How Addiction Impacts the Workplace

American businesses lose at least 500 million man-hours each year because of decreased productivity due to alcohol problems suffered by their employees. Helping employees get treatment can save companies money in the short-term and the long-term.

The old adage that a person who is dealing with drug or alcohol problems cannot hold down a steady job isn’t always the case. Millions of Americans who are struggling with drug and alcohol problems also have full-time jobs. This doesn’t mean that their addictions aren’t impacting their lives: a recent study suggests that more than 500 million man-hours are lost each year in America just to the effects of alcohol addiction on workers’ productivity.

It’s almost inevitable that people who are alcoholics or have a serious drug addiction eventually bring their addictions into the workplace. People with addictions have a constant need to stimulate their brains in order to achieve the “high” that comes from using drugs or alcohol. While they might be able to separate their work lives from their personal lives for some time, eventually it’s likely that they will not be able to go eight hours or longer before their brains need the “fix” that an illicit substance can provide.

Having a person with a drug or alcohol problem in the workplace can impact productivity and morale. Depending on the type of work environment (construction sites, assembly lines, hospitals), it can also cause a potentially dangerous situation to the worker and other innocent victims. However, people who are desperate need of admittance into an addiction treatment program often don’t receive the encouragement or intervention from their work environment.

In some cases, this happens because co-workers want to stay out of a person’s “personal life.” They might not want to be seen as being nosy or getting involved where they don’t belong. In other cases, a co-worker might avoid suggesting to a supervisor that someone needs to go into drug rehab because they don’t want to be seen as a “snitch” or create a tense work environment.

Some employers might find it easier to invent reasons to fire a worker dealing with drug or alcohol addiction rather than steer them toward addiction treatment. However, this approach flies in the face of recent studies which suggest that the cost of sending an employee to treatment is often much less than having to fire them and hire a new person to do their job. Companies which have a policy of sending their workers to a rehab center and encouraging treatment will also see other financial benefits such as reductions in the health insurance costs.