A new survey has found that the real estate industry is most tolerant of employees reporting for the job drunk of high.
DrugAbuse.com, an education and recovery resource of American
Addiction Centers, Inc., commissioned the survey as COVID-driven remote working
drove many to drink and drugs.
One in three employers said virtual working has made it nearly impossible to tell whether an employee is intoxicated.
Although it’s not a crime in itself to be drunk, doing so in
a professional workplace environment may be rendered as a ‘gross misconduct’
and could lead to immediate dismissal without the option to collect
unemployment, according to DrugAbuse.com
Most private companies are not mandated by law to have
drug-free workplace policies, however, there are exceptions to this. Workers in
safety and security-sensitive industries, as well as federal employees are
required to maintain sobriety in the workplace under the Drug-Free Workplace
Act of 1988.
DrugAbuse.com conducted a survey of 3,700 employers across
the country, asking them to rank their tolerance of intoxication in the
workplace from 1 to 10 (1 being the most tolerant and 10 being the least). The
survey revealed that overall, employers in real estate were found to be the
most tolerant at 2/10.
Comparatively, those in public service, charity, and
healthcare industries were least tolerant, ranking an average of 4/10,
certainly due to the nature of these fields requiring regular interactions with
customers, volunteers and patients respectively.
When compared by state, employers in Alabama, Arkansas,
Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey and Virginia were found to be the least tolerant
of employee intoxication with an average tolerance ranking of 6/10.
Those in Connecticut, Maine and Nebraska don’t feel remotely
the same, ranking their higher tolerance of workplace intoxication a 3/10.
Over the holiday season, sometimes employers are slightly
more lenient when it comes to managing businesses. In fact, 1 in 5 employers
say they’d be more tolerant of an employee being intoxicated at work if it was
during the holidays.
And while this may be a concern for employers, five of employees
believed it’s acceptable to be drunk or high while on the job, during work
hours!
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