Great damage to US companies: the expensive addiction of workers

The USA is one of the countries with the highest number of addicts: many millions have alcohol problems and regularly take drugs or painkillers. This is an expensive problem for US companies.

Host Ashley Neil greets listeners on the podcast from Turning Point, a drug rehab clinic in Tampa, Florida. Ashley knows what she’s talking about: She started using drugs as a student. Because it was completely normal in her job: Ashley worked in a restaurant. “There are so many drugs and alcohol in this industry. After graduating, I looked for a job, couldn’t find anything in my field and then started working as a restaurant manager. That was probably the worst thing that could happen to me. Because suddenly I was kind of the one Manager of this addiction. “

Majority of addicts have jobs

Even if not all addicts can consume their drug directly at work: 70 percent of addicts in the USA do not live under the bridge, but have a job, explains therapist Mark Davis in the Turning Point podcast.

The most commonly used drug in the United States is alcohol – followed by marijuana, opioids, tranquilizers, cocaine, and stimulants. Many workers are very good at hiding their addiction, Davis said. “Sometimes the affected colleague is on the cover of the employee magazine: as employee of the month. I have treated such people with serious addiction problems,” says the therapist. The dependency often did not impair the performance of those affected – “until it was suddenly completely gone”.

Expensive problem for companies

For US companies, drug use by employees is an expensive problem: per employee affected, the costs are between 7,000 and 25,000 dollars a year, and in total they add up to around 81 billion US dollars. Important factors are the lower productivity of those affected, their absent days, accidents and illness costs – but also the theft from their workplace.

The opioid crisis has exacerbated the problem over the past few decades. In Ohio, where a particularly large number of people are dependent on pain medication, the Chamber of Commerce took action four years ago: In a video message, the chamber boss praised an online course for employers in the fight against the opioid crisis. It teaches, among other things, in which cases drug tests can be requested and whether an employee can be fired because of their dependency problems.

Free therapy hours are booming

But the mental health of the employees also plays a bigger role in most of the larger US companies: Part of the “perks”, the social benefits with which new employees are lured, are, for example, free therapy hours. These so-called “Employee Assistance Programs” have existed since the 1930s. They were invented because alcoholism was so common in the workplace back then.

Now, in the corona pandemic, they were experiencing a downright boom, says therapist Davis, who offers this employee consultation. Because the corona pandemic has also massively exacerbated the drug problem in the USA: In the past year, more than 95,000 Americans died from an overdose – more than ever.

These cases are called “Death of Despair” in the USA. One reason for the desperation was that many workers lost their jobs, explains neuroscientist Julia Chester from “Purdue University” in Indiana in a video interview. For some who already have an addiction problem, losing a job is “such a huge disruption in their lives that their drug use is completely out of control”.

In the meantime, the economic situation has turned: Many US companies are desperately looking for workers. And because they know how stressful and dangerous customer contacts are in these times, some have also reacted: The coffee house chain Starbucks, for example, has doubled the number of annual free therapy hours for its employees to 20.