Counselling / Addiction in the workplace

Counselling / Addiction at the workplace

Prevent. Help. Cross-linking. Become active with consumption and addiction at work

If an employee becomes conspicuous at the workplace, managers are called upon to act and intervene as early as possible. The focus is on providing feedback in discussions, clarifying problems and offering support to the person concerned. In the event of repeated breaches of duty, interventions may have to include sanctions (a formal measure to punish misconduct).

Various types of addiction can occur in companies:
There are substance-bound and non-material-bound forms of addiction. Substance-bound forms include:
  • Alcohol addiction, 
  • Nicotine addiction, 
  • Drug misuse and 
  • Drug addiction
In the case of non-substance-bound forms of addiction, there is a psychological dependence on a particular behaviour, for example, buying, playing and working (workaholic). Both forms of addiction, substance-bound and non-material-bound, fulfil the same criteria of dependence.

Some employees know of no other form of stress management than escape into addiction. The employer can ensure that work is not influenced by stress-inducing factors. According to a study by the International Institute for Socio-Economics, the International Labour Market Research Team and TNS Infratest Social Research, these include the following:
  • Fixed, reliable income; 
  • Job security; 
  • Permanent employment relationship; 
  • Influence of the employee on the way of working; 
  • Opportunity to develop one's own skills

Procedure according to the five-step plan
The five-step plan is applied when employees show performance deficits or behavioural problems related to the use of alcohol or other addictive substances or addiction-related behaviour. Step-by-step plan discussions therefore start where a breach of contractual or official duties or neglect of these duties is connected with the use of addictive substances.

It represents a guideline for superiors and thus increases their security of action. At the same time, it makes clear to the employees concerned the consequences that will follow if they do not change their official behaviour.

The aim of the discussions, according to the five-step plan, is to correct work and performance behavior by an offer of help being made if the person in question is unable to change his or her behaviour by his or her own efforts. The corporation promises to support that person if he or she seeks advice and therapeutic help, for example in the case of harmful or dependent consumption. At the same time, official pressure is increasingly built up in the discussions, so that the person concerned is made aware of his or her decision-making situation: 
  • Continuation of the abnormalities is punished by measures under labour or employment law, which can ultimately lead to termination of the employment relationship.
  • The step-by-step plan includes a series of successive interviews in which the pressure of the job is gradually increased.
First of all, the direct superior addresses the person concerned about his or her anomalies. If the performance and behaviour deficiencies persist or if there are new abnormalities, the addiction counselling service is involved and, in a next step, the department or human resources department. The corresponding consequences in terms of labour and employment law are first threatened and, if problems persist, implemented.

Additional measures under labour or employment law, with the aim of reducing short absences, in particular may be possible:
  • Personal notification of sickness to a superior,
  • Personal registration and deregistration with the supervisor at the beginning and end of service
In agreement with the personnel department, the following can be requested:
  • a certificate of incapacity for work from the first day of illness
  • an individual ban on alcohol on duty as a supplement to the employment contract
These conditions are intended to help you to meet your contractual obligations again (source: Addiction Counselling University of Würzburg)


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