Working From Home And Drinking

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Cody Fousnaugh, Jun 9, 2021.

  1. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Well, guess there is another advantage of "working from home", at least for some. Heard the topic brought up on last night on tv news, but changed the channel to watch something else.

    HR Problems: Drinking While Working from Home

    By Tim Stein, Vice President of Human Capital for AAC Jun 1, 2020 HR Management & Compliance


    With many Americans still working from home during self-isolation, our everyday habits have drastically changed in order to accommodate our new daily routines. For some, this may mean waking up a few minutes later or perhaps juggling work and homeschooling the children, but others are using this newfound freedom as reason to have an alcoholic drink during their workday.

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    Source: mapo_japan / Shutterstock

    With millions of employees still adjusting to the transition of working from home, maintaining performance and accountability amid this newfound flexibility and freedom is already challenging. But with 1 in 3 American employees admitting they are more likely to drink alcohol during working hours while quarantined, HR professionals must find a way to get ahead of this issue before it becomes problematic.

    As our national lockdown extends through the month of May and beyond in some areas—with the possibility of a second wave—HR must reinforce education on the risks of alcohol use in the remote workplace.
     
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Well, on the plus side at least they aren't driving.

    Back in the 80's-90's, it was not uncommon for employees to have drinks at lunch. I remember having beer with Mexican food or whatever while eating with my workgroup/boss.
     
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  3. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    I remember, at my last job, one of the departments invited the department I was in, out for lunch at a Brazilian Restaurant. My supervisor/director bought me a drink and told me "don't ask me what it is, just drink it". It was most definitely an alcoholic drink and I went "wow, that's good". From what I remember, I finished out the day doing fine at work. One of the best lunches I'd ever had! LOL
     
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  4. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Beth Gallagher

    While driving about Germany in 1972 with my wife, who was born there, I was amazed when we stopped for lunch: there were always groups of workers at nearly all eateries on lunch break, all swilling away beer by the stein-full!

    Frank
     
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  5. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I hail from the era where you could drink at lunch, go to Happy Hour with coworkers, and smoke at your desk.

    I don't like the idea that "HR must reinforce education on the risks of alcohol use in the remote workplace."
    "The remote workplace" is my private residence. Next they'll be enforcing sexual harassment policies.
     
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  6. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Yes, not to change my thread, but I really, really sometimes wonder how todays smokers, young and old, handle all of the smoking restrictions there are today. When a person lives in a "winter/snow season" state, and have to go outside to smoke a cigarette, I really think I'd find a way to completely stop smoking.

    I guess certain things have to be enforced whether working from home or at the office. If many computer entry mistakes are being made at home, the company will definitely want to know why.
     
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  7. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Personally, I think that work-from-home policies would be more efficient if they were productivity-based rather than time-based. In other words, give people a project or projects to complete, based on the amount of time that it was determined a diligent worker could do in a week, and call that a week, or a workday, depending on what works best for a particular industry. If you were working forty hours a week, and I was happy with what you had accomplished during that forty hours, why should I be unhappy - or pay you less - if you did it in thirty hours. A less diligent employee might accomplish the same work in forty hours, or even fifty, but the work is still done.

    On topic then, if someone wants to drink while they are working, as long as they are getting the job done, I shouldn't care, as an employer, if they are working from home. If they were working on premises owned by the company, I might be held liable for some of the stupid things that a drunk might do. Working from home, if they're not getting the job done efficiently because of the effects of the alcohol, the drinker might find that his workweek is lengthened, and might consider that getting drunk on the job isn't such a good idea after all.
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I've always taken a Libertarian approach to this stuff, especially when drug testing rolled around.

    -If I'm getting the work done, leave me alone.
    -If my performance suffers, tell me to fix it.

    This notion that employers "have a right" to figure out the underlying causes of my performance issues is a pile of poop. And they certainly do not invite themselves into my home or my life (or anyone else's for that matter.)

    Regarding @Ken Anderson performance-based idea: most places have no idea how to measure that. All they can muster is to stand by the time clock to see how punctual you are...and even that's a stretch for some of them. Man, I miss working but I sure don't miss work.
     
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  9. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Well, at my last job, working for a Senior healthcare company in Denver, CO, our warehouseman came back from a trip to NYC to see his wife's family. The very day he came back, he was sent for a drug test. His test came back "positive" for cocaine. When the Supervisor/Director told him about it, he absolutely refused to believe it and wanted a retest. Unfortunately for him, the second test came back "positive" for cocaine again. The Supervisor/Director offered to send him to a drug place, but he totally declined. I was making a delivery the morning an HR person came over to the warehouse, and, along with the Supervisor/Director, had him pack his stuff up and escorted him out of the office. He was mad, but left without a fuss. If he wouldn't have, the Denver P.D. would've been called.

    I had never known anyone to be fired, and escorted out of a business, from a failed drug test, but...........
     
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  10. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Actually, besides drinking at a "at home" job, what about using drugs? Marijuana, cocaine, whatever.
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    When I worked for Catalina Ambulance Service, the owner of the company hired an outside company to do a productivity audit and to make recommendations on company policies. They came up with a proposed policy book that included a prohibition on the use of tobacco or alcohol on-duty and within forty-eight hours of reporting for work, which would amount to a prohibition on tobacco and alcohol on-duty or off-duty. Because half the company smoked and, probably more than half the company drank while off-duty, Catalina never enacted this policy, but it was recommended. Although I neither smoked nor drank, enforcement would have been a nightmare. My only concern was having employees smoking outside of the hospital while on duty; while this was permitted by the hospitals at that time, it wasn't the image that I thought the company should be setting.

    Working from home is another matter. While I can see that drinking on the job could have an adverse effect on productivity for several people, that probably wouldn't be the case with everyone, and there's a big difference between a glass of wine and a case of beer. Well, not for me; I'd get drunk on a glass of wine.
     
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  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    All this crap is driven by the Fed: "Drug-Free Workplace Act" in a typical knee-jerk/over-the-top reaction to one person who cause a train wreck while doing coke (actually, all events get prostituted to exert maximum control over the populous.) Having politicians mandate drug use is as laughable (and hypocritical) as having them lecture us on sexual harassment.

    Neither you nor I would do drugs while working. If someone is "of a character" where they would behave this way, their performance is gonna suffer anyway by virtue of who they are. And I guarantee you that if a sales guy was breaking every company record for bringing in revenue, a blind eye would be turned to anything he did, so it's not even really a "rule" we're all held to account by.

    ps: It's not "drugs and alcohol." Alcohol is a drug. It's a pernicious drug. Alcohol causes more social and health issues that any other drug. You can die of detoxing from booze, but you won't die detoxing from heroin (or from pot.) Alcohol gets a pass solely because so many people drink. Exempting alcohol as "lesser than" (as 99% of folks do) and all other drugs as "worse than" is just another layer of hypocrisy that makes employer intrusion on this subject even more unacceptable.
     
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    Last edited: Jun 10, 2021

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