Last week, we looked at how supervisors can borrow police techniques to recognize when workers are impaired by drug or alcohol use. Today, let's look at what action supervisors need to take once they suspect that a worker is impaired.

Unpredictable Behavior a Red Flag

Supervisors often prize worker predictability over productivity, says Thomas Page, a retired Los Angeles Police Department officer who now trains supervisors how to spot and deal with drug-or-alcohol-impaired employees.

Which kind of worker would you rather have? The predictable worker, who while not the most productive member of your crew, shows up on time, sober, rested and ready to do the job? Or the worker who is highly productive but also unpredictable? The latter is good when he's doing his job. But his disposition is all over the map-reasonable and likeable at times, hot-headed and erratic at others.

"Drugs and alcohol affect predictability," continues the Detroit-based consultant. Unpredictability isn't always the result of substance abuse, of course. "Maybe the guy is going through a divorce or some other personal ordeal," Page explains. But if patterns become evident, it should raise suspicions of drugs and alcohol and supervisors need to react quickly.

When You Suspect Impairment

If you strongly suspect that one or more of your workers are doing drugs or drinking on the job, here's what to do:

1. Create a Written Policy

Your company or organization should have a written policy on how to handle suspected workplace substance abuse. "You need a plan. You can't make it up on the fly," cautions Page.

2. Send Worker Home

Page says that if a supervisor makes a careful assessment of a worker's condition and strongly suspects impairment, he or she should relieve the worker of duty for probable impairment. The worker should also be offered a ride home.

3. Test for Drug Use

Under some policies, suspected impairment is probable cause for administering a drug test on the spot. If you have such a drug testing policy, supervisors should be prepared to exercise it.

4. Don't Let the Worker Drive

Also warn supervisors that workers suspected of impairment shouldn't be allowed to drive. If the worker refuses the offer of a ride home and intends to drive off, threaten to call the police.

5. Discipline Workers for Impairment

One of the most important-and most difficult-actions to take is to administer discipline against impaired workers. Make sure supervisors know and are prepared to implement the terms of your disciplinary policy. Working drunk or high on the job may be just cause for immediate termination; or your policy might call for progressive discipline and giving workers a chance to seek treatment and retain their jobs.

When Impairment Is Not Deliberate

It's also possible for a worker to be impaired by prescription or non-prescription drugs-ranging from tranquilizers to painkillers, to muscle relaxants and cold medications-and not know it. Page says in that case, a worker could be told there are concerns that the medication is affecting that person's ability to work safely. Options might include asking the worker to consult a doctor about adjusting dosages or switching to other medications that don't cause the same effects.

Conclusion

Alcohol and drug use in the workplace endangers everyone. Learn how to sniff it out in your workplace and have a plan in place to deal with it. Companies or organizations wanting more information from Thomas E. Page can reach him at pagete@gmail.com.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY

The Fire at Dale's Penthouse

February 7, 1967

By Ted Morrison

"I was in World War II, and I never went through anything like that."

Dr. J.J. Kirschenfeld died last year at the age of 85. He was one of the survivors of the fire at Dale's Penthouse, an upscale restaurant in Montgomery, AL. The fire broke out in the cloakroom of the restaurant on the eleventh floor of the Walter Bragg Smith apartment building just before 10 pm on Feb. 7, 1967.

Firemen thought they were responding to a small fire; but it turned out to be a towering inferno. As fire trucks arrived on the scene, panes of glass began falling from the upper floors of the building. Desperate patrons trapped by the flames were breaking the windows to find clear air. But the open windows also allowed air to flow through the restaurant, feeding the fire and turning the blaze into a monster: "It was like someone turned a blowtorch on it," recalls retired Montgomery Fire Chief William C. McCord.

The restaurant chef managed to get two groups of people out in the elevator before it stopped working. He and the firefighters then had to slide down the elevator cable from the eleventh floor to make their escape. Some patrons, including Dr. Kirschenfeld, managed to crawl out onto the ledges. Kirschenfeld and his family were rescued after they worked their way around to a patio.

Others weren't so lucky. Many were unable to get out of the building. Most of those trapped inside died of asphyxiation. Their bodies were found in the back office (which lacked an exit) piled like cordwood, and so badly burned that they couldn't be identified. Investigators later discovered that a stairway up the building to the tenth floor had not been extended to Dale's when the restaurant was built. The elevator was the only way out. The stairway was directly underneath the exit-less office.

The fallout from the Dale's fire? Assistant Fire Chief William Davis said it best: "It changed the way high-rise fires were handled." The tragedy drew national attention to the problems of high-rise fires, resulting in the enactment of new state and municipal fire regulations and changes to national fire codes. The new rules covered, among other things, the number of exits, emergency sprinklers required and occupants permitted in a building.

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