a heart attack and had to be monitored. He was young and vain. He swore he would NEVER drink again and he did not even get out of the hospital parking lot before he had a drink from a bottle in his trunk.
If you think he wanted to do that? You do not have the disease. I got him sober. I believe I was put in his life to help him with that. I showed him the way. He got himself sober. It was a LOT of freaking work for both of us.
You are a libertarian. Things are not just as you want them to ideally be. NOPE. There are the Buddhist Monks tracking footpirnts through your organized sand picture of what should be.
Yes. AT WORK. And he is a massage therapist working on clients who know him. He was so out of the box you could not really believe it because he is normally so calm and quiet. I guess this anxiety issue was churning inside. Scary. He must have over-medicated himself to calm down or something. He was all glassy-eyed and sweating. He was saying inappropriate things. He was confused and babbling. He was throwing up. All the major signs of someone totally out of control.
Then? He came back the next day the same way. The owners where there and threw him out with a written warning that he needs to sign a paper saying he is getting help. He is is not allowed into work in that condition ever. Or Termination. My owners are very humane that way. I would have fired him. To protect my clientele and my own reputation. But they saw it differently.
This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at May 25, 2019 4:08 AM MDT
Was there also the smell of alcohol on his breath or from his pores, even a hint of it? As a client, I would have immediately gone to management if I detected that and demanded that he be removed. (Not fired, but restricted from contact with clients.)
Maybe not so much sheltered as that my entire career has been in law firms where that sort of behavior is not tolerated for any length of time. I now recall that at one firm where I worked, one of the attorneys had a problem with some addition (not sure which) and the managing partner and some other senior attorneys offered to pay for his stint in rehab but that if he refused, he would be let go. He refused and was given notice to find another job.
What I do recall happening was the behavior of a co-worker at a Christmas party one year was so awful, and I was so embarrassed for her that I couldn't look at her without being reminded of her actions. It wasn't long after that she gave her notice.
I had a boss once who was always getting plastered. He came to work drunk on several occasions (and hungover more often than not). Getting drunk was something he did with some of the employees every friday after work - right there in the parking lot! Even so, I never treated him any differently (except to avoid going in the office when he was drunk).
I didn't even treat the employee who was selling heroin in the parking lot every night any differently.
Finally. A depiction of a normal work place. These people on here act like I am the weird duck who has these jobs with drunks here and there. OF COURSE. I have had all kinds of jobs. Office, factory, customer services, sales, law, you name it, there were drunks in those places. All of them. Sometimes it was even me. But that was a long time ago.
Walt O'Reagun 