A Boss Helps an Employee Address His Depression and His Irresponsible Drinking After a Shattered Relationship
Russ dropped out of high school when he was fifteen years old and eventually found employment at a local tire manufacturer. For the last eleven years he has gained a reputation as a conscientious and hard-working individual who hardly ever calls off work due to sickness.
Nearly five months ago he started dating a lady named Emma. They seemed to hit it off immediately and looked as if they had a lot of fun together.
The Heavy Drinking Begins
When Russ met Emma, he almost never drank. This situation totally changed when Russ and Emma began dating on a fairly normal basis. If truth be told, everything was going great until Emma called Russ one night around 4 AM and said that she had to breakup and that she couldn’t tell him what was going on at that time.
The next morning before he went to work, Russ drove to Emma’s apartment and found out in an instant that Emma had already moved out. Russ took this exceedingly hard. In reality, he was bewildered because they appeared to be getting along so well.
When Heavy Drinking Leads to Work Problems
So what did Russ do? Instead of working through his grief and anguish, he began getting drunk nearly every night. It didn’t take long for his coworkers or for his supervisor to notice that Russ was coming to work late at least once per week and that he often called off ill. What is more, some of his co-workers made an appointment with staff in Human Resources Department and mentioned that Russ repeatedly came to work with a noticeable smell of alcohol on his clothes or on his breath.
Russ’s supervisor heard about all of this from Human Resources and also from Russ’s co-workers. So one Wednesday afternoon he called Russ into his office. He told Russ that he had recently noticed a profound change in his sick time, work performance, attendance, and in his behavior.
When a Supervison Can Encourage a Worker to Get Help For His or Her Abusive and Excessive Drinking
Russ’s manager also mentioned that a number of his co-workers reported him to Human Resources because he had been coming to work with the strong smell of alcohol. His supervisor then stated the following: “Russ, your fellow employees are not reporting you to the HR Department to get you into any trouble or because they don’t like you but instead because they are concerned about you. And I am concerned too. I don’t want to pry into your affairs, but it seems very clear that you are displaying some of the obvious signs and symptoms of alcohol abuse. Consequently, I want you to go and see someone in the employee’s assistance program to discuss your drinking situation and your depression.”
“Russ, I’m no doctor or a therapist, but I have seen many of my friends and relatives suffer through some extremely negative alcohol side effects. Furthermore, I have also seen the signs of alcoholism first-hand in my own family. When individuals suffer from problems with drinking, these difficulties not only affect the drinker, but they also make an impact on his or her relatives, neighbors, friends, co-workers, and family.”
Russ respected his supervisor quite a lot and as a consequence followed through with his suggestion the very next day 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 His Life Back on Track
Even though Russ didn’t necessarily feel any better or less depressed about the loss of Emma, he felt some reassurance knowing that his boss and his co-workers wanted what’s best for him and cared about him. This gave him some emotional relief for the first time in more than a few weeks and he frankly felt some hope that he would get his life back on track.
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