Did your drinking affect your work performance?
 

I thought it might be interesting to see how people's work life was affected by their drinking, and for those who are now sober how it has changed. Were you so-called "high functioning" or did your drinking cause you to miss out on opportunities?

I'll share first. I had several jobs during my drinking days. When I first started drinking heavily I was working in restaurants as a host, then server, and then lastly as a manager. Nearly everyone at that job would hang out after work and get drunk and smoke weed, so I don't think I was any better or worse off than anyone else.

After I decided to leave the restaurant world behind in favor of the corporate life I found that my drinking affected my work quite a bit. I had a really hard time typing because I would be shaky at work. Although I never drank at work there were several times where I showed up to work drunk or hung over. There were a number of times where I had stayed up literally all night drinking, either alone or with others, and then gone straight to work. In the last year or so of my drinking "career" I found it increasingly hard to focus at work. I also began having a hard time communicating verbally. I've always been a decent communicator, both verbally and with the written word, but I started tripping over my tongue and having a hard time remembering the right words or the points I was trying to make in everyday conversations.

I went to rehab last year, almost one year ago exactly. I told some of my coworkers that I was in rehab (I got short term disability leave at work). To my surprise, the coworkers I told about my drinking were shocked to learn of my drinking problem.

Since I quit I have gotten a promotion and changed departments at the same company. I find that I am still trying to gain back some of the communication skills I lost and the brain fogginess -- although that is much better than it was at first. I think being sober has made me a much more reliable employee -- I no longer have to come up with excuses for missing deadlines, I don't call in sick because I'm too drunk to drive to work and I can complete my work much more efficiently than before.

OK, well that ended up a bit longer than I intended. Does anyone else have experience to share?

almost got fired

Sure.

Initially after I stopped drinking I considered myself "high functioning". No absenteeism, consistently great performance reviews across mutiple employers...my professional house was surprisingly in order for being a drunk my entire career.

Funny thing is, since I stopped drinking I have experienced professional success well beyond what I'd experienced prior.

So, it turns out the term "high functioning" was so much rubbish. In actuality, during my drinking years I was unknowingly an underachiever of great degree.

And I should add, the same is double true of my job as "husband".

Sure did. There were many times I came to work hung over or still drunk from the night before. I would be in a sweat and throwing up part of the day. There were times I would drink while working. There were a few times we did public appearances where I drank and even passed out. Eventually I lost my job because my party lifestyle lead to me oversleeping too many times. Also my party lifestyle hurt my grades to the point where I flunked out of college. I would have a test the next morning and instead of studying I would go drinking. I remember my first day of school at the University I was hung over. Now that I am sober I am back and college and doing well.

Drinking definitely affected my work performance, but not the quality of my work. I just did less of it because I'd never do anything I'd think I'd botch and a lot of the time I just wasn't up to working. I totally did the tripping over my tongue thing when talking to clients though and I found it really embarrassing, even though I'm not the most eloquent of people anyway. Basically my performance just went downhill the longer I drank. I was lucky I didn't have to take time off for recovery...I think if I left it longer I would have done.

I've been drinking since I've entered the workforce after college. I didn't miss a day of drinking for about 7-8 years. I was an intern during college and would show up hung over a lot. I was the guy in the elevator with you holding a Gatorade, a Redbull and a bag full of McDonalds breakfast at 8am every day. It was pretty manageable because I didn't really have too much responsibility. But I felt like hell every morning and would act like it too.

Then my drinking ramped up quite a bit after graduating and getting a big boy job. I continued going in hungover and feeling horrible. It slowly got to the point I would come in late at least 2-3 times a week because I drank too much too late the night before. I never thought drinking would cause me to call in late. THEN I started calling out. I didn't use sick days because I felt guilty, but my vacation days were long gone before the end of the year came. The result is that I was in the same position I started with 4 years later. My peers from college were managing, moving up, getting more responsibility and doing awesome at their jobs. I was late all the time, called in sporadically because I was too drunk to drive in at 7am, and stayed stagnant because of drinking.

I had quit drinking for about 6 weeks early this year and it was such a dramatic change that I got a promotion from just being sober 6 weeks. 4 years of nothing then 6 weeks of sobriety got me up another rung on the ladder. That led to a little celebration that got out of hand (can you say weeklong bender and calling into work 5 days in a row?) but I'm starting over fresh with sobriety and looking forward to being more productive with my life. Any CFAs out there please shoot over a message to me!

Highly functional for 10 years, but the position required extreme focus on 1000 things at once, slowly after 10 yrs it began to effect my focus and memory, kinda like my brain was being pickled (and it was). I can say I was slowly losing my edge and could not keep up, it finally caught up to my performance and luckily I was in a nice enough position that they just asked me to retire with a nice bonus, sad cus I could have had a lot longer career :headbange

You bring up a good point here. It's impossible to say whether or not our drinking held us back because it's a purely hypothetical question, but it's quite likely that even if we think that we were able to keep things together at work that we in fact didn't accomplish as much as we were capable of.

I didn't even mention the period when I worked in a bar. That was a lot of drinking.

My work performance was drastically affected by my drinking. I was always late and sometimes disheveled. I would have to forgo a shower and shave sometimes because I over-slept. I would spend my mornings at work staring at the clock until I could leave at lunch for a few pints at various pubs/bars in the area. I made up a medical condition in order to explain sick days and lack of concentration. I was a low-functioning alcoholic come to think of it. The alcohol sapped all my motivation and ambition, and I got terrible performance reviews. I really only showed up and went through the motions to get a paycheck to pay my rent and feed my alcoholism.

Here is how out of touch I was...during my days of drinking I actually thought it was helping my job performance.

Up until last year, it hadn't but last year was BAD. I work with horses and you've gotta be on top of your game to do that or you're gonna get hurt. And it's hard to put on a bridle or cinch a saddle when your hands are shaking. Horses can tell when you're not at your best ... I totally lost my confidence for awhile and they could feel it. And it's physically taxing work even when you're healthy ... it was worse with hangovers. It's good to have my energy AND my confidence back again. :)

Wow, I could write a novel on this one. I'll start with the fact that I got in trouble at several jobs, and typically alcoholic of me, I decided to start my own business. After all I was smarter than every boss I ever had.

Then I was successful - wildly successful. In the 4th edition of the BB there is a story that closely parellels mine, about a guy that "ran" his construction business from a bar. I wasn't in construction but everything else matches perfectly.

Then I ran that business in the ground. Lost tons of opporunities. Had health issues and a very scary detox. I've had a couple of relapses but the last 5 years were definitely much better than the prior 15.

Very high functioning for a very long time......until I wasn't.

The two best jobs I've ever had I lost to drinking and drugging.

Although I must say, the last job I had, I didn't miss a day, and did really well at. Thing is, I didn't drink Monday-Friday for the most part. Come Monday afternoon though, I'd be feeling pretty rough. Sometimes all the way through till Tuesday afternoon! I swear, I'd party so hard on weekends, I'd have a two day hangover.

I'm on unemployment right now, but I still work for my dad for free. That way I have something to get out of bed for, instead of sleeping in until noon. You see, I can still be extremely undisciplined even IN sobriety. I find developing a routine is paramount to staying sober.

"Feelings of uselessness and self-pity will disappear."

Indeed they will.

I am pretty high functioning. I only drink after work (work nights) and don't drink enough to get hungover for my next shift.

With that said, I think I half ass it a lot of the time to get out on time, because drinking is on my mind. It's not even a conscious thought sometimes, I think my body and mind are craving it and I subconsciously end up rushing through my work to get home and start the process of 'unwinding' (aka drinking until I pass out.)

I never have missed shifts over it at this job. Mind you, four years ago when I had my first phase of heavy drinking, I missed several shifts at another restaurant and was let go. Not a good feeling.

Yeah, that was very true of me too. Physical symptoms aside, my mental obsession with drinking caused me to be absent minded at best while working. A lot of relationships suffered because of my obsession too; I can't begin to count the number of times I flaked out on people because I wanted to stay home and drink instead of leaving the house.

^me too, but I also flake on people because I didn't want them to see the drunk me... I end up avoiding hanging out with people a lot of the time because I'm just ashamed of getting even slightly sloppy and tainting their idea of me, because that isn't me.. It's the addiction.

planning your night to ensure that you are in the right spot at the right time to drink is exhausting!!!

I'll go out for groceries (so I can drink)...I'll take the kids to practice (so I can drink on the way back)....I need to stay up late and work, so you go to bed (so I can drink)..

EXHAUSTING AND MEANINGLESS!!!

Squizz- I'd have 2 day hangovers too! I wouldn't feel "normal" until Wednesdays and then start the process all over again on Friday...sometimes Thursdays. Binge drinking on the weekends was a horrendous cycle for me. My first "real" job out of college required that I work on the weekends. Lucky for me there were no big bosses in on the weekend (usually). I would either have a massive hang over in which I would attempt to hide in my office with the door locked or come in still drunk from the night before. I ended up quitting that job on my own, the pressure became too much. Its unfortunate that I was living my life like that. Oh well, I guess when you know better, you do better.