SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION IN THE WORKPLACE
An employer’s stake in substance abuse prevention goes well beyond controlling workplace costs generated by employee drug problems and related accidents, absenteeism, low productivity and high health care costs.
The personal lives of employees profoundly affect on-the-job performance. A happy, balanced home life extends into the workplace, encouraging both enthusiasm and high quality work. On the other hand, personal concerns, particularly if they are severe and extended over time, can have just the opposite effect, rendering an employee tense, depressed, unfocused and often unable to fulfill job responsibilities.
A child with a drug or a drinking problem places an employee in this latter category. And, because substance abuse among youth is intensifying and occurring at younger and younger ages, employers increasingly must grapple with this problem. Failure to assist not only diminishes the value of troubled employees, but it also can reduce, profitability and morale affecting entire offices, shops and factory floors as other staff members try both to help and to take up the slack for the affected individual.
That’s why ACDE has developed our Let’s Talk program. Let’s Talk is an employee service that enables concerned employers to respond. The program is designed to help employers educate parents about how to deal knowledgeably and thoughtfully with the prospect, and the reality, of drug abuse in their homes.