A Manager Helps a Worker Address His Depression and His Hazardous and Excessive Drinking After a Shattered Relationship
April 1, 2010 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
Russ got expelled from high school when he was seventeen years old and eventually got a job at a local aluminum processing plant. For the past seven years he has gained a reputation as a hard-working employee who almost never calls off work due to sickness.
Roughly three-and-a-half months ago he started going out with a young woman named Emma. They seemed to get along real well right away and gave people the impression that they had a lot of good times with one another.
The Excessive and Heavy Drinking Begins
When Russ met Emma, he hardly ever drank. This circumstance changed when Russ and Emma began seeing each other on a fairly constant basis. In actual fact, everything was going great until Emma called Russ one night roughly 2 AM and said that she had to stop dating him and that she couldn’t tell him the reasons for her decision at that moment.
The next morning before he went to work, Russ went to Emma’s apartment and found out that she had already moved out. Russ took this extremely hard. As a matter of fact, he was astonished because they seemed to be getting along so well.
When Abusive and Excessive Drinking Leads to Problems at Work
So what did Russ do? Rather than working through his pain and sorrow, he began getting drunk nearly every night. It didn’t take long for his fellow employees or for his supervisor to notice that Russ was coming to work late at least three times per week and that he over and over again called off sick. Moreover, some of the workers made an appointment with staff in Human Resources and mentioned that Russ continually came to work with a strong odor of alcohol on his breath or on his clothes.
Russ’s boss heard about all of this from Human Resources and also from Russ’s co-workers. So one Thursday afternoon he called Russ into his office. He told Russ that he had recently noticed a definite change in his attendance, work performance, sick time, and in his behavior.
When a Manager Can Motivate a Worker to Get Help For His or Her Excessive and Abusive Drinking
Russ’s boss also said that a number of his co-workers reported him to Human Resources because he had been coming to work with the strong odor of alcohol. His manager then stated the following: “Russ, your fellow employees are not reporting you to HR to get you into any trouble or because they don’t like you but instead because they are concerned about you. And I care too. I don’t want to meddle with your life outside this company, but it is apparent that you are exhibiting some of the well known symptoms and signs of problem drinking. As a consequence, I want you to go and see a counselor in the employee’s assistance program to discuss your drinking and your depression.”
“Russ, I’m no doctor or a psychologist, but I have seen more than a few of my relatives and friends go through some really negative alcohol side effects. Not only this but I have also seen the signs of alcoholism first-hand in my own family. When individuals experience problems with drinking, these problems not only affect the drinker, but they also make an impact on his or her family, friends, relatives, neighbors, and co-workers.”
Russ respected his manager very much and as a result followed through with his suggestion the next morning when he called and scheduled an appointment with a healthcare practitioner in the employee’s assistance program.
Russ is Still Depressed But Experiences Some Hope That He Will Get Back on Track With His Life
Although Russ didn’t necessarily feel any better or less depressed about the sadness he still feels for Emma, he felt some reassurance knowing that his supervisor and his fellow employees wanted what’s best for him and cared about him. This gave Russ some psychological relief for the first time in a number of weeks and he honestly felt some hope that he would get his life back on track.