Chapter 7
Supervisory Training

Summary

After developing a policy statement, a company may wish to offer supervisory training to those closest to the workforce, including information about drugs and alcohol, drug paraphernalia, signs and symptoms of usage, and performance deterioration signals. Training enables supervisors to properly establish reasonable suspicion before referring employees for testing and aids in the implementation of a drug and alcohol abuse prevention program.

All supervisors should be provided with basic information about their employer’s prevention program and their role in carrying it out. At a minimum, this should include:

• The rationale and specific details of the program start up and implementation;

• The supervisor’s specific responsibilities;

• Ways to recognize and deal with employees who have job performance problems that may or may not be related to drugs or alcohol, including personal and family problems.

Training programs for supervisors need not be more than half a day and can be performed by outside instructors or law enforcement personnel specially trained in workplace drug abuse programs. All training should be documented.

Details

Drug and alcohol abusers can be spotted by observing them directly, by identifying associated drugs and paraphernalia, and by reviewing performance. Direct observation can reveal physical and/or behavior changes, mood swings and long-term changes in personality or physical appearance. It should be stressed that even the best trained supervisor is working with subjective clues and therefore may not notice a drug or alcohol abuser until he or she is well along the path of chemical dependency.

Literally hundreds of drugs are abused, ranging from clearly illegal substances with no medical value, like heroin, to prescription drugs and alcohol, which are ingrained in society. However, all drugs fall into three categories: stimulants, depressants and hallucinogenics—or combinations thereof—each with revealing telltale signs depending on when in the use cycle an observation is made. The three most troublesome drugs in the workplace are alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.

An employer should not focus on discovering “alcoholics,” “cocaine abusers” or “pot heads” but rather on identifying a broad category of “substance abusers.” Thus, a supervisor should not be expected to be an amateur diagnostician but rather should concentrate on a general approach of whether chemicals may be interfering with the performance of those working under his or her supervision.

One way of spotting problem employees is based on the fact that people who abuse drugs or alcohol, either at work or off the job, perform differently from those who do not live a drug- or alcohol-abusing lifestyle. And those differences can be measured either by observation or with the aid of an electronic database.

Note the performance indicators of a drug- or alcohol-abusing employee:

• Late to work 3 times more often;

• Requests early dismissal or time off 2.2 times more often;

• Uses 3 times more sick leave;

• Is 5 times more likely to file worker compensation claims;

• Is 3.6 times more likely to have an accident at work and 9 times more likely to have a domestic or car accident away from work;

• Has inconsistent work quality and lowered productivity;

• Makes more mistakes, is careless and makes judgment errors;

• Has mood swings that, over several days, seem to occur at similar times of the day;

• Is overly reactive to supervisory admonishments or compliments;

• Deliberately avoids co-workers and supervisors, especially supervisors who have been trained to spot abusers;

• Has deteriorating personal appearance, hygiene and ability to get along with co-workers;

• Inspires poor morale and reduced productivity among co-workers as a result of their “covering” for the abuser or their frustration with management ignorance of or inaction to what they perceive to be an obvious drug and/or alcohol problem;

• Takes needless risks in an attempt to raise productivity after supervisory admonishments;

• Carelessly handles and/or maintains machinery, equipment or office supplies;

• Disregards co-workers’ safety;

• Increasingly complains about problems at home or with family or friends;

• Has frequent and recurring financial problems, including borrowing from co-workers or supervisors to “get to payday.”

Close observation and documentation of the signs of drug and alcohol abuse should be asked only of supervisors who have had training in such techniques. A clear policy statement in combination with training of supervisors will allow for the identification and intervention of drug and/or alcohol dependent workers in a manner consistent with law and good personnel practices.