Drugs in the Work Place
Drug use affects all parts of life and that most definitely includes the workplace.
For each individual, a job is vital not only for keeping busy and active, but for the means to live and support a family. For executives, having happy and productive staff is vital to keeping the company running and viable.
Drug use has an affect on all of these things. Often it comes from not liking your job, not feeling challenged or feeling bored. Alternately, or on the other side of the coin, it can be from stress, or an unpleasant boss or work environment.
The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence gives some statistics and findings on just how severe the effects of drugs are on the workplace. A couple of stronger examples are these:
- Workers with alcohol problems were 2.7 times more likely than workers without drinking problems to have injury-related absences.
- One-fifth of workers and managers across a wide range of industries and company sizes report that a co-worker’s on- or off-the-job drinking jeopardized their own productivity and safety.
The most common affects are not as severe as this. They often include showing up late, missing a high number of days of work and doing work slowly or with mistakes. This of course is often the precursor of worse things to come.
Often drugs or alcohol is used as a solution to stress at work or a way to relax on the weekend. Unfortunately, this doesn't usually stay on the weekend and it will start to impinge on the work days too. It can often lead to more drugs too. What started as pot to relax on the weekends, leads to cocaine to wake up during the week and so the vicious cycle goes.
