Russ dropped out of high school when he was fifteen years old and eventually found employment at a local paint manufacturer. For the past eleven years he has gained a reputation as a hard-working and diligent individual who infrequently calls off work due to illness.

About nine months ago he started dating a young lady named Emma. They seemed to get along real well right away and looked as if they had a lot of good times with one another.

The Abusive and Heavy Drinking Begins

When Russ met Emma, he rarely drank. This circumstance changed when Emma and Russ started seeing one another on a fairly normal basis. In fact, their relationship was going great until Emma called Russ one night approximately 2:30 AM and said that she had to stop dating him and that she couldn’t tell him the reasons for her decision at that moment.

The next morning before he went to work, Russ went to her apartment and found out almost immediately that she had already moved out. Russ took this awfully hard. In actual fact, he was astonished because they seemed to be getting along so very well.

When Irresponsible Drinking Leads to Problems at Work

So what did Russ do about Emma’s leaving? Rather than working through his suffering and pain, he began getting inebriated nearly every night. It didn’t take long for his fellow employees or for his manager to notice that Russ was coming to work late at least once per week and that he constantly called off ill. Not only this but some of his fellow employees made an appointment with staff in Human Resources Department and stated that Russ routinely came to work with a noticeable smell of alcohol on his breath or on his clothes.

Russ’s boss heard about all of this from Human Resources and also from Russ’s fellow employees. So one Wednesday afternoon he asked Russ to come into his office. He told Russ that he had recently noticed an explicit change in his work performance, behavior, sick time, and in his attendance.

When a Supervison Can Motivate an Employee to Get Help For His or Her Excessive and Hazardous Drinking

Russ’s boss also articulated that a number of his co-workers reported him to Human Resources because he had been coming to work with the strong odor of alcohol. His boss then stated the following: “Russ, your fellow employees are not reporting you to the Human Resources Department to get you into any trouble or because they dislike you but instead because they care about you. And I am concerned too. I don’t want to pry into your life outside this company, but it is apparent that you are manifesting some of the normal signs and symptoms of alcohol abuse. As a result, I want you to go and see a psychologist in the employee’s assistance program to discuss your drinking behavior and your depression.”

“Russ, I’m no physician or a psychiatrist, but I have seen quite a few of my friends and relatives experience some really bad alcohol side effects. Furthermore, I have also seen the signs of alcoholism first-hand in my own family. When people suffer from problems with drinking, these problems not only affect the drinker, but they also make an impact on his or her relatives, co-workers, family, friends, and neighbors.”

Russ admired his supervisor quite a lot and consequently followed through with his suggestion the very next day when he called and scheduled an appointment with a counselor in the employee’s assistance program.

Russ is Still Depressed But Experiences Some Hope That He Will Get Back on Track With His Life and Start Feeling More Successful

Even though Russ didn’t automatically feel any better or less depressed about the pain in his heart about Emma, he felt comfort knowing that his manager and his co-workers cared about him and wanted what’s best for him. This gave him some emotional relief for the first time in more than a few weeks and he actually felt some hope that he would get back on track with his life.

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