Substance and alcohol abuse by employees have cost U.S. companies $100 billion each year. That amount doesn’t even cover the cost of diverting company resources toward other purposes, including the addressing of substance abuse issues. It doesn’t cover the “pain and suffering” experienced by companies as well.
The stakes are way higher if it’s the employer suffering addiction. Their condition can affect the entire company’s productivity, morale, and culture. If the employer stops fulfilling their responsibilities, their company will fall apart in a domino effect.
Consequently, the company’s finances and the employer’s personal finances will be drained. In the end, the addicted employer will be left with nothing, unless they undergo effective drug rehab and recover.
That said, if you’re now straddling the line between recreational substance use to downright addiction, here’s what may happen to your business:
Your Behaviors Will Affect the Entire Workplace
Drugs affect your mind in several ways. It disrupts your concentration, logic, productivity, and many more. As such, you may find yourself practicing the following behaviors:
- Tardiness
- Sleeping at work
- Having withdrawal symptoms
- Being hungover
- Making decisions poorly
- Reducing work efficiency
- Reducing your co-workers’ morale
- Having trouble with your employees, business partners, or other managers
- Interfering work because of obtaining and/or using prohibited drugs
- Selling prohibited substances at work
- Increasing employee turnover rate
- Having poor discipline
According to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI), substance abusers are also:
- Less productive
- Frequently absent at work
- More likely to harm themselves or others
- Five times more likely to file a worker’s compensation claim
These behaviors will increase your company’s expenses related to absenteeism, productivity loss, health insurance claims, injuries, theft, and even fatalities.
Your Addiction Will Exhaust Your Finances
Even if your employees do their jobs, your company’s finances will still decline. This is because you’re the one making decisions for your company, including its marketing strategies. Once prohibited substances have started to affect your rational mindset, you’ll also begin making rash and unwise business decisions. In turn, you’ll become out-of-control. Your addiction will reflect on your products or services. In addition, your behavior will put your employees in a difficult situation. Their salaries will be at risk since your revenues will drop.
Simply put, your company will start down its way to closure. If you manage a big company with competent board members or directors to make up for your incapacity, then maybe you’re luckier.
Your personal finances, however, won’t be spared. Addiction can cause you to spend half or more of your monthly income on prohibited substances. As such, your spending can create poverty in future generations. It will affect your children’s education, your family’s day-to-day budget, and your other essential needs.
Even if a packet of addictive substances, or a bottle of alcohol, is cheap, it will drain your savings eventually if you buy it often. Drinking a $5 beer every day will add $150 to your monthly expenses. In six months, you’d have accumulated $900 on beer alone.
You could lose your job as well, even if you’re the owner of your company. When your business shuts down with a ton of debt, you’ll find it harder to recover, because your personal finances have also taken the toll of your addiction.
Not All Hope is Lost
Addiction is a disease, and therefore treatable. Consider outpatient treatment if you need to manage your company while undergoing rehab.
However, outpatient treatment only works for less severe cases. So if you’re no longer functioning well because of your addiction, you might as well choose inpatient treatment. Confined in a rehab facility, you’ll undergo a medically managed detox, individual therapy, and sessions with a support group.
Outpatient treatment, on the other hand, is ideal for substance abusers with a stable living environment, social support system, and good physical health. Its programs vary in duration and intensity, but it generally lets you maintain your normal routine. Hence, you can still manage your business while detoxifying the drugs out of your system.
You can also undergo therapy, group counseling, or the 12-step program in outpatient treatment. The sessions usually focus on providing education about substance abuse. Your doctors and therapists will also give you advice on prevention, stress management, communication, and setting new goals.
If you’ll choose inpatient treatment, you can transition to outpatient treatment once you’ve shown tremendous progress. So get treated now, and see a bright future for yourself and your business again.
You don’t have to wait until hitting rock-bottom before undergoing rehab. Once you find yourself becoming more dependent on prohibited drugs, that’s the sign that you already need treatment. Don’t risk your business, relationships, and finances any further. No amount of temporary enjoyment is worth everything you’ve worked hard for.
