If you are setting the bar for alcoholics, make sure it is very low unless you are speaking of taverns and watering holes. That is what I first thought of when I saw this article in the Anchorage Daily News. I guess a standard for alcoholics would include target goals for deceit, disappointment, as well as blood alcohol content benchmarks, but that is not the topic of the article. No, the topic is about alcoholics, both in recovery and relapsing, in the workplace.
I touched on this subject last week in the front page story Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell discussing the merits of speaking honestly about substance/alcohol use, drug testing, and being in recovery in one’s career. The gist of the story is that one cannot be fired for being an alcoholic, but should instead be judged by the same standards as all employees. An employee that comes in habitually late, under performs, or comes in smelling like a brewery should be terminated… regardless if they are an alcoholic or not. No need for a separate standard. Nothing new here, but what was interesting were some of the details in the article and accompanying comments.
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It has been my experience that people who worry about passing a drug screen test for employment usually have good reason. A rule of thumb is that those who ask the most questions about timelines and false positives, will be those that should not have wasted the money and everyone’s time on the testing kit in the first place.
