If you notice an employee is exhibiting warning signs of drug addiction, it is important to take action early to help your employee and protect your company from monetary and legal problems. The symptoms of drug addiction in the workplace may include poor job performance, absenteeism, aggression toward co-workers and a sloppy physical appearance. Since persons with drug addictions may be reluctant to admit they have a problem, helping them work through their problems may be difficult and may require outside intervention.
Call in an intervention professional. Once you are certain that your employee is abusing drugs, it is advisable to bring in professional intervention counselor to confront the worker. Doing so can protect your legal rights as an employer and ensure that the worker understands the seriousness of drug addiction.
Confront the work-related problems first. Before you bring up the issue of drug addition, let the employee know what problems he is creating on the job. Give him a chance to fix these issues before you bring up the issue of drug addiction.
Offer the employee leave time while he gets help for his drug addiction. Your employee may be more open to participating in a rehabilitation or detoxification program if he is assured that he will have a job when he finishes.
Verify that the worker is using drugs if your company allows drug testing. It is difficult to confront an employee's drug problem until you are certain that addiction is the issue. If your company has a drug testing policy in place, request that the suspected worker be checked.
Provide all employees with written copies of your company's drug and alcohol policies and consider implementing random drug testing. This may deter other workers from abusing drugs.
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