Time to take a hard line on drugs at work?

While employers were busying themselves with the implications of the Chancellor’s planned national minimum wage rise, announced just before this week’s budget, perhaps they should have been concerning themselves with something less salubrious.

A survey by employment law specialists Crossland found that more than a third of employees either knew or suspected that their workmates took illegal substances either outside or during work. This wasn’t just a casual suspicion either – 60% said they witnessed mood swings, experienced missed deadlines and often had to cover for staff who had called in sick. Employers themselves reported finding cocaine in the toilets and even found staff coming into work high.

But while this is worrying, is increased drug use at work symptomatic of wider issues? While the economy has improved and growth prospects seem brighter, the culture of ‘presenteeism’ that dominated the recession years has not gone away. Workers still feel like they have to prove themselves at work, often by working ever longer hours, which may mean they feel a greater urge to ‘let go’ through drug-taking when they’re not in the office (or for some, even when they are).

Another concerning trend was the lack of clarity around employers’ legal liabilities, despite a high proportion having a policy in place. Some sectors have obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act, for example, to ensure that staff are not under the influence of anything that could affect their concentration or judgment.

But it is possible to take a hard line on drugs and deal with the issues sensitively at the same time.  As Crossland MD Beverley Sunderland points out: “There has been a noticeable shift in recent years in how the majority of employers handle substance abuse, from previously treating it as a disciplinary issue towards a more supportive approach where it is treated like an illness.”

For those who want to know more about how they can deal with drugs use in the workplace, Acas has produced a useful guide, which can be found here.