Alcohol and drug abuse by employees cause many expensive problems for business and industry such as lost productivity, injuries, and an increase in health insurance claims. As per official data, the United States has witnessed a loss of over 100 billion dollars every year due to alcohol and drug-related abuse by employees, says business astrologer and Astro strategist Hirav Shah.
Misuse of alcohol and drugs among U.S. workers create costly medical, social, and other problems that affect both employees and employers. Substance abuse among employees can threaten public safety, impair job performance and threaten their own safety, believes Hirav Shah and come up with the step by step procedure on the same.
Table of Contents
Problems caused by alcohol and drugs at the Workplace
Apart from productivity loss, alcohol and drug abuse can cause problems like sleeping/ Tardiness on the job, hangover and lack of effective job performance, lower morale of co-workers, increased likelihood of having trouble with co-workers/supervisors or tasks, preoccupation with obtaining and using substances while at work, interfering with attention and concentration and illegal activities at work including selling illicit drugs to other employees.
Measuring the Costs
However, costs to businesses can be measured at the expense of absenteeism, injuries, health insurance claims, loss of productivity, employee morale, theft, and fatalities. Some other problems at the workplace include problems including being less productive, using too many sick leaves, injure themselves or someone else and a worker’s compensation claim. According to a survey, drug users and heavy drinkers miss work because of a hangover and laziness. Contributing Factors Several factors can contribute to alcohol and drug misuse in the workplace. Reportedly, factors that can encourage or discourage workplace substance abuse include workplace culture and acceptance of misuse of substances, workplace alienation, excess availability of alcohol and drugs, existence and enforcement of workplace substance abuse policies. These staggering numbers do not include the cost of diverting company resources that could be used for other purposes, toward addressing substance abuse issues. Nor does it include the “pain and suffering” aspects, which cannot be measured in economic terms.
Prevention Works
When the issue of workplace substance abuse is addressed by establishing comprehensive programs and will be a “win-win” situation for both employers and employees. A study of the economic impact of substance abuse treatment says that alcohol and drug abuse will have significant improvements in job-related performances by decreasing absenteeism, mistakes in work and possibility in on-job injuries. Both companies and employers can adopt a workplace substance abuse policy that will reduce the loss of productivity and provide a safer work environment for all.
Conclusion
Alcohol and drug abuse at the workspace has been creating a big nuisance in western countries like the US. The drug and alcohol usage is having a significant impact on the concerned company’s overall productivity due to the behaviour of their employees which has been projected in-detailed above. To conclude, business astrologer and Astro strategist Hirav Shah believes that strict laws should be implemented at the workplace to restrict such kind of incident to not repeat by the firm owners.
