When it comes to alcohol and drug abuse in the workplace, the first thing that comes to mind is an unfavourable image of a person with scruffy clothes, messy hair and poor personal hygiene. The last place we would expect to find addiction is in a professional industry, yet this assumption is incorrect. Such assumptions and stereotypes are not helpful and could actually prevent employers from effectively identifying addiction problems in the workplace, which might even lead to a negligence suit against that employer.
Instead, it should not be surprising that addiction could easily become a coping mechanism for professionals working in high stress environments. They are forced to cope in high stress environments and work long hours which when compounded, can result in an increase of substance abuse in the white collar sector of South Africa. While organisations like Narcotics Anonymous advise addicts to stay away from people, places and things that can negatively influence sobriety, this becomes difficult when employers are insisting on after work drinks at the office or employees are sharing medications or illegal substances throughout the corporate environment in order to cope with stress and deadlines.
As occupational health and safety regulations are progressively tightened, it will become necessary for all employers in this sector to re-evaluate their alcohol and drug policies to ensure that they meet the new Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) Act requirements. It is therefore important for companies to implement strict and effective testing and rehabilitation policies.
While addiction seems to be a dirty label and one that people would not think to apply to professionals, it’s important for the employer to bear in mind that addiction does not discriminate by race, class, colour or even profession. An addict is an everyday person that has fallen into an unfortunate state of addiction.
The main reason why testing is not carried out on professionals is because the misconception of an addict precludes them. While the majority of individuals might not be abusing substances, their employing companies should still run random drug testing programs to discourage substance abuse at work, and should test individuals that display tell-tale signs. Keeping an eye out for addiction means that an employer has to be on the look-out for a number of things.
Some of them could be a steady deterioration in the employees’ performance, regular and more frequent absenteeism, irregular mood swings and a general disregard for work and time lines.
The importance of drug testing in the corporate sector is the same as it would be for all high risk sectors: without testing there is no deterrent which will lead to rising levels of abuse, if left unchecked. Given the relative ease with which drugs can be obtained, and bearing in mind such a high demand working environment, it is clear that corporate sector is particularly vulnerable to addiction and it is for this reason that employers need to implement strict and effective testing and rehabilitation policies in order to reduce substance abuse in their workplace, reduce losses caused by absenteeism and reduce costs caused by accidents and legal claims because of personnel substance-abuse related liabilities.
[By Rhys Evans, Director of ALCO-Safe]
