“Everybody's doing it.”…“This is the best way to manage the extreme work pressure I'm under to get the catalog out on deadline.”…“It gives me a huge burst of energy and enables me to close the sale of our million-dollar technology system.”…“I'm pretty shy and I just can't handle all of these association and user group social events without a little help.”…“I'm so tired and anxiety-ridden at the end of the day that I have trouble sleeping at night. It helps turn my brain off and gets me right to sleep.”
Each of these employees is potentially facing a career disaster that starts as a physical dependence and leads to addiction to or abuse of a substance that ultimately destroys a high-achieving career.
In an informal survey, direct marketing leaders noted that dealing with substance abuse in the workplace is one of the hardest management challenges they have to face.
Full-blown addiction is very difficult for a manager to detect until the employee's behavior is so egregious that it's simply hard to miss. Professionals themselves are generally in denial about what is happening to them.
For example:
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One top-ranking sales director in the Midwest believes it is the outside pressure of making numbers that is forcing him to place an abnormal importance on the substance.
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A creative director on the East Coast continually denies that she is obsessed with obtaining and using the drug that has helped her get through long work days and her lack of a social life.
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An information technology manager experiences a recurring need for increased amounts of alcohol to achieve the numbed-out feeling that helps him face up to the numerous important social activities he no longer can attend without the support of his cocktail.
Eileen was the head of marketing research for a financial services company. She suffered from chronic headaches and serious backaches. She had worked hard all her life to achieve the degree of success she had at the height of her career. With the downturn in the economy, she was under continuous pressure at work to meet goals. She had always been the type of person who put herself last.
Eileen worked long hours and often came in to work on weekends. At times she would work for 21 days straight with stabbing pain in her back. When the doctor pointed to her work style as a contributor to her condition, she listened halfheartedly about the types of changes he was recommending she make in her work habits. She really just wanted to get the pain medication so that she could keep up her workaholic pace.
She was pleasantly surprised when she found that the medication actually helped her relax her body and give her temporary relief from depression and mental and emotional tension while it augmented her energy and drive. She was right back in the game and producing research that was getting her noticed.
This solution was working.
When Eileen's back pain was gone, she continued to take the medication for the bonus side effects it provided. She began fabricating pain to her physician and set out to find other physicians from whom she could get prescriptions.
Eileen then started to call in for refills early and to report prescriptions that had supposedly been lost or stolen. At work she began demonstrating a total change in personality. She was, at times, confused or unable to remember the contents of important meetings. Her moods began to swing from depression to irritability.
One day, following an uncontrolled angry outburst at one of her direct reports, Eileen picked up a paperweight and threw it at him.
No one quite knew what to do with her. Eventually, people increasingly made efforts to avoid working with her. She found herself isolated and quietly “retired” early. A short time afterward, she lost connection with her colleagues and coworkers.
Substance abuse devastates the lives of those caught in its addictive web. Substance abusers are absent from work three times more often than non-addicted employees. They are 25% to 30% less productive than employees who do not abuse drugs. And substance abusers use one-and-a-half to two times more medical benefits than non-abusers.
Some drug use is blatant and out in the open and yet it's ignored.
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One copywriter bought pot from a data analyst in his company. The analyst often delivered the weed via interoffice mail. Then they would meet in the men's room and sample it.
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A San Francisco IT manager would frequently call a drug hotline and have cocaine delivered to the office. He would even do a few lines at his desk.
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A business-to-business company event planner used every opportunity to take clients out for drinks. His habit escalated to his own version of the three-martini lunch with or without clients present. Most afternoons people steered clear of the bizarre personality that would emerge after these lunch breaks.
Why is such blatantly destructive behavior tolerated? Some bosses choose to look the other way and never confront the employee.
One high-producing sales manager and recovering drug addict said, “I was making too much money for him to say anything.” Some managers are fearful that a big-moneymaker alcoholic might get angry and quit if he or she were confronted.
There are, of course, many avenues of help available today — doctors, therapists, clergy, drug abuse hotlines, 12-step recovery programs, employee assistance programs, and rehabilitation centers are only a few.
Facing the fact that this is a reality in the workplace is a first step. Denial, rationalization, minimization and justification are the big four stumbling blocks to employees and employers facing the severity of substance abuse.
The truth is it's a really big deal.
CONNIE LaMOTTA is president of Workplace Strategies Associates, a business coaching consultancy in Upper Nyack, NY.
