Employers should help prevent misuse of alcohol by employees
BMJ 2013; 347 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6590 (Published 07 November 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f6590
All rapid responses
Rapid responses are electronic comments to the editor. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on bmj.com. A rapid response is first posted online. If you need the URL (web address) of an individual response, simply click on the response headline and copy the URL from the browser window. A proportion of responses will, after editing, be published online and in the print journal as letters, which are indexed in PubMed. Rapid responses are not indexed in PubMed and they are not journal articles. The BMJ reserves the right to remove responses which are being wilfully misrepresented as published articles or when it is brought to our attention that a response spreads misinformation.
From March 2022, the word limit for rapid responses will be 600 words not including references and author details. We will no longer post responses that exceed this limit.
The word limit for letters selected from posted responses remains 300 words.
Sir,
There are two issues I see with the advice for employers:
Firstly ethical questions about how far the workplace should extend into employees private life. Employees fully understand that time in work is to do the work that the employer requires of them, but to tell them what they can and can't do outside of work is a sure way to breed resentment.
Secondly the attitude of employers to alcohol abuse where when it overlaps into the workplace (mistakes, lateness, absence, etc) it may well be viewed as misconduct rather than illness. This needs to change first.
Competing interests: No competing interests
The author makes the case that employers should be taking pre-emptive action to identify risky drinking amongst employees. Should the same apply to medical schools?
Alcoholism amongst Doctors is a well researched area and numerous studies have highlighted the issue of alcohol misuse (1,2). As the well known joke goes, "what's the definition of an alcoholic? someone who drinks more than their doctor!". This problem also appears to extend to medical students (3).
Therefore should medical schools be implementing pre-emptive action for medical students? As a student body perhaps we should be attempting to convince medical schools of the "business case for prevention"?
References
1. A. Brooks. 1998. Many junior doctors misuse drugs and drink excessively. BMJ 317:700.2
2. J. Juntunen, S. Asp, M. Olkinuora, M. Aärimaa, L. Strid, K. Kauttu .1988. Doctors' drinking habits and consumption of alcohol. BMJ 297:951
3. E. Frank, L. Elon, T. Naimi, R. Brewer. 2008. Alcohol consumption and alcohol counselling behaviour among US medical students: cohort study. BMJ 337:a2155
Competing interests: No competing interests
Alcohol abuse is a social problem that needs psychological counseling and a willingness from the alcoholic. Alcohol is addictive and use of alcohol in work place needs to be generally prohibited. The prohibition of alcohol in any work place has to be mandated and executed.There has to be probably an alcohol support group in each of these work places to support these employees known to be alcoholic or noted to be misusing alcohol.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Sir,
I agree with the author that the utilisation of alcohol Identification and Brief Advice (IBA) in the workplace could well help to address increasing levels of "at risk" drinking in the UK.
The extent to which any given organisations 'drinking culture' might impede or promote such activity is less certain. We are aware that within our own sector that alcohol use might well influence the implementation of IBA activity (1), and as such work based programmes could be beneficial to staff and public alike.
Clearly there is a duty of care amongst employers that could be extended beyond the workplace. The provision of help and advice regarding alcohol consumption can reduce levels of both consumption and harm. Considering the costs due to alcohol related loss of productivity, this can only be a good thing for UK PLC.
Reference
(1) Huntley, J. S., Patton, R., & Touquet, R. (2004). Attitudes towards alcohol of emergency department doctors trained in the detection of alcohol misuse. Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 86(5), 329-333.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: Employers should help prevent misuse of alcohol by employees
Sir,
Responses to the article I wrote are very encouraging. There needs to be a clear understanding from employers and employees that self-assessment is not the same as testing.
Employers (some at least) already test their staff for alcohol use. What we are proposing is rather different - that staff be given the option to self-assess their own drinking privately.
We are not suggesting that employers carry out AUDIT screens on their staff, on the contrary, we want employers to encourage staff to self-administer this for themselves - wholly anonymously and confidentially.
We believe this can act to raise self-awareness and reduce hazardous drinking - helping high risk drinking to be self-identified and corrective action to be taken by employees independently of their employer. Thus preventing drink problems from developing at an earlier stage.
Competing interests: No competing interests