About 15 percent of U.S. workers said they either used alcohol at work
or were impaired on the job, according to research from the University of
Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions.

Alcohol use and impairment was more common among men than women,
among younger employees, and more prevalent among evening and night
shift workers.

Supervisor and coworker tolerance of alcohol and drug use, misuse, and
abuse can be an underground attitude that taints the health of your
workplace. Too often, business owners and human resource professionals
tolerate a problem as a way of coping with situations that for one reason
or another, no one wants to address.  Sometimes it just seems easier to
replace an employee, than to work with them for healthy change.  Or,
perhaps it may seem simpler to ignore the problem, hoping it will go
away. . . 

50 percent of businesses surveyed said they lacked the expertise to
detect an addiction problem in the workplace. In addition, 25 percent of
the respondents said they would be less likely to hire someone who is
recovering from an addiction.

"The disconnect in all of this is the fact that too many HR directors don't
know how to recognize the problem and access treatment," said William
Moyers, vice-president for external affairs at Hazelden, a Minneapolis-
based treatment center.

Do you have a policy in place? That's one of the first questions a trainer
who comes to teach your management team about intervening in
employee alcohol misuse and abuse will ask.

Employers can save $2 for every dollar they spend on screening
employees for alcohol problems and referring them to treatment,
according to a research group at the George Washington University
Medical Center.

Privacy concerns can prevent people from seeking help with a possible
alcohol problem, particularly in the workplace. But online alcohol
screening programs can ease these privacy worries, opening the door to
intervention and treatment and helping reduce healthcare costs for
employers.

Visit these other workplace-related links.

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