A Sympathetic Supervisor Helps A Worker Address His Heavy And Abusive Drinking After A Broken Relationship
Barry dropped out of high school when he was seventeen years old and eventually got a job at a local metal recycling plant. For the last six years he has gained a reputation as a diligent and hard-working person who only once in a blue moon calls off work because of illness.
Approximately five-and-a-half months ago he began going out with a young woman named Carol. They appeared to hit it off right away and looked like they had a lot of fun with one another.
When Barry met Carol, he rarely drank. This situation totally changed when Carol and Barry began seeing each other on a regular basis. In actual fact, everything was going fine until Carol out of the blue called Barry one night nearly 2 AM and said that she had to breakup and that she couldn't explain the reason at that particular time.
The next morning before he went to work, Barry went to Carol's apartment and found out almost immediately that she had already moved out. Barry received this news exceedingly hard. As a matter of fact, he was astonished because they appeared to be getting along so very well.
So what did Barry do about Carol's departure? Instead of working through his pain and suffering, he started getting drunk just about every night. It didn't take very long for his fellow employees and for his supervisor to notice that Barry was coming to work late at least three times every week and that he repeatedly called off ill. Not only this but some of the workers made an appointment with staff in Human Resources and stated that Barry constantly came to work with a strong odor of alcohol on his clothes or on his breath.
Barry's supervisor heard about all of this from Human Resources and also from Barry's fellow employees. So one Tuesday afternoon he invited Barry into his office. He told Barry that he had recently noticed a distinct change in his sick time, attendance, behavior, and in his work performance.
"Barry, I'm not an expert about alcohol facts and I am not particularly well-informed about alcoholism facts, but I have seen several of my friends and relatives go through some really bad issues because of their abusive and excessive drinking. My suggestion is that you take time and learn more facts about alcohol and what alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse can do to a person."
"Why is this relevant? When people involve themselves in irresponsible and abusive drinking, their drinking problems not only adversely affect the problem drinker, but they also negatively impact her or his friends, neighbors, co-workers, family, and relatives. Barry, in sum, I would like to see you get some help for your heavy drinking from our employee's assistance program."
Barry admired his manager very much and as a consequence followed through with his suggestion the very next day when he called and made an appointment with a healthcare practitioner in the company's employee's assistance program. Even though Barry didn't automatically feel any better or less depressed about the sorrow he still feels for Carol, he felt some comfort knowing that his manager and his co-workers 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 frankly felt some hope that he would get his life back on track.
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