Dealing with the office drunk. Every office has one . To borrow a rather clichéd comedians lead in line, “a funny thing happened on the way to work the other day”. Unfortunately, it isn’t that funny really when you think about the consequences this has.  In management, you see it all: conflicts, office politics, bullies, office psychopaths, office sex and the occasional drunk. Yes, the occasional staff member coming in to work as drunk as a lord (reminds me of that old joke about the man  in court saying ” Well, at the time I was as drunk as a judge”. The judge asks him “Don´t you mean – as drunk as a lord?”, and he answers “Yes, my lord”) Turning up at work intoxicated is a problem that I have experienced several times over the years with the staff I was in charge of.
Just last week, I had a staff member come into work so intoxicated he could hardly stand. I saw him walking down the corridor a  little off balance and I immediately thought that he was not well. As he got closer, the alcohol smell came ahead of him somehow (not quite sure to be honest). I asked him if he had been drinking and off course he said no he hadn’t. He then reached into his pocket, pulled out a cigarette from the pack, grabbed  for his lighter from the other pocket and lit the cigarette. We were inside the office at the time. I grabbed the smoke off him and put it out and asked him if he knew where he was. He said he wasn’t sure but that he was happy to see me. I said to him that I was going to call him a cab and that he should go home and sleep it off and come back in the morning when he’s sobered up. Luckily for him it was early in the morning and non of the other staff or any of the other managers were in as yet so they didn’t see any of that otherwise he would have been fired on the spot.
Call me a prude or whatever, but I can never understand why anyone who has a stable job goes out drinking heavily on a weekday. Weekends or Friday nights I can understand but a Tuesday night? I’m all for people having a good time and relaxing after work but a bit of common sense should prevail. If you drink heavily the night before, how can you concentrate and be at your best the next day at work? The excuses I have heard over the years are always the same…”I can drink like a fish but it doesn’t affect me” or ” I can hold my liquor” and yada yada yada. Always the same excuses. That might be the case but I don’t care how much a person can drink and still think he is sober, the smell of alcohol the day after is always there. It is not a pleasant odour and no amount of cologne, deodorant or breath mints are going to get rid of it. If you are one of these people, then it might be time to get a reality check. You are putting your job and career on the line every time you have a huge night out during the week. By all means go out for a drink or two after work if you have to, but don’t get intoxicated in the process and then to make it worse, turn up at work the next morning either drunk or with a severe hangover. You will get fired sooner or later.
As a manger, you have a responsibility to the company as well as other staff members to deal with just such a situation and if you haven’t already, it’s just a matter of time before you do. Every office has someone like this, male or female it doesn’t matter. As for the guy I told you about in the beginning, he is still with the company but the unfortunate thing is, I can smell the alcohol on him nearly every morning so that tells me that his issues may run a little deeper with the drinking. In such a case, you may have to talk to your HR department and find out what the best course of action could be to deal with such a person. In fact, I may pay our HR officer a visit very very soon.
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