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Alcohol and Drug Services of Gallatin County_____
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Tolerance, that's a good thing,
right?
© Jenna Caplette
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Tolerance, that's a good thing, right? |
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 resources 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 work with an employee as they are,
particularly in low level jobs with a high turnover rate.
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Tolerance can be defined as sympathy or indulgence, as in "putting up
with."
- It can be a personal attitude or feeling, or one carried by a group.
- It develops in response to a belief that taking action could cause pain,
discomfort, or anxiety.
- It presumes that tolerance is a guaranteed stress reducer.
It takes training to generate informed responses to issues related to employee
alcohol use. It takes a willingness to see beyond the stigma, to take policies
seriously, and to move into appropriate action. Too often with mental health or
substance abuse concerns we stigmatize, label, judge, reject, or ignore, neatly
distancing ourselves from a problem. The result according to Joel Bennett, Ph.D.,
the primary developer of
Team Awareness Training, is a "just get along" attitude,
which can add up to employee withdrawal or antagonism.
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Rather than reducing stress, tolerating a situation often increases it.
And, tolerant
employees are less likely to utilize services like Employee Assistance Programs.
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Responsive management works from a
stance of caring, a commitment to pro-active solutions.
Those solutions begin with the need to identify attitudes that workers have
toward alcohol, drugs, and other behavior problems. Next, it's important to
recognize and reduce risky levels of supervisor and coworker tolerance. Look for
enabling behaviors, for employees who take on the work of solving a coworker's
problems. You'll need to teach alternate responses, like encouraging someone to
use EAP services.
Managers need to know how to identify when alcohol and drugs have become a
problem. Warning signs include unsafe or inefficient work, and uncooperative or
withdrawn behavior. They need to reduce barriers (like stigma and tolerance) to
getting help. They need to consider the kinds of consequences in place for an
employee who is caught using.
When there is a workplace climate that supports discussion of problems, one of
caring, employees are more likely to own up to challenges that get in the way of
strong job performance. What can be effective is for employers to adopt early
intervention approaches for dealing with employee alcohol use. Managers and
supervisors should be given the knowledge and tools necessary to identify early
signs of use and to make proper referrals for them.
Like any other behavioral problem, or employee illness, it can or should be more
cost effective to retain an employee with a problem than to let that employee go
and have to rain a new employee.
Team Awareness Modules available for download from Organizational Wellness & Learning Systems.
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Alcohol and Drug Services of Gallatin County
(406) 586-5943
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Web-work© 2004-09. Webmaster: adsgc_org@hotmail.com
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