BEING SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED.

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Every so often a Supervisor will call to  ask me how to deal with an employee who is " giving trouble".  Probably this is where the description of "Troubled Employee" came from? 

Supervisors do not have to wait until an employee's behavior begins to affect the morale of other employees and possibly turn off or turn away potential customers before appropriate action is taken to halt the trend, as an astute supervisor can recognize potential problems within the workplace through observation, documentation, and monitoring personnel records, which can  aid in identifying chronic and persistent behaviour patterns that contribute to lowered productivity levels.

Chronic absenteeism, lowered efficiency,  conflicts among workers and less attention to personal hygiene and appearance are all sure signs that something is amiss, and save for Workplace Health and Safety issues that are by law compulsory to correct, the Supervisor needs to make an intervention as soon as possible.

But today I do not propose to deal with the action an employer/supervisor can take as that can be adequately addressed by your Company''s Employee Assistance Programme. Instead I propose to talk a little bit about the term " Being Sick and tired of being sick and tired".

There is always a percentage of men and women who will find themselves drawn to excess. It seems they never grow up as that attitude is normally reserved for children "who put play first"! I remember as a child my mother scolding me on numerous occasions  because when I went to play as she put it "you don't know when to come home". Predictably my son Kevin followed suit many years later and I could not pretend that he was the most wayward child I had ever known since my dear old mother would have laughed at me and probably say "serves you right"!

Which brings me to the employee who continues to use alcohol and/or other drugs to excess in spite of the negative experiences he continues to have. No one but the individual so affected can make that decision to stop as just as the child who puts play first and would only stop when forced by a parent or when hurt, so too will the individual with an addictive type personality need to be forced to stop. It's either Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous which states " The individual must become sick and tired of being sick and tired" before he or she would even begin to picture a life without drugs.

Probably the secret to recovery in these groups is the opportunity that each member gets to reflect on those negative experiences and speak about them openly with other members without being judged harshly by persons whose own self-esteem is raised through criticizing and condemning others.

Do addicts ever recover? I have known many who have gone to their maker after being drug free for decades.