Has anyone been questioned by their employer about their drinking?
 

Hello -

I was wondering if anyone had been called on their drinking? Not necessarily drinking on the job, but for missing days or shifts and maybe being late or something? If so, how did you handle it? Is it best to be honest with your employer if you are asked?

Hi Healthyheart ... Not knowing the details of your job situation, I'm not sure I can help you other than offering a gut feeling which would be dependent on my work situation. Does your employer have an Employee Assistance Program? And if you have health insurance, does that cover some type of treatment? Both of those things would give me hope that I could "come clean" and pursue help before it became an adverse action and grounds for being "let go."

Larger businesses/organizations usually have steps supervisors need to go through before they can let someone go, e.g. documenting repeated conduct issues. Small businesses don't necessarily have to do that and could just say something like, "You've become unreliable ..." and that's it. Of course, if you have a trusting friendship with your boss that might put things in a different light. I have a great boss and I have a feeling if he would have asked me outside of the office if there was an issue, I could have clean. My two-bits. Good luck!

Yes, I was eventually fired, but they gave me every opportunity and I just couldn't get it together. I had a good job and things only got worse after I was fired.

My advice, without knowing a lot of details, is if you really want to quit, get help and start right now and do not tell your boss (again, if you are really going to quit). Your actions will speak louder than words.

Good luck!

Prior to getting clean & sober, my drinking affected so many other areas of my job performance that it didn't need to be addressed. The times i was fired was mostly for the reasons you had stated, lateness, not showing up, poor work ethic, etc... Some employers i have worked for actually encouraged drinking or getting high on the job because they were doing that with us. Fortunatly, someone higher up eventually noticed enough to do something about that to protect the best interests of the company.

After getting clean & sober, it ceased to be a problem for everyone.

*raises hand*

I was called into HR with my boss. I was really messing up and wound up checking into a 5 day rehab. My boss knew, I didn't have to tell him. I came to work hung over and reeking of alcohol. I really don't know how I did my job. It is only by the grace of God that I did not get fired from my job of 9 years.

If they called you on it, I suggest you make a change now. Get help.

My sponsor was called on it many times and lost her job of many years. She told me a story about her boss telling her she smelled like alcohol (she drank on the job) and she told him there was alcohol in her gum.

Oh the lengths we will go to....

I don't know if this helps, but there was one manager one time who could smell the alcohol on me even though I had doused myself in perfume. She flat out asked me and I lied. I made a mental note to myself to change up my drinking schedule so that there was less of a chance that people could smell it on me.

No more accusations coming my way. I'm glad I quit.

I don't know what your situation is, though. How are you doing?

Im my own boss and I questioned myself everyday :)

l was warned more than once.
Can't really blame them for firing me.
Can only blame myself.
Maybe some things just have to happen..

Almost 6 years ago to the day, I had started on a sort of drunken bender while I was working for my brother. We were installing floors at Exxon Mobile and a Flight Research in Mojave.

I was roomed up with the flooring mechanic and we were starting to get a good buzz going and my brother called. I was told not to talk to him but I thought there were a few things I needed to tell him. He asked me if I was drunk and I said no. My last drunk to date would come about a week and a half later.

In prior jobs, the only time I was even approached or reprimanded about my drinking... was by fellow drinkers. I've gotten away from about everything short of murder for my drunkenness. Most companies don't have the fortitude to make the approach.* I've gotten away with not showing for 3 days straight, came in off a bender, got chewed out a bit and yelled back at my boss... "Just let me get back to work!"... and that worked. I've drank before and during work without too many ill effects. I sometimes needed other drugs to perform certain tasks.

*I've seen a lady who was so bombed at work she could not even swing the doors open to get to the break room. So certain individuals would take her to the break room. I saw her sitting there and handed her one of those itty bitty A.A. books and said, "This is what I do. I don't know if this is your problem or not. That's for you to decide. I hope you get help." She disappeared for about a month. She came back sober as a judge and never saw her tight again.

One of those "fellow drinkers" that confronted me about my drinking was half my own fault. We used to drink outside the plant after hours out in Commerce City near Denver. I would be the guy who would collect the money and go to the liquor store to buy the "swill". I told him I was drinking a couple of shots of tequila during my lunch breaks and maybe a shot or two on break. He pointed his finger into my chest and said, "If we have to wait till 4:00 then you have to wait. Knock that off!" So I did. This was the same guy who I used to get passed out drunk with at his home on Friday nights. He came to work one morning so hung over, he had his truck all loaded up for a delivery that next Saturday morning and got picked up on I-76 for a D.U.I. He was still drunk from the night before he claims. Well... he's been sober for about the same amount of time I've been now. I don't know why or how. I use A.A.

Well,in my company you cannot even smoke a Cig in the parking lot,if caught you are fired.So I think that pretty much clears up the drinking part.