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.

• A good policy is a written one.
• It's a set of rules and guidelines that govern and manage workplace behavior.
• It tells employees what the potential problems are of substance abuse, how to
  avoid those, how to get help, and what the consequences are if you ignore or
  defy policy.
• It may define what reasonable behavior is or is not.

When looking at your workplace's policies, Joel Bennett, Ph.D., the primary developer of Team Awareness Training, suggests you ask these questions

• Do you follow the policy by the book?
• Do you bend rules?
• Do you adapt rules to accommodate the situation, find other ways to do things?
• How well do your managers know your policy? (How about your employees?)
• Do you view policy as your guide and safeguard or more as a necessary evil?
The important distinction is that between what is written, and what exists as
informal policy. An informal policy would be the choice to vary policy enforcement
depending on how inconvenient it will be for management to intervene in an
employee's behavior. Does a manager change work hours to accommodate an
employee too hung over to arrive at 8 am, putting them on a shift that begins at
noon? Do they ignore that someone is stoned on the job because they still get the
job done, though slowly?

The Risks and Strengths Game, available through Team Awareness Training, works to give managers an experience of the impact of choices about enforcing policy.

According to Bennett's work, a negative cycle occurs with the presence of more risk factors than protective factors. For instance, employee attendance is low due to alcohol use. Coworkers enable or neutralize that behavior, and the problem continues, or accelerates. Or, employees fail to speak up, wanting to avoid conflict, and stigmatizing or denying that a problem exists.

The bottom line? Bennett says when employees do not see policy as meaningful, or group norms run counter to policy as formally written, those add up to a significant problem. Programs like Team Awareness Training helps managers and workers to view policy as a meaningful and useful guide for getting workers help before they have to be disciplined or terminated.

Now, ask if your mangers have been trained in your policy, and are on board and supportive of it; have they been trained in how to recognize signs of substance misuse and abuse? Do they know the distinction between those, or do they measure those by their own use standards? Do they know how to bring these concerns to the employees, and set him/her up to get the help they need?

A great place to begin is to have your managers try the free, quick and private alcohol screening tool to learn about their own relationship with alcohol use. Then visit our workplace resource page.

Top of Page
Web-work© 2004-09.  Webmaster:  adsgc_org@hotmail.com