De-normalizing the behavior is an essential first step in reducing employee consumption -- employees must realize they 'have a problem' in order to feel motivated to seek help. Denial and acceptance of drunkenness as a normal state is part of the culture of alcoholism, and fosters individual alcohol abuse. Management must support employee's willingness to seek treatment. Alcoholism must be treated as a disease or employees will hide in shame, fearing sanctions and job loss. Having Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on premises after and before work; posting signs directing employees to AA meetings in the community; making pamphlets available on alcohol treatment and information; and even having treatment specialists to come to speak to employees during work hours are important steps in raising awareness. It also shows employees do not need to choose between their jobs and seeking treatment for their disease.

The problem of alcohol abuse should also be addressed in our periodic safety drills, given the risk alcohol can pose...

Workers must understand that when they drink on the job they put everyone at risk -- their own lives and the lives of the fellow employees.
None of these solutions is a panacea, given the power of denial inherent in the illness, and also the tendency of many employees to wish to resist health directives when disseminated by employers in a moralistic fashion. Anti-alcoholism campaigns must be presented as part of the creation of a new work culture, as an extension of management's genuine concern for worker's personal health and development, and as related work-appropriate safety concerns, to avoid seeming overly intrusive into what employees may regard as private 'bad' behavior.

References

Yang, Seungmi et al. (2006, June 2). Socioeconomic and psychosocial exposures across the life course and binge drinking in adulthood. American Journal of Epidemiology.

Retrieved February 20, 2010 at http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/kwj357v1