Confronting eople with addiction problems in work should be done "gently, gently, gently", a counsellor said at a seminar on "Addiction in the Workplace" yesterday.
Mr Jimmy McCabe, the founding president of the Association of Welfare and Employee Assistance Counsellors, said that addiction often showed up last in the workplace because addicts needed money, power and respect. "That is why we see the house may be gone, the yacht may be gone, the family may be gone. But he or she is holding onto the job."
He was speaking on "Enabling - How addiction shows up last in the Workplace".
Quoting Alcoholics Anonymous, Mr McCabe said an enabler was someone who reacts in such a way "as to shield the alcoholic from the full impact of the harmful consequences of his behaviour".
Enabling could occur at work through colleagues covering up for the addict or through a fear of confrontation by management. But a confrontation at work should only occur if work or relations with colleagues were affected. "The first stop is the coffee talk," he said.
Addiction embraced many of the "pleasures and dangers" of modern living. Alcohol, prescription and illegal drugs, food, sex, gambling, money, power, shopping, the Internet and TV were all possible addiction sources. The decline of an employee's performance represented a negative return on investment.
"No matter how good an employee is, when the employee becomes addicted, the addiction becomes the focal and central point of existence." Workplace addiction contributed to illness, loss in production and sales, customer and supplier dissatisfaction, missed deadlines, absenteeism, and "presenteeism", where employees felt under pressure to remain at work beyond normal working hours.
Dependability, responsibility, pride, ambition and camaraderie could all fall victim to the addict's obsession, he said, and the organisation's responsibility included giving employees a chance before they were fired.
"Nowadays people go for referral, assessment and rehabilitation, rather than the old days of denunciation and dismissal," he said.
Mr Rolande Anderson, the assistant director at the addiction treatment institution the Rutland Centre, which organised the conference, said the vast majority of alcohol or drug-dependent individuals were employed and that companies with high numbers of young employees may need to be particularly vigilant. He said companies should have a policy document on addiction, which should include the assurance to employees of the offer of help, the right to absence from work for treatment regarded in the same way as other absences and the right to have a friend or trade union representative present at any discussions.
Ms Maura Harte, occupational health manager at Ericsson Ireland, told delegates that establishing Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) was cost-effective as a performance management measure, but their success depended on how professionally the policy was carried out. An EAP offered assistance to employees experiencing either personal or work problems.
"The policy has to be written, confidential, agreed between unions and management, and it has to be accepted by all, across the board, in the organisation."
The Institute of Personnel and Development in Britain has reported an increase in the incidence of businesses reporting drink and drugs cases among staff in a survey of 1,800 people working in companies.
According to the institute, 46 of the firms questioned had received reports of alcohol misuse among employees over the past year, compared to 35 per cent in 1996, while reports of drug-taking increased by three percentage points to 18 per cent.