A Thoughtful Manager Helps An Employee Address His Abusive Drinking After A Broken Relationship
Barry dropped out of high school when he was seventeen years old and eventually found employment at a local plastics factory. For the past three years he has earned a reputation as a hard-working individual who hardly ever takes off from work due to illness.
Approximately eight months ago he began going out with a lady named Carol. They appeared to hit it off immediately and looked like they had a lot of good times with one another.
When Barry met Carol, he rarely drank. This situation totally changed when Carol and Barry began seeing one another on a fairly constant basis. In point of fact, everything was going great until Carol without warning called Barry one night just about 2:30 AM and said that she had to call off their relationship and that she couldn't tell him what was going on at that time.
The next morning before he went to work, Barry drove to Carol's condo and found out right away that Carol had already moved out. Barry took this very hard. In reality, he was astonished because they appeared to be getting along so very well.
So what did Barry do? Rather than working through his sorrow and pain, he began getting inebriated almost every night. It didn't take very long for his pals at work and for his supervisor to see that Barry was coming to work late at least twice every week and that he over and over again called off ill. Not only this but some of his fellow employees made an appointment with staff in the HR Department and stated that Barry frequently came to work with a strong odor of alcohol on his clothes or on his breath.
Barry's boss heard about all of this from Human Resources and also from Barry's fellow employees. So one Wednesday morning he called Barry into his office. He told Barry that he had recently noticed an extreme change in his attendance, behavior, work performance, and in his sick time.
"Barry, I'm not an authority about alcohol facts and I'm not especially all that knowledgeable about alcoholism facts, but I have seen many of my friends and relatives experience some really painful difficulties due to their abusive drinking. My suggestion is that you take time and learn more facts about alcohol and what alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency can do to an individual."
"Why is this important? When individuals engage in irresponsible drinking, their drinking problems not only negatively affect the alcohol abuser, but they also negatively impact his or her family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and relatives. Barry, in short, I want you to get some help for your heavy and irresponsible drinking from our employee's assistance program."
Barry respected his boss quite a lot and as a consequence followed through with his suggestion the next morning when he called and made an appointment with a healthcare practitioner in the company's employee's assistance program. Even though Barry didn't necessarily feel any better or less depressed about the hurt he still has about Carol, he felt comfort knowing that his supervisor and his fellow employees cared about him and wanted what's best for him. This gave him some psychological relief for the first time in more than a few weeks and he actually experienced some hope that he would get back on track with his life.