Substance Use and the Workplace Part Two: The Hangover Effect
Information for leaders
Substance abuse in the workplace concerns everyone: workers, leaders and managers, business owners, and taxpayers. It is hard to measure the actual costs of workplace substance use in Canada. Substance use, for example, can be challenging to link to things like lower productivity, absenteeism, and workplace accidents. But there’s a human and fiscal cost associated with workplace substance abuse, both direct and indirect, and the cost is substantial.
In 2002, annual productivity losses in Canada because of substance abuse were estimated at $11.8 billion, which included:
• $4.1 billion for alcohol
• $823.1 million for illegal drugs
This is the equivalent of 1.29% of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) that year, or $313 per Canadian. Productivity losses do not reflect the toll on lives or the health of employees.
Why the workplace?
The workplace, where most employees spend at least half of their time, affects our physical, mental, and social well-being in a significant way. It is well documented that the structure of the workplace can provide a support network that will encourage and promote healthy lifestyle practices at both the individual and organizational level. There are other key reasons why workplaces are an ideal setting to promote health:
• Workplaces have access to a large number of people on a regular basis and can provide ongoing support to employees.
• Workplaces have access to groups who may be hard to reach otherwise (e.g., minority groups and people who do not visit doctors and other health professionals regularly).
• Workplaces are convenient places for people to get information and support.
• Workplaces can provide the necessary supportive social environment. Reasons to invest in employee health Workplace health programming has substantial positive effects on an organization’s bottom line and the return on investment (ROI) can be significant.
A comprehensive approach to workplace health can help reduce an organization’s direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are those for which payments are made. These include health care costs (e.g., drug and hospital costs), insurance premiums, and recruitment and retention costs. Indirect costs are those for which resources are lost. These costs include productivity, absenteeism and presenteeism. The benefits of workplace health programming for employees include increased health knowledge, increased job satisfaction, physical benefits, reduced risk of depression, more energy, and less stress.
In addition to financial costs and productivity losses, which are substantial, substance use can affect the workplace in three ways: direct use, “hangover” effects and second-hand or indirect effects. Attention is often focused on preventing on-the-job use and the effects of direct use. The other two ways are often overlooked. It is essential to consider and deal with all three ways that the use of alcohol or other drugs can affect the workplace.
Direct use
Direct use is when an employee uses substances during working hours or shows up for work still under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. The consequences of using on the job can be severe, especially in jobs with high safety risks or where public safety is at stake. Employees using alcohol or other drugs on the job may have a substance use problem and need treatment. Or they may be occasional users making a poor decision. It’s also possible that a worker with an alcohol or other drug problem never shows up for work, obviously impaired, but their work performance is still affected. Research has shown that drinking any amount of alcohol immediately before or during the workday (including at lunch or company-sponsored events) is associated with work performance problems.
The hangover effect
The effects of a hangover from alcohol and other drug use contribute to many productivity problems in the workplace — problems that aren’t usually linked to substance use or brought to the employer or company’s attention. These effects include working slowly due to impairment or fatigue due to a hangover, making mistakes, arriving late for work, missing work because of illness related to alcohol or other drugs, and conflicts in the workplace resulting from irritability, stress and fatigue.
Second-hand or indirect effects
Second-hand or indirect effects are the adverse effects a worker’s use of substances has on his or her co-workers. We know people who do not use tobacco can suffer second-hand or indirect harm resulting from tobacco use in their environment. Alcohol and other drug use can also have second-hand or indirect effects, including workers reporting being injured or put in danger, or having to re-do work, cover for a co-worker, or work longer and harder because of a co-worker’s substance use. Current estimates of productivity costs related to substance use do not usually include these second-hand or indirect effects.
What you can do
As a leader, team member, or coworker, you have the responsibility of making sure that employees report for work and remain fit to perform their duties safely and effectively. However, you aren’t expected to do it alone. As a leader, you can take responsibility for initiating discussions or ensuring that training occurs so that all employees are clear about their responsibilities. You can also promote fitness for work by setting a good example and intervening when required.
Ultimately, a troubled employee is responsible for his or her change. Your role is to identify the impact on his or her performance and identify sources of assistance. You and your employees are partners in obtaining good work performance. In part one of our series, we listed a few example resources you can rely upon, like your policies and procedures manual, Employee Assistance Programs through your benefits provider, addiction treatment services (like those at Together We Can), and communication with senior management. `
Is someone fit for work?
It is not an employer’s responsibility to figure out why an employee’s behavior is unusual; instead, it is their job to determine if an employee is fit to perform his or her duties.
A fit-for-work approach is the best way to address an individual’s substance use from a judgment-free perspective. Some workplaces continue to concern themselves with what their employees are doing in their personal lives. If workers are using illegal drugs, they are often dealt with harshly. This approach puts workplaces and supervisors in the difficult position of judging individual values about right and wrong. With the fit-for-work approach, the employee’s fitness for work becomes the employer’s only concern, rather than trying to play detective or diagnose health concerns.
An unfit worker is removed from the work site because they are not fit for work, not because of judgments about the worker’s choices in his or her personal life. The situation is similar for cases of mental illness or other chronic conditions. Using the fit-for-work approach, the employer can help the employee get help and support the worker in the workplace rather than trying to make a medical diagnosis. The end result is that the employee receives support, and confidentiality is maintained.
This way of thinking makes it much easier for employers to intervene based on a worker’s inability to do their job in a healthy and safe manner. Diagnosing the cause is left to professionals, including physicians, counselors, occupational health nurses, employee assistance programs (EAP), or employee and family assistance programs (EFAP).
Part Three of our series will offer advice on how to approach a coworker, team member, or employee with your concerns in a non-confrontational manner to provide feedback, support, and suggestions on substance use.
Check out the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety website for some quick, easy to follow guidelines regarding fitness for work and answers to some commonly asked questions, such as “Why is an assessment done?” and “Can an employer really ask for this type of information?”
For more information
Together We Can Alcohol & Drug Recovery & Education Society offers information, education, and treatment services in the lower mainland, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Services include spousal and family support, workplace education, detoxification, outpatient counselling, opioid dependency programs, and residential treatment. Together We Can has counsellors and therapists with specific training in addiction issues. This allows us better to meet your employee’s and supervisors’ needs and respond readily to referrals from the business community.
For more information, please call 1–888–940–9854. For more workplace-specific resources, please visit: https://twcrecoverylife.org/workplace
