General Impacts of Drugs in the Workplace
Here are some of the observable impacts of substance misuse in or affecting the workplace:
- Tardiness/Sleeping on the job
- After-effects of substance affecting performance such as hangover
- Poor decision making
- Loss of efficiency
- Theft
- Increased absenteeism
- Accidents
- Lower morale of co-workers
- Increased likelihood of trouble with co-workers and/or supervisors
- Preoccupation with obtaining and using drugs at work
- Interferes with attention and concentration
- Illegal activities at work - buying or selling drugs
- Higher employee turnover requiring the training of new employees
- Disciplinary procedures
The items listed here are some general examples of how the workplace can be impacted by employee drug misuse. The goal of a drug free workplace program is not to address the drug use and misuse directly, but rather to deal with the employee behavior and performance that result from their misuse. These are some of the behaviors that may provide suspicion of drug misuse and/or other drug activity in the workplace.
Have you seen these behaviors? Have you experienced other related behaviors? Please share your experiences. Which do you think have the most significant impact?
The bottom line is that when drug misuse and activity occurs in the workplace there are definitely impacts that are felt in the workplace.