Employee found drunk on duty

What would you do if you got reports of one of your staff being found drunk on duty?

The first thing to be done is to check whether the reports are authenticated. If the reports are found to be true and it is found the employee was really drunk, disciplinary action needs to be taken on that person.

What if the disciplinary action leads to that employee losing his job? There will be lot of opposition from various quarters as the poor man's family will suffer due to that strict action by his seniors.

The poor man's family suffers not because of the disciplinary action taken by his employers but because of the irresponsible nature of that man who came drunk to the duty. Any family has to suffer if they have one person in the family who drinks a lot. How will the family take care of him? How will the society take care of him? Of course, he could be open to counselling and the first disciplinary action would be to warn him and make him take a counselling. If he gets a counselor who is an understanding person who could find the good reasons of why that person came drunk to the duty that could help that employee. But the help would be possible only if the employee is interested in healing. If the man comes drunk to the duty repeatedly, definitely he deserves to be fired from the job.

Originally posted by: maha2us

The poor man's family suffers not because of the disciplinary action taken by his employers but because of the irresponsible nature of that man who came drunk to the duty. Any family has to suffer if they have one person in the family who drinks a lot. How will the family take care of him? How will the society take care of him? Of course, he could be open to counselling and the first disciplinary action would be to warn him and make him take a counselling. If he gets a counselor who is an understanding person who could find the good reasons of why that person came drunk to the duty that could help that employee. But the help would be possible only if the employee is interested in healing. If the man comes drunk to the duty repeatedly, definitely he deserves to be fired from the job.

How is the life of a woman who is the wife of a drunkard?

Good points. What if the person came drunk from home. How will they proove that he was actually drunk ?

One does not ordinarily have to prove that the employee was drunk. One only needs to prove that he was under the influence of alcohol or a stupefying substance. However a caring employer will firstly offer the employee counselling through an employee assistance/wellness programme. Only if the employee refuses to attend rehabilitation can the employer consider progressive disciplinary steps such as issuing warning letter. If the employee insist with the conduct then dismissal may be the only route. In the counselling process family members can be included to ensure that the whole family benefits from such a programme and also that they put pressure on the employee to change his/her ways.

Alcoholism is a sickness and must be recognised as such.

Should sick men be on the job?

Shuld men with diabetes, heart disease, HIV positive, etc. be sacked because they are sick?

I would have to say that if I was the boss I would fire him or her.