Colleague drinking at work

[Chasa]

My colleague is known for liking a drink and I and others have smelled drink on him on previous occasions. However, over the past fortnight his behaviour has become more hyper at work as if he wasn't just nursing a hangover but was actually still perhaps drunk? Another colleague suggested that maybe he was drinking at work so we decided to go and look in his backpack and there was an empty kids drinks bottle with a tiny bit of wine left in it. So he is drinijng on the job. So do we do anything or mind our own business? He's a nice guy on the whole. I'm thinking say nothing, I need advice.

Bloody hell. We all have a responsibility under the health and safety at work act. You absolutely cannot sit on this information. There is a clear risk to himself and others. Does he drive to and from work?

If you think he is drinking or drunk on the job and he is driving trucks and putting other people at risk you have a duty to report him. Share your concerns through the appropriate channels instead of going into people’s personal belongings.

You need to report this asap. And never search someone’s bag again!

I think you go to your supervisor or whoever is in charge and tell them of your suspicions, minus the looking in his bag part. And don't do that again, use the proper procedures for such situations in future.

How do you know it was wine? Besides which going snooping is a breach of trust, I assume you’d not be happy if someone went through your things without your knowledge or consent. Not illegal but I’d expect to be disciplined if I did that.

Share your concerns with your manager and let them address it through proper channels.

How close to him are you? Can you talk to him and offer any support? If he is secretly drinking at work he is obviously an alcoholic.

Does your company have a Drugs and Alcohol policy ? I would report to a manager, based on your suspicion, and not mention the bag search

There's wishing you hadn't done it and then there's wishing you hadn't done but publish it to the population of the globe 😃

I'd dip out of this while you can, if they are not your direct report.

This is a welfare issue, so contact your manager and tell them of your concerns. Don't ever go through anyone's belongings again. You could be accused of stealing something, or of planting the wine. Stop gossiping about him with your colleagues and get the man the appropriate support and help he needs.

Not ‘technically’ in the wrong, absolutely completely and totally in the wrong.

You should raise a concern to your line manager or HR about your suspicion that he may be drinking on the job as he poses a real and valid Health & Safety risk to himself and everyone else on site due to his role and the use of heavy machinery.

Illegally searching his bag when you have no right to investigate him was an awful decision and crossed several lines.

Trespass to goods (interfering with someone’s personal property), no justification, no legal basis, no consent. Even if he were asked by a manager/HR, he could legally refuse a search of his personal property.

OP if I were you, I'd forget about this search and just let your manager know.

Awful of you to go through his backpack but why don't you just speak to him & ask him? Say everything you said here but without the mention of snooping through his bag?

Mind your own business!

I dint think it would be something the police would prosecute . But op the stinking of booze is enough, is it stale booze ie night before or like they are nipping in the toilets and having a drink?

Oh and if they have CCTV on site you should work on the assumption that you going through his bag will be discovered and make a decision as to whether the outcome for you is likely to be better if you admit it upfront or wait to be caught. If you have a union rep now might be the time to seek advice.

You should not have gone into his bag, you cannot mention that.

You can and should inform your manager that you are concerned that he is intoxicated. You cannot say that he is drinking at work unless you see him doing it. He could still be drunk from the night before.

So don't mention that. Just go to management and tell them you're concerned he's drunk in work. Don't go into more detail other than he's acting erratically and you can smell it.

From then on, its their problem.

Everyone saying to report him to management, ffs it's only been two weeks he's been a bit 'hyper' on the job. Mind your own business and don't do anything for now.

He could seriously hurt someone using that sort of equipment when UTI of alcohol and/or drugs. Does your company have a testing system for this? Ok so you shouldn't have snooped, but you smelled the booze and witnessed his erratic behaviour. Report him. How would you feel if he disabled someone or worse through drinking, and you hadn't done anything to prevent it?

I would raise your concerns with your manager/HR about him smelling of alcohol and worrying he may be under the influence at work and leave it at that.

The bottle may be old, from the weekend when he went to an event and smuggled in cheap alcohol, so you don’t know that means he was drinking at work. But as a recovering alcoholic, who used to drink at work, I think there can be a lot of benefit to being offered support at work. I may help him a lot in the long run if it’s addressed kindly by HR and he can be referred for more support.

Putting aside the fact you snooped in his bag, you may have seen wine in the beaker but that doesn’t automatically mean he’s drunk it before/during work.

regardless, mention to management that you can smell alcohol on him (if you can). You can’t mind your own business because there’s a serious risk to the safety of other people. By law you probably have a duty to flag this officially.

Ignore the snooping for a second. You hav enough to for the HR with the smelling alcohol and his behaviour. You don't need to mention anything else. I'd do this and leave them to do the rest.

So you’ve done wrong, but now you do know..

You’ve got to do something, supposing an accident happens?

Although why you took in upon yourself to snoop and not just escalate your concerns, god only knows why!

If I liked him I would probably slip him some gum and maybe spray and say “hay you should freshen up in case you have to speak to management because you smell like booze and I’m only telling you because I don’t want you to get sacked” but honestly really depends on the person

Just describe what you have witnessed 'lawfully'. That he smells of alcohol and that he has done this and said that. You need to be specific and clear in your examples rather than 'erratic' or 'seems drunk'. Is he slurring? Making inappropriate comments? Unsteady? Sleepy? You don't need to diagnose him, you just need to describe the problematic behaviour and let your employer take it from there.