Drug abuse among employees in various companies causes imminent problems for businesses and the entire industry. The problems include lost productivity, injuries, absenteeism, fatalities, low employee morale, and theft. The effects in turn increase costs on the health care, legal liabilities, and the amount spent on the workers compensation schemes. The problem of drug and substance abuse in the workplace is not new. However, there is increased awareness about the problem as well as the challenges it poses. Various conditions at the workplace need employees and the management to be alert, quick, and develop accurate response reflexes. A slip in any of these qualities could cause both serious and fatal accidents and interfere with the employee’s accuracy and efficiency at the workplace. The aftereffects of drug abuse include withdrawals and hangovers affect the employee’s effectiveness of job performance.
An addiction may force a worker to preoccupy oneself with obtaining and using drugs at work. This interferes with concentration and attention. The problems can spill over to include peddling substances to other employees at the workplace. There are various personal and social challenges that play a major role in contributing to the prevalence of substance abuse in the workplace. Some conditions at the workplace exert high stress on employees and provide low job satisfaction as well as situations that isolate workers from the rest of the staff. Other challenges include long working hours that may encompass irregular shifts and repetitious duties that cause fatigue. Irregular supervision and long periods of inactivity cause boredom hence employees may get time to access illicit substances. It is upon the employee to ensure own safety while at work.
Workplace injury
Workplace injuries can be referred to as an occupational accident. An accident occurs when on official duty and results in either mental or physical harm. The definition is broad and includes injuries that occur during the course of work even if it occurs outside the business premise but while undertaking assigned duties. Serious workplace injuries are very common. They lead to disabilities among employees, affect the economy, and in the process affect their families. Professionals advice that an effective employee training that covers the proper use of ergonomic equipment is important in reducing injuries at the workplace. Employees working with business companies that use heavy machines and equipment may experience machine entanglement which is often caused by failure to dress appropriately. Dressing covers the body, legs, feet, hair, and fingers. Excellent attention and wearing protective equipment reduces these accidents. Other types of workplace injuries include vehicle accidents, falling from heights, walking into injuries, reaction injuries, slipping, and overexertion injuries. Important measures of cutting workplace injuries are observing diligence, the proper use of safety equipment, and training on the use of machines. Ultimately, it is the role of every employee to ensure own safety. The employer can only guarantee a safe working environment if every employee would be diligent in carrying out the assigned duties. In case of verbal abuses, the perpetrators need to be made responsible through the right approach.