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Most employers not only feel a moral responsibility to their employee’s well-being, but will also go the extra mile for them when they have problems. Thus often because of extra special abilities, personal ties or fondness, the employer will keep on a member of staff much longer than is prudent in spite of evident work impairment.

The result is that the employee will continue promising to pull up their socks until finally having bent over backwards to accommodate them, the frustrated employee has no recourse but to dismiss them.

Yet a majority of these employees will have a drink or drug problem, either through personal use or else through being married to, living with or having children who are undergoing these problems. Work impairment is ultimately the result.

What is needed therefore is to replace genuine and sincere but misguided attempts to help this employee which usually result in failure with a true understanding of the nature of alcohol and other drug use and abuse. Once employees really understand for example what really ails an alcoholic then they can better understand what actions to profitably take to salvage him or her.

However in order for an employer to really help their staff, they have to disregard their own alcohol consumption (or lack of therein) as well as any other preconceived ideas or prejudice they might hold as far as alcohol use is concerned.

This is because there rises in most humans who unaware of the existence of the disease of alcoholism or addiction a natural annoyance that men and women can be so ‘weak, stupid and irresponsible’.

The problem of alcohol and other drug use on the reduced performance, morale and productivity of any organizations staff is well documented and indisputable in western and other developed countries.

However in many developing nations Kenya included the problem of alcohol abuse or alcoholism is yet to be understood let alone talked about nor indeed the use of other drugs. The stigma and shame attached to alcoholism and the use of other drugs is so great that most Kenyans prefer not to talk about it but rather to keep quiet hoping that it will miraculously go away.

Yet chemical use cuts through all Kenyan institutions from the home through to government and private organizations. There is a very real and high cost to doing nothing. Substance abuse problems and addiction are not only close to home but close to the workplace. The abuse of alcohol and drugs has a huge negative impact on our nation’s businesses – both large and small. The sheer financial cost to business is staggering. There are very good humanitarian reasons for addressing the problem – but the business reasons are compelling as well.

No accurate figures for Kenya exist at the moment but cross cultural surveys applied in South Africa estimate that at least 10 percent of the workforce has a chemical dependency problem. It is thought that these workers function at 2/3rds. Of what is considered to be normal productivity. Said differently – one third of productivity that businesses pay for is lost. This explains why substance abuse is costing that country R50-billion annually.

When you further understand the impact on the co-worker, the family and the friends of the dependent you begin to understand the magnitude of the impact on the economy and society at large.

However the news is not all that bad – ONCE WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

It is tempting to think that dealing with substance abuse or the problems of the addicted employee is too time consuming to take on. However, the substance dependence manifests itself at the workplace as performance problems, and should be approached as such. The job of the employer is after all to mange performance – dealing with the issue is therefore part of the responsibility. Employers don’t need to – in fact should not – diagnose the problem.

If they address the workplace performance problems that substance abuse causes, and if companies provide employees with prevention and education campaigns, clear policies, Employee Assistance programmes (EAPs) and health benefits that pay for substance abuse treatment – the negative effects can be eliminated.

A recent study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health showed that it is not the employees with serious alcohol problems who actually cost companies most of the money, productivity and safety lost to drinking. Moderate drinkers, the study found, account for more problems than alcoholics (they are far more numerous). Remember many workplace accidents are caused by drinking at lunch time and working with a hangover from the night before.

In this respect another major impediment to staff education and then EAPs being implemented in Kenyan organizations on a wide scale is denial. In this case we are not talking only about user denial, but managerial denial. Managers refuse to admit that an employee is impaired or that impaired employees might be responsible for substantial losses to the institution.

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