DOT Supervisors: Don't Kill Your Alcoholic Employees with Kindness

Here is a checklist: Have you ever called someone a "functional alcoholic?" Is so, it's time to back off of this label, but it is going to kill your employee someday. Do you have a social relationship with this person where drinking plays an important role? Have you heard “stories” about the functional alcoholic’s home life that are problematic or disturbing to you, and do you redpond to them with your advice? Does the thought of not socializing with the functional alcoholic seem unacceptable and disconcerting because you do not want to give up a great friend? Have you dismissed or minimized alcohol-related problems that have occurred in the functional               alcoholic’s life, even while thinking to yourself that this person needs help? Would your decision to stop drinking with the functional alcoholic cause him or her to question your loyalty or ability to have a good time? If others agreed to participate in an intervention to motivate the functional alcoholic to enter treatment, would you feel inclined to argue against it, motivated by how your life might change? Do you believe the functional alcoholic would become boring if he or she decided to stop drinking for good? As you educate yourself about Reasonable Suspicion .If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you are an enabler. Don't worry, because here is the easy "shift" in thinking about drug abuse and alcoholism that you need to accept: Alcoholics are not responsible for acquiring their illness. Instead, they are responsible for treatment when any evidence of addiction begins to itself as symptoms. All drug free workplace programs and all EAPs knowf the great value of