Alcohol Abuse in the Work Place

There are individuals suffering from too much stress or worry that would resort to drinking alcoholic beverages to calm their nerves . There is a feeling of relaxation upon taking alcoholic drinks and this is true with moderate amount of intake.

Excessive drinking by employees will cause hangovers, a real  pain in the workplace. Heavy drinkers employees is an expensive problem for many business  and industries worldwide brought by their absenteeism. The losses includes productivity, injuries and additional claims on health insurance.

The moderate amount of alcoholic  drinks like a  single or two glasses  of wine, a shot of vodka, beer, whiskey or  whatever drinks with alcohol can relax an employee after work but the excess intake maybe a defense against  life problem. Alcoholic abuse become an issue and a serious one in the workplace.
When an employee was  hooked into alcoholic drinks, he cannot face the day without alcoholic drink even early in the morning, cannot attend  a social or professional meeting, conceal how many bottles he drank or in denial about his drinking. The cycle  of excessive  alcoholic drinking  will continue  that will  lead  to job  loss, financial worries, loneliness, divorce and may even jeopardized  a marriage relationship (Bartholomew 89).
Many of the excessive alcohol drinkers doesn’t realize that  their vicious cycle of  drinking can create a feeling of depression And  they can only overcome the feeling by  drinking and drinking until there is a feeling  of numbness. Further depression leads to  increase intake of alcoholic drinks.
Alcoholic  abuse at workplace  will be explored and analyzed to understand the reasons, symptoms  and possible plan of actions to correct and prevent excessive  drinking. This study  will be of significance to many individuals who are currently hooked with alcoholisms, students of social sciences, families and relatives of alcoholic drinkers and the entire society.
Discussion
Every individual have a choice if they  want to have  alcoholic addiction. Alcoholic abuse in the workplace  does not only harm  the excessive drinker but  threatens  the company  and co-employees safety , affects  their job  performance and result to great loss in productivity (Lehman 88).
The immediate superior and co-workers  of alcoholic employee are into an awkward  position to decide whether to report their  alcoholism or to cover up their mistakes. There  are circumstances that  employees does not drink at  the  workplace but  prior to work reporting  were  already  equipped  with full tank of alcoholic drinks inside his body, this will  definitely affect  the  individual’s job performance, prone to accident and became less productive. The workload are not accomplished on time and other employees are affected by work backlogs.
There are many signs and symptoms that an employee is into alcoholism while at workplace such as unexplained, prolonged and frequent absences, prone to accidents while out or in at work, reduced productivity, overreactions to criticisms, suspicious of other workers, erratic work patterns, hard to conceal hangovers  in the  morning, indifference with  personal hygiene, exhausted easily, slurred speech and   unsteady walking. The signs of physical deterioration and loss in productivity are prominent. There are circumstances that  other co-workers who covered up the alcoholic drinkers, lend them money  and  patched their work load (Bartholomew 89).
This instance will not be of help to alcoholic drinker at the workplace for they have all the chance to continue their bad habits of drinking. Other co-workers will attempt to handle the situation of alcoholic employee and will not seek assistance or advice from qualified personnel of the company.
This act of co-worker is not enough to correct the alcoholics from their vices and it is advisable to report their co-worker (Shinderman 65).. The threat  of losing his job is present but it may be the other way around, he may intend to seek help from qualified personnel and correct the wrongdoings.
The employers of alcoholic drinkers have much larger problems than their afflicted employee and it is detrimental to the company’s productivity. Absenteeism for employees under the influence of alcohols have higher percentage than other employees, prone to claim more sickness benefits and account that intoxicated people are  more prone to  accidents at workplace.
The incident of alcoholism was not limited to lower level workers but even those employees in rank positions are prone to alcoholism (Lehman 86). Taking steps  in assisting the alcoholic drinkers at workplace is significant in preventing their addiction to  alcohol and possible remedial action that would not only beneficial to the employee but as  well as  to their co-workers and families. The workplace is one of the community’s vital component in changing the attitudes of alcoholic abuse victims towards an intoxicated consumption of alcoholic drinks (Bartholomew 91).
Paying  close attention to  alcohol abusive employees  of  the company is an approach to warn the alcoholics that a company can enforce action against  alcohol abuse. Interventions by  employers such as  talking  directly to  alcohol  intoxicated  employee and informing them of possible  actions for their  misdeeds can improve the rate of recovering from alcoholism. Alcoholism can be  regarded as a health issue  but at  the same time is an integrity issue in the corporate world. By helping an alcoholic employee at workplace is a plan to restore the confidence of the company and the employee himself.
Creating positive changes in workplace will only happen with alcohol-free policies, programs and possible consequences at workplace. Improving the worker’s environment will provide benefit to every one at in the workplace (Lehman 89).
A clear message that employee’s alcoholism is not only his problem but the entire company’s problem and working together to solve alcoholic abuse will be one of the best course of actions.
Various conditions and situations accompanied alcohol abuse, an example is an alcoholic employee with mood swings and depression  and its can be observed when he is having difficulty to focus on his work and meet  their schedules. Outburst of temper, restlessness, poor attention to details, impatience, tolerance to boredom, disorganized thoughts and working table, impaired concentration, procrastination, inability for relaxation and no follow through are symptoms that an employee is into alcoholism.
Alcohol abuse is a kind of psychological disorder with an individual’s difficulty to control the excessive intake of alcohol with recurrent negative outcomes. The amount and frequency of alcohol intake may differ from one individual to another but the pre-occupation with alcohol with negative effects matters.
The urbanization of a society explain the theory that alcohol has been discovered and utilized as replacement for unclean water reservoir  and it is not surprising that there are individuals with high alcohol tolerance (Bartholomew 94).
The range of alcohol abuse damage  the different aspects of an individual life and possibly others. The overabundance of alcohol will have an impact on the physical aspect of an employee such as cirrhosis of the liver, alcohol dementia, heart disease, sexual dysfunction and even death. In social aspect, the impact of alcohol abuse includes jeopardy in marriage, divorce and anti-social behavior because of alienated consideration by the society.
In terms of economic, there is a possibility of losing one’s employment, poor judgment, incapacity to pay the living quarters and financial difficulties. Alcohol abuse may also have legal consequences when an individual was charges for public disorders or driving under the influence of liquor (Lehman 85).
The emotional consequences of alcohol abuse will damage the relationship to their children when father or head of the family is the alcoholic, chance for verbal abuse to his coworkers and family members and lose of one’s self respect.