Work climate: The rates of alcohol and drug consumption do not discriminate age, sex or social status. Nor are companies free from this addiction. Annually, the sector registers monetary losses of around 300 million dollars due to absences from work and medical licenses attributed to substance use.
Everyone knows her. At least once in a lifetime. The never-well-weighted alcoholic hangover makes its obligatory visit after a night of unbridled revelry. Thirst, headache, nausea and countless bodily discomforts characterize one of the most common ailments suffered by ordinary Chileans.
Some with whiskey, others with wine, the issue is that an overdose of ethanol causes serious disorders in fine motor skills, balance, emotional instability and little clarity to think, which suggests an imminent risk of leading to workplace accidents, in addition to a number not less than monetary losses to companies, which do not support the treatment of this disease -mostly-, leaving the worker in total helplessness. They generally end up fired.
Work with the cane.
In matters of alcohol and drug consumption, the director of the Alpha Addictions Institute, Rolando Chandía, is a psychiatrist with more than 24 years of experience in the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts to these substances.
According to the specialist, “the evident consumption of alcohol compromises the corporate image of the company, security, production costs, the working environment is altered, there is greater indebtedness, there are more medical licenses and absenteeism, families are more dependent on the social welfare of the companies because they are families that suffer and the possibilities of staging an occupational accident increase considerably. The costs are immense, "he explains.
According to the latest studies carried out by specialized entities such as the National Council for the Control of Narcotic Drugs (CONACE), almost a third of workers hospitalized for work accidents have consumed some type of drug in the previous 48 hours. Faced with this unavoidable reality for any company, implementing consumption prevention programs at work is an investment that generates good dividends, both for employees and for the organization itself.
Regarding this, Chandía believes that “companies must have drug consumption policies, treatments for workers, urine tests and alcotest, supervisors or monitors that inform the community and, above all, education and awareness for workers and their families ”, since it is the only way to control the situation before it goes to greater terms.
Having within the ranks of the company a problem drinker or, worse still, an alcoholic, means huge monetary and job losses. Year after year, the sector registers a negative figure of about $ 300 million for absences from work, medical leave for illnesses attributed to excessive substance use, poor performance and low productivity. "The fact that a person arrives drunk or hungover at work also causes a tension in the work environment since colleagues, aware of the person's condition, are aware of what they do to take care of it and avoid problems," explains the specialist.
CONACE and related entities are promoting the training of monitors for companies' anti-drug policies. The training of these have Sence code, so the investment for companies is not so high, compared to the losses caused by the fact of having "problem drinkers" working.
Rehabilitation.
The massification of drugs, the ease of acquiring them and the low profile with which drug addiction cases are treated in companies have allowed the worker to be increasingly exposed to consuming a true "chemical cocktail", which includes illicit substances such as cocaine, marijuana, base paste or tranquilizers, mixed with alcohol.
Given this, Chandía emphasizes that "companies should be concerned at this time because the studies that have been carried out do not show the presence of islands in the subject, but rather it is a general problem that affects all levels and genders throughout the country ”
In addition, he adds that the support of the employer in matters of rehabilitation is essential. When a company saves the patient's position, it supports them morally and financially, in all the programs that exist, 70 or 80 percent of the patients manage to rehabilitate themselves, versus 20 or 30 percent of those who come on their own or in which companies do not support it. People don't want to relapse and they don't want to lose their job either.
