Workplace Stress - Drug Use at Workplace

Drug Use At Workplace

According to Anne Fisher, author of “Drug Use at Work: Higher than we thought”, the statistics of drug use at workplace is quiet disturbing. Even though recent results have shown that the number of Americans using cocaine while at work has declined sharply in the last few years, the drug testing of employees like pilots, airplane mechanics and train operators have revealed that twice as many employees are using heroin and the use of painkillers on the job is increasing. Results also show that the use of drugs like opiates like oxycodone and oxymorphone sold under different brand names are being abuse increasingly at the workplace. Another result shows that post-accident employee drug tests are four times as likely to show employee use of opiates than pre-employment drug screening, hinting that substance abuse has played a role in workplace accidents. Fisher further adds that, the drug intake may be a result of the stressful conditions at work, more commonly known as occupational stress. Personal factors such as job insecurity and physical factors such as long hours at work may be adding more stress at work, hence leading the employees to use drugs to de-stress. A report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration states that “ of the 20.3 million adults in the U.S. classified as having substance use disorders in 2008,15.8 million were employed either full or part-time”. One of the ways companies fight the abuse of drugs at workplace is to offer employee assistance programs including drug and alcohol counseling. The only problem with this type of program is that empoyees doubt the confidentiality of this program. No employee wants to be found with a substance abuse problem and have their job taken away. However, companies are still trying to assure employees of their EAPs being completely confidential.