Employee Termination Org

3 Familiar Signs Indicating Employee Termination Is Necessary

Last week your employee came to work reeking of alcohol. Let's say for argument sake that you run a small trucking firm. You not only smell alcohol on your employee's breath, but you find opened bottles of alcohol in the company truck. Considering this person is a liability not only to you, your company and any other driver on the road, you take immediate action. You fire this employee on the spot. The next week you shockingly discover your former worker has filed a wrongful employee termination lawsuit. How can this be? Are you not in the right under these circumstances? According to the law, you are not.

How to Deal with Alcohol Abuse in the Workplace

Despite what you may think, you cannot use employee termination to rid yourself of an employee with an alcohol problem. Employees who abuse any substance fall under the protective measures of The Americans with Disabilities Act. The courts consider alcoholism to be a disability. Therefore employee termination for alcohol abuse is discrimination, and you will find yourself at the losing end of a court case if you are not careful.

So what do you do? Do you just tolerate this potentially bad situation? The answer is "absolutely not." This employee in his or her current state is a liability for your business. Their mental impairment can create unsafe working conditions not only for themselves, but also for their coworkers. Employees under the influence might also experience a behavior change. They may become abnormally hostile or engage in unprofessional horseplay. Their behavior may turn off customers or vendor representatives. And that will have a direct impact on your business.

If you have an employee who abuses alcohol, your first choice is to get them some help. When your company does not provide a rehabilitative program, you can require them to seek outside help. Coach the employee and make it a condition of continued employment. And most important, document everything that occurs. Document your meetings with the employee and document any programs he or she must attend. Document the effects this behavior has on your business. And make sure you follow up with the employee and document their improvement or lack thereof.

When Employee Termination for Alcohol Abuse is Your Only Choice

If the employee resists all attempts for rehabilitation, your only choice is employee termination. Employee termination for alcohol abuse is tough, but not impossible. You must prove that you have made reasonable concessions to accommodate the employee’s disability. You have tried to rehabilitate them and they have failed to improve. They are damaging the business, harming the workplace environment and creating unsafe working conditions. You must have documented evidence before you ever consider employee termination.

Once you have this evidence, you can fire the worker. There is no guarantee the former employee won't try to file a wrongful termination lawsuit. However if they do, you have documented evidence to support your side of the story.

Complete procedure for firing a problem employee