Although heavy drinkers and alcoholics (approximately 11 percent of drinkers) experience more hangovers and contribute to more financial loss, hung-over workers are more likely to be light to moderate drinkers because there are more of them.
All drinkers will occasionally over-use booze. In fact, this is precisely how all social drinkers know when to quit--they've experienced the toxic effects of drinking too much. Ouch. Alcoholic however lose control over their drinking, which means the time, place, amount of consumption, and what happens to them if they drink.
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| CLICK THE LINK TO JUMP TO THE SUPERVISOR TRAINING HANDOUT ON WORKPLACE SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND THE PROGRESSION OF SYMPTOMS YOU WILL SEE IN THE WORKPLACE. |
Don't think that a hung-over employee is more likely to be an alcoholic or is a troubled employee automatically. The key is a pattern of problems.
Alcoholics do have hangovers, but social drinkers do too. A hangover means you drank too much, or at least enough to feel the affects of acetaldehyde - a metabolite of digested alcoholism and a toxic substance. Most people return to this nasty experience with long periods of avoidance in between. Alcoholics not so much. They have more frequent hangovers.
Some people can get a hangover from just a couple of drinks. Coming to work with a hangover can pose substantial risk to yourself and others even if you have a zero blood-alcohol level. So here's is a bit of advice.
Take a look at this chart above ( click to see the supervisor training handout -- or click here ) to get the supervisor training handout. Give it to your supervisors. Yes, it is $17, but it is also reproducible forever. I call it supervisor training for substance abuse on one sheet of a paper.
Use your company's EAP and refer employees with patterns of problems before crises begin.Document efficiently. The handout will help train supervisors because it has the right signs and symptoms it that can be relied upon for documentation.
Check out -- see it all -- our 14 Vital Skills for Supervisors--our supervisor training and skills program is used world-wide.
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