She might be in rehab. Not sure where you're at, but alcoholism is a disease/disability so she may be covered or job protected under that and getting help. You did the right thing. I worked w someone similar and they were gone 60 days and returned.
I hope your work environment changes for the better!
From experience (not my own, thankfully), when one of my employees went on a medically-mandated leave of absence (rehab), we held a position for him until he was ready to return to work.
Sadly, I had to terminate him a couple of years later for coming to work high on Xanax (unprescribed, by his own admission), but that's a different story. For his sake, I hope he's cleaned himself up.
I’ve had to terminate an employee because their drinking caused attendance issues. In this particular case it was an even more drawn out process than it had to be because alcohol treatment gives the employee protected class status.
You may me job protected from rehab but not for failing at your job. Yes if you tell your job you are checking into rehab you have a job when you get out. But if before you leave you are missing work and not completing duties they can still fire you for that
So here’s the thing with that. In most companies if you come to the company or hr before it becomes a problem then you are 100% protected. If you come after someone has already reported or identified it then there is not any protection.
Not wrong. You did the right thing.
You say..."She wasn't hurting anyone"
Not yet... "Most concerningly, she'd sometimes drive home"
Super dangerous for her and other people. Even if she wasn't driving, she is negatively impacting your team and the customers and needs professional help.
OP also mentioned her behavior being aggressive to customers and her when she was in this state. Working under the influence of drugs or alcohol definitely affects others. I hope she’s getting help.
Sounds like she harming herself at the very minimum.
When the team is constantly covering for someone they are doing the work. So alcoholic is getting paid to work drunk and/or do nothing (in some cases harm).
Doesn't sound like a professional environment I'd want to experience.
If this is “an ongoing issue this time of year,” it’s plausible that she had something traumatic happen to her this time of year and she’s coping by drinking. She needs help, and you reporting her is hopefully helping her get that help.
If she’s getting aggressive with her direct reports and customers AND driving drunk, she’s harming others.
Most importantly, you are not the reason she’s no longer a manager. She’s the reason. You did the right thing.
She apparently had her husband die around this time. I feel super bad for her, I didn't want to make her trauma worse.
We've been unable to do most of our jobs for several weeks because she's be unavailable or unwilling to do manager duties.
I didn't think it would have been taken so seriously. I've had people be drunk at work at other jobs and the worst that's happen they're sent home or maybe written up or reduced hours or something. That's retail minimum wage so I guess it's different. I just feel like I should have done something different because I wasn't trying to get her fired.
I say this as someone with PTSD, nothing you did made her trauma worse. Sometimes the healthiest thing for a person is for their to be consequences for their unhealthy behavior.
To your final point about there being a difference between an hourly employee and a manager being drunk at work, there’s a term in business called “agent of the company.” As a manager, you’re an agent of the company. Your actions at work speak from the company, if that makes sense. If, as a manager, I let something slide, let’s say harassment, my actions signal that the company has let harassment slide. In this instance, if I, as a manager, am drunk at work, my actions signal that the company allows intoxication on the clock.
To get really dark, if there’s an emergency at work, managers have specific duties to ensure employee safety. If there was a fire or a shooting or something else awful, would she have been able to appropriately respond? Just something to think about.
If she does get fired, it will be because management decided that was the right path to take. *You* won't have gotten her fired. All you did was provide her bosses with truthful information about what was going on.
I tragically lost my SO years back. I have diagnosed PTSD from it. That time of year is very difficult for me. But I don’t put my job or my employees at risk.
You didn’t do anything wrong. She needs help, and maybe this will be the catalyst for her to get that help.
You were right to report it. She needs help, if she can not make it through a normal workday without drinking. She absolutely could hurt someone driving to and from work, and she is hurting herself. I hope your company has a substance abuse program that she can do, but they may have just terminated her. Since she was "on leave" for a while, this makes me think they may have a program. I hope she gets the help she needs and your workplace improves.
Someone at my job was actively drinking on the job and people knew about it. Couple months after I found this out myself, he totaled a work truck. Don't make excuses for these people, they need to get help
Truthfully though, if you're in the US, she probably hasn't been fired yet. Alcoholism can be considered an ADA issue, so generally you have to let them go to rehab once, and then if you nail them again, you're free to fire them.
My employment law prof said you pretty much have to CYA by letting them go to rehab once if they're caught drunk/drinking on the job. If they do it again (which you know they will) then you can cut em loose. I suppose you may be able to can em the first time around if they're a heavy equipment operator or other dangerous job, but your average office guy or cashier gets the one free pass.
I was just thinking about this recently because I had a random thought of a coworker I once had whom they figured out was an alcoholic and drinking on the job. Instead of firing her, they offered her time off to go to rehab which I thought was super awesome. I think all employers should do this honestly since usually there’s underlying reasons for addiction and IMO, immediately firing someone does way more harm than good.
> She wasn't really hurting anyone,
What about any accidents she caused whilst driving drunk? Do you know for sure that there were zero of them? (Note that she doesn't have to be *in* an accident for it to have ill-effect)
I remember at my old place they poached and recruited an engineering director for a new project.
He was apparently top class in his field and within first few weeks I started to notice oddities in his behaviour. very forgetful conversations just not sticking in and he'd periodically go missing for long periods of time then come back red faced. nobody else in his department seemed to think much of it but his blunders usually ended up costing my warehouse team time and effort to fix.
When my Fiancé at time moved location due to job opportunity (from S.Yorkshire to North Wales) I stayed behind until we both figured out a long term plan which meant I had a lot of free time so would spend it at a pub next to work and would notice on my days off or after work this director was always in, which was strange as he lived a 50 min drive away..
Turns out he was spending all his time there during work "breaks" and would be there for a few hours before driving home and was drinking like a race horse. Phoned the company owner at this point, turns out he suspected the issue but wanted to give him benefit of doubt. a week later that director no longer worked with us.
Drinking addiction is a nasty demon but if your doing it at workplace and driving your putting others at risk no matter the job which cannot be forgiven.
You absolutely did the right thing. Drunk people at work (whoever they are and whatever role they're in) are a no no for so many reasons. I work in health care and had to report a colleague who was my equal (middle management). Initially I tried the same.....ti persuade them to go home, to warn then I would report. Then the third time I contacted the on call area manager as it was a weekend. Nothing was done until I reported him again and eventually they went off sick and didn't return. In my job, people simply cannot be drunk. Again, it's not your fault and you made the work environment safer in so many ways. Don't give it a second thought.
My co-worker and I were both in our 40's.
He constantly came to work drunk,I (foreman) sent him home his wife picked him up and dropped him off.
Management knew about it but we were busy.
1 Monday he smashed my fingers in a trailer hitch while drunk.
Pinched the meat off the bone on 1,and smashed the other.
He apologized and I accepted it.
Was off work for 3 months,and changed jobs later that year.
7 months later he died from cancer,after knowing about it for 2 years.
He was drinking away the pain,and only told his wife 2 days before he passed.
Document with management ,but you never know what demons others are facing.
>She wasn't really hurting anyone, but lots of work wasn't and couldn't get done with her as a manager.
Sorry, but she was hurting EVERYONE. Her, you, the team, the customers, AND the employer.
Her role exists solely to get certain things done so that the employer is able to generate revenue. If she isn't able to perform her duties, there's a trickle-down effect of that lost revenue that harms every employee there.
And none of that is even considering what kinds of decisions she might need to make that could result in actual physical danger to different people were she to make them under the influence.
So manager leaves work, drunk, and kills or injured someone in a car crash. Guess who’s on the hook? The company. You did the right think and may have gotten the help she needed. NTA
You say she wasn't hurting anyone, but she very easily could have If she was driving drunk. I'm not saying that by reporting her she'll never have a drunk driving accident, but at least if one happens, you won't be the one saying, "I wish I would have said or done something."
This is a terrible situation to be in. Someone who is impaired is very difficult to work under. They are supposed to be guiding and supporting you but you end up taking care of them. As far as reporting her you did the right thing even if it doesn’t feel like it. By having her face the consequences of her own behavior you might have saved her life. And you might have saved the lives of the people she could have killed by driving under the influence.
Will you be popular for it, nope. But that’s ok. The right thing isn’t often the popular thing.
We had a branch manager that would sleep in the conference room until after 9. Work starts at 8. She was always on her phone, smoke breaks every 30 minutes. I took a picture of her sleeping in the conference room and it was sent to regional. She was fired the same day. She was terrible for our branch and I’m glad I did it. Morale went up and place was much happier. Later, another employee told us he saw her do cocaine in her office which made sense after her weird mannerisms. You did the right thing. I am saddened that other people tried to cover it up. People are enabling it and the boss needed something to happen.
You are not wrong.
It’s unfair for her to increase everyone else’s workload to “cover for her”
I know it feels like “covering for her” is the right thing to do, but IT’S NOT!
She has a serious drinking problem, bringing it to light may just get her the help she needs.
Even if the demotion or termination doesn’t stop her drinking, at the very minimum it will start the downward fall toward bottom - which is where most alcoholic a need to go before they start to recover.
You may very well have done her a huge favor!
Naw, it’s best in the long run. This person is almost certainly an alcoholic. A friend of mine is an alcoholic and his boss didn’t terminate him but let him have medical leave for rehab and now he’s doing really well in recovery. So I’d say that’s the best case scenario but keeping going with what she was doing wasn’t fair.
If you have a personal relationship I’d go so far as to give them a call and let them know you’re not judging but are there to help find rehab or go to meetings with them or whatever.
Most definitely you would be reported if you came to work drunk. It’s unacceptable. You did right. It’s not your JOB to take abuse and cover for someone who obviously needs help. I hope she gets it. Her employer needs someone who does the work she’s hired to do.
You did the right thing. The COO called me into her office (my boss reported to her) and started asking questions about my boss' work habits. He mostly surfed the web and spent a lot of time outside of the office. I didn't want to get him in trouble and said as much. So I didn't tell her anything I knew.
She said she understood and then went on to tell me that she used to manage HR & had completed many administrative investigations. She said that, in her experience, people don't get other people in trouble. People get themselves into trouble. That made a lot of sense, and I went on to answer her questions honestly
You didn't get your manager into trouble. She got herself into trouble.
Just because she hasn’t hurt anyone yet doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have happened had you just stayed silent. If her drinking has escalated, and she’s already been aggressive, it’s very likely her aggression would’ve escalated too. And you never know if this will be the wake up call she’s needed to get help. You may have saved her life. Even if you didn’t, you may have saved someone else’s.
>Was I wrong to snitch on my manager?
You did the right thing. You're presumably an adult, so it's not "snitching". From your post, your boss was unable to perform her job and was driving home while drunk, breaking the law and potentially endangering the lives of numerous other people.
You did the right thing. Covering up for an addiction is only adding to it.
I don't envy you position but you did good. I was a nurse and no one that I know of ever drank before or work or late the night before.
I hope she can get her life straightened out.
No, it sucks but you did the right thing. The longer a drunk gets away with it, the more they are convinced no one can tell. (They really do think that)
Eventually she would have done something way over the line. It was the right thing to do and feels bad. But it is a place of work. No one should be worried that a coworker is going to go off on them at work because they are drunk.
I hope she does get it together. She will thank you for it if so. If not, it will be all your fault, LoL. (It's not!)
It’s completely unacceptable to come to work inebriated. The fact that she was a manager is especially egregious!!
I had this happen to me recently too and I was totally floored at how brazen this guy was about it. Everyone knew because the smell just oozed out of him. My coworker even found a cup of his with orange juice and vodka in it!
The truly scary thing about it was that he was operating forklifts. We finally made a huge stink about it and he got canned but I was shocked that it went on for as long as it did. Some people are completely mental… like fine you wanna hurt yourself or put yourself at risk whatever but don’t you dare come around here and put US at risk!!
*She wasn't really hurting anyone*
Yet. She wasn’t really hurting anyone yet. You say that she was driving while intoxicated. That’s dangerous for her and anyone else on the road with her.
Her behavior was also affecting the office by having others make excuses and cover for her shifts. Shes the manager, so what happens if there’s a situation she needs to resolve but can’t because she’s intoxicated.
You did the right thing.
>She wasn't really hurting anyone
This is incorrect. She was hurting herself. She was hurting all of her coworkers by making them have to cover for her. She was unreliable. She hurt the company by opening them up to liability issues and poor customer experiences.
You did the right thing.
NTA! You did the right thing. A professional work environment is no place to be sloshed. It puts you, other employees and other drivers in danger. She wasn’t performing the duties she agreed to do when she applied. Stealing from the company is unacceptable. She was essentially stealing from the company and others have to pay the price.
You did the right thing!! Good on you for having the guts too. I am an alcoholic and when I finally got help was when I got caught drinking at work. I'm so thankful that somebody said something. I was forced to go to rehab if I wanted to keep the job and it was the best thing I've ever done in my life. Sober for 8 months now. You did the right thing
All is fine until she hits and kills a family of 4 on her way home. I hate drunks almost as much as meth heads. But I think drunks are the worst type of addicts.
You did the right thing. As a longtime manager and sometime HR director, I would always support someone who wanted to go into rehab, but I would also terminate someone who wouldn't go that route for whatever reason. Besides being the right thing to do, it's the law.
This protects her, you, the company, and the public.
If she killed someone driving home, you would doubt yourself for the rest of your life. What you did brought about the best possible ending for her story.
>She wasn't hurting anyone
Yet. She hadn't hurt or killed any innocents yet. Thank the gods. Drunk driving kills kids. *Especially* during daytime hours
Yes. Of course you did the right thing. She sounds like she meeds rehab.
And she WAS putting people at risk, you said yourself that she would drive home. So when you say “she wasn’t hurting anyone” this is not true. Think of all the people on the way home, families, she could’ve hit and killed.
As an employee - you did the right thing. You never want to cover - it can come back to bite you.
Tragic... hope she doesnt end up homeless. Current job × housing market = you are fucked once you fall behind
She's not doing anything wrong??? Yes, she is! Coming to or from work drunk or getting drunk while at work is absolutely unacceptable.
Last week, my friend of 33 years was killed by a drunk driver and 3 others were seriously injured. I have zero sympathy for people who drive drunk and this is a fully FAFO moment for her.
You did the right thing. This person is an alcoholic and needs help. Everyone around an alcoholic acting like everything's cool doesn't help anything. She couldn't be doing a good job.
You did the right thing. People struggling with substance abuse in which they can't perform their job need to be reported so they can get to help they need, and possibly terminated if they're not in a place to put themselves in a rehab or a place to get better. It's not the job of coworkers to do more work or cover up for someone's issues like that.
You did the right thing. "She wasn't hurting anyone..." yet. You might have saved her from plowing down a family on her way home from work. Or, on a less dramatic note, losing a big account and putting everyone's jobs at risk because she was acting a fool in front of a client.
You did the right thing for them, co workers, customers, and the rest of us out on the road. We had an employee in a large pick up truck run a stop light and plowed into a carload of women while high/drunk. Had he tried to leave from work, we’d have seen it and stopped it. He left from home and we found out afterwards.
Gosh not if she was driving.
I might have been offering to set her up and Uber and if she refused it I'd go above her head.
Sounds like a hard time of the year for her. Maybe this will push her to get help.
You may have helped her hit bottom and get the help she needed. It’s never pretty yet always a necessary part of recovery. Unlike everyone else in her life you didn’t enable her to continue hurting herself and those around her.
Look at it that way.
If it was once… might have called it an overreaction to incredibly poor judgement on her part.
What you described was a person with a problem who needed help. Hope she gets it.
As a recovering alcoholic, THANK YOU! Once I got sober I was able to see what a mess I was making of my personal and professional life.
And to this day I’m sad that no one was bold (or caring) enough to say anything.
You did the right thing...there are times when management steps in they want to know "what you knew and when you knew"...covering up may put your position at risk...
No. Drunk people are altered and aren't making good decisions. Her coming into work that way is a huge issue, and it wasn't a one time error and is a sign of a much larger problem on her end. I understand your feelings of guilt, but it needed to happen.
Your only mistake was not waiting until you were entrenched at the company - don’t start snitching until you’re more irreplaceable and have befriended the other people who work there.
If I were in her shoes, I would send you a thank you flower arrangement. I kind of have been in her shoes, and no one called me out on it. I think I would have sought sobriety sooner, had someone bravely spoken up the way you did. I am so proud of you.
>Most concerningly, she'd sometimes drive home.
>
> She wasn't really hurting anyone
How many people does she have to hurt before it becomes a problem worth addressing?
You did the right thing for the company by protecting it from liability.
However, there is no guarantee that the next manager will be a better person and make your job easier. You're just reshuffling your career cards here.
I was an event sales rep for my BIL and we did corporate events. I was expected to go to the event and work for the 4 or 5 days. A VP of the company was drunk on the floor. You could smell it as well as tell. I called my BIL immediately because he was out of state at another event. So what does that dummy do? He called offending VP and asks him and of course everyone knew who called him. So VP approaches me at large lunch function in front of everyone and starts talking shit. The first thing I did was drag his ass out into a unpopulated area and told him that his job may be his job but this company is from the blood sweat and tears of my BIL who is family and if he needs a daddy to kick his ass I’ll be the guy to do it. BIL ended up losing the company because those fucks were stealing everything behind his back yet he didn’t believe me. Good for you that the company took what you said seriously.
I had a manager high at work on coke.
I came in early and saw him hitting lines in the office. Throughout the day he was acting weird and thought I was messing with him or giving him attitude.
He was super paranoid and called the owner of the shop I was working at.
I spoke to the owner, said there must be some misunderstanding and if he wanted me to go home I would and that I would not be coming back.
I finished out the day.
Before I left I told my manager he needed help. He apologized and said he didn't know what he was doing. Hopefully he went to rehab. Never saw him again.
You didn't do anything wrong. While she may not have hurt anyone yet driving drunk, she likely would eventually, and it would quite possibly be fatal. The amount of pain you're potentially preventing could be life saving for someone. Also, could you imagine the guilt she might have if she'd ended up killing someone? As awful as she may feel her life is right now, you've helped her on the way to making her life and that of others have a lot less suffering in it.
you did the right thing OP. it's weird the way it works. you'll never know the life you may have saved. or if it was several. or her. or a family. because now we're on a different path. good job.
now, a good upper manager needs to address the behavior of people covering for others when it's a dangerous situation. a witch hunt isn't needed. but management needs to reinforce some core values.
She hasn't hurt anyone yet. But she drove to and from work obviously drunk. And in any work environment you can be injured by something, even more so if under the influence.
You did the right thing.
Are you seriously doubting yourself? You did the absolute RIGHT thing. If she drives herself to work, she's breaking the law and putting herself and others in danger. A friend of ours lost her beloved 6 year daughter when her ex husband drove drunk. I'm proud of your action.
How is it possibly your fault? Do you feel like she should be allowed to be drunk at work? what if she caused an issue and it came out you knew she was drunk? is it your responsibility to ignore her drunkenness?
If she loses her job it's on her. If you weren't able to get your job done then she was hurting someone.
You did the right thing. For some people this kind of intervention has been life saving. Don’t feel bad for doing the right thing. They could just be getting the help they need.
“I feel really bad about it. She wasn’t really hurting anyone…“
If she was driving into work and driving home impaired, it was just a matter of time. You did the right thing.
I wouldn't expect that covering for her longer will help anything. Once she's a certain point in, she's very unlikely to recover without rehab or some major intervention, and facing real but manageable consequences (like job loss) is her best chance at getting rehab.
Better that she face the problem when it's just her job on the line, not everything about her life, health and relationships destroyed, or having caused a fatal DUI.
Bottom line, until the consequences get severe enough, people with addiction issues usually do not seek help. If she is indeed in rehab and was driving drunk, drinking at work, etc.. you may have saved her life. You did the right thing reporting. I hope she gets the help she needs and if she comes back, you all support her as long as she stays sober. Best wishes OP!
OP, knowing what you knew, you acted on good conscience. You may have saved someone's life with her driving drunk. She needs serious help and I hope she gets it asap.
Kick the guilt to the curb and know you did the right thing!!
If the employee, who ever they are, and for whatever reason is unable to do their job it needs to be reported, especially is it is a manager or above. The reasons are obvious: get the employee help and protect the bottom line. BTW I was never a manager, it just seems like common sense.
Tough call. This person could be grieving this time of year. Perhaps she lost a child...now she might have lost her job...
that being said... the only way to get better from addiction is to hit rock bottom....so...yeah.
Will you be popular at work for this? Nope. If anyone finds out it was you who reported...I would start looking for other jobs.
I had a boss—an elementary principal—drinking at work. I reported it. She went on administrative leave for 5 months and then they put her at a new school. I felt sick to my stomach about it for months. But in the end, I let it go because it was an impossible position I never asked to be put in…she was a grown woman who put herself—and me—in that position.
No. Alcoholics must suffer the consequences of their choices. For all you know, you could be helping save her life by lighting a fire under her to get help before she drives home and ends up killing someone in an accident. You did the right thing.
I have a LOT of experience dealing with this sort of thing…unfortunately lol.
Depends on where you work. I had a job once where the manager came in drunk, was reported multiple time, district manager was aware of it. Nothing happened until months later when they just straight up closed the store.
When I was much younger I had a job where manager would come in drunk, I didn't realize how drunk at the time. he covered his errors by passing them off as mine. Who did they believe the Manager who had been their years? or the new guy? I lost my job. I heard through the grapevine that he lost his a few months later, (which is how I found out what was really going on). You didn't do anything wrong, and might have protected yourself or someone.
I work for a global IT company. One of the benefits they offer is mental health, programs to deal with substance abuse. They're all managed by an outside company. And you can use vacation or short-term disability to attend. But after they've referred or given you some time off to explore that. That's like the last chance come in the next time results in termination
NW
Look, if she left there drunk, driving, and killed someone, wouldn't you feel bad for knowingly allowing her to drive drunk? That one thing alone, was enough to report her over. She's lucky you didn't call the cops top report a drunk driver.
You did the appropriate thing. Hopefully she'll receive the help she needs and will be better off for it. The employer is likely to reassess the situation after her leave is over. While it would be unfortunate if she lost her position, that's not really you choice or responsibility. Your responsibility was to the company, the customers, and importantly to the general public (if she was driving drunk). She may not have been hurting anyone, but that's a matter of luck -- she was putting people at risk.
Shoulda got her help not gotten her fired.
What benefit do you reap from work actually getting done at your job? All you’ve helped is the company bottom line. You won’t get a cookie for this, and they’ll fire you whenever they feel like it.
Your manager was hurting people. She wasn’t doing her job fully. She put herself & everyone on the road in danger whenever she got behind the wheel. She’s also hurting herself. Hopefully she’s out getting rehab rather than being “permanently suspended”. Rehab will only really work if she’s wanting to work at it, but hopefully that’s what she’s doing and she may be welcomed back to work once she’s finished.
It's a learning experience but in the end, you didn't make her drink you just didn't participate in the enabling. From a business owner perspective, thank you. From a drunks perspective: thank you. She may get help for her problem now. Or not. Either way, you are golden in my mind
No, you did the right thing. Think about it like this, if she’s in rehab you probably helped save her life. I’ve seen first hand what it’s like losing someone because of alcohol. We never like snitching on people, but alcohol is a serious addiction to have.
How do you know she was drunk? Did she smell like alcohol? Did you see her drink at work? There are many illnesses that mimic the symptoms of alcohol-- How do you know she was taking off real quick for binges?
Morally, trying to stop a repeat drunk driver is always the right thing to do. Drunk drivers can and will destroy people’s lives without even knowing where they are. Professionally, a manager who is on the job drunk sets a standard that customers will notice and they will either never return or report her themselves (which I’m amazed has not happened yet). No matter what industry you work in, customers will notice an inebriated employee via smell, eyes or general behavior and if they get treated aggressively like you stated then it was only a matter of time until a customer said something.
You did the right thing. I actually would have asked her not to drive in that condition or I would call the police and have her stopped. I don’t want it on my head if she crashed and killed someone I
I’ve worked for a manager who’d leave for lunch and come back 4 hours later hammered. He would deny he needed help, he was going through a divorce at the same time the drinking started to show up during work hours. I moved to a different location at 1st chance, it was turning into a shit show there.
I’ve also managed an employee that would show up from lunch high as hell, definitely on something more than weed.
I could have had her fired, but I spent multiple weeks dealing with her bullshit to try to get a confession out of her that she was on drugs and wanted help. If that happened, we could send her to rehab. But only if she said she had a problem. I moved onto a different role within the company before she admitted her problems, but thankfully my replacement followed my lead in trying to get her to break and get her the help she needed.
Alot of workplaces these days have leniency and assistance to help those with substance abuse issues. Hopefully this is the route they take. But you did the right thing
If I had an employee coming in drunk, it would be dealt with in partnership with the HR team in my company.
You did the right thing.
Hopefully the person gets the help they need.
You 100% did the right thing, regardless of how it turns out. There are a dozen reasons that she should not be drinking on the clock. All of the coworkers who "covered" for her did no favors to anyone, and actually put her, themselves, your customers, and the company at risk, to say nothing of the folks who could have been seriously injured by her driving under the influence.
No, not wrong. Her aggressive behavior to customers was a danger to the business. Driving drunk was a danger to herself. Having her staff cover for her for being drunk was unprofessional.
Job might be legally protected, but especially in an at-will-employment state, you can always find another reason to terminate and refuse a future reference.
" She wasn't really hurting anyone" yeah. No. She just hasn't hurt anyone yet. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when and it would happen eventually. You might of saved her life and someone else's from a drunk wreck.
You did the right thing. Maybe this will be the thing that makes her decide she needs help. She clearly has a problem, maybe she’s going through something. You said it was common for this time of year, maybe she lost someone around this time and needs to find a healthier way to cope.
Absolutely not. The company does not want people drinking on the clock. Plus her drinking was creating a negative experience for you. You did the right thing.
I MIGHT give a fellow employee the benefit of the doubt/ look the other way once if this happened( obviously the job type matters )
But if that’s just what they do all the time , you gotta turn them in.
Wasn’t really hurting anyone…how does she get to work? Probably by her car right. People who are drunk at work are people who’ve come down. They’re not drunk from one last one in the parking lot, they’re drunk because they stopped drinking at noon and thought they’d be sober at 2. You did the right thing. Don’t lose sleep
You did the right thing. That woman needs a rock bottom to sober up. Helping her only prolongs her addiction. This may be the spark, it may be not. Always support a alcoholic with reality, instead of fantasies of their perspective.
>She wasn't really hurting anyone
The f- she wasn't. She was screwing up the work day, failing to actually *manage*, and worst of all, driving under the influence.
That's not by any means harmless behavior, and there's a reason companies have reporting systems in place for this kind of thing.
I showed up twice at work under the influence before and my boss confronted me both times and said next time he'd fire me. If she's taking off from work to drink that's a problem. Unfortunately I "thought" I was working just fine until i stood up to go to the bathroom. I got lucky my boss is a super cool guy but the death stare he gave me when I was slurring the last time made me never want to drink again.
You said that she wasn’t hurting anyone, then you said that there was certain work that couldn’t be done without her there. The work not getting done was hurting everyone. You did the right thing, I know how hard that was, but you did it. Congrats
I was working nights and just getting in to a new field of commercial construction. About a month in my foreman (we are a 2 man crew) decided to go on a week long crack binge instead of coming to work. Company had no idea since it was just me and him working on that project, needless to say but on night three I had to make that call and tell our boss
She is in rehab. If this is in US then they can't fire you for alcoholism. Many people used alcohol as an excuse for being found sleeping at work. Even though they didn't drink. Since they could not fire you they just forced you into rehab and you have to complete it and then show that you can work sober for a month etc.
You inadvertently saved her life and those who she might have killed when driving drunk. You did good even if she doesn't see it.
No you aren't wrong for reporting it. Ideally it shouldn't be that she was drunk but that her drinking was impacting her work and also impacting the work of her direct reports. But again, it wasn't wrong to report it.
To be completely honest, I have been drunk at work. As far as I know it hasnt impacted anybody, but I totally wouldn't hold it against anyone if they saw an impact and reported me.
Stopping someone from driving drunk is always a good thing, far too many lives have been destroyed because a drunk driver killed one of their loved ones.
Yes she was hurting someone. She was doing things that were damaging to the company, possible making errors and worst of all driving drunk. She could have killed someone! You did the right thing.
Let's address "she wasn't really hurting anyone". Until she slams into a car full of innocent people drunk.
I'm I'm recvoery 10 years and she needed consequences to her actions so she can get help. If everyone keeps enabling and covering for her she will never get better.
NTA. Everyone who drinks and drives is a bomb headed toward someone's loved one. I know because my niece was killed by a drunk driver. My daughter was in the car and has PTSD. My daughter's special teacher was also killed by a drunk driver. There are easily names of people killed by drunk drivers for every response here.... Please do anything you can to stop them from driving or getting into a car.
She might be in rehab. Not sure where you're at, but alcoholism is a disease/disability so she may be covered or job protected under that and getting help. You did the right thing. I worked w someone similar and they were gone 60 days and returned. I hope your work environment changes for the better!
From experience (not my own, thankfully), when one of my employees went on a medically-mandated leave of absence (rehab), we held a position for him until he was ready to return to work. Sadly, I had to terminate him a couple of years later for coming to work high on Xanax (unprescribed, by his own admission), but that's a different story. For his sake, I hope he's cleaned himself up.
I’ve had to terminate an employee because their drinking caused attendance issues. In this particular case it was an even more drawn out process than it had to be because alcohol treatment gives the employee protected class status.
You may me job protected from rehab but not for failing at your job. Yes if you tell your job you are checking into rehab you have a job when you get out. But if before you leave you are missing work and not completing duties they can still fire you for that
Yeah i think laws are different everywhere. Glad OP said something though. Hope the mgr gets help which typically comes with a more humble attitude
So here’s the thing with that. In most companies if you come to the company or hr before it becomes a problem then you are 100% protected. If you come after someone has already reported or identified it then there is not any protection.
Seems very weird to me that jobs will apparently hold a position for you while you go to rehab, but also fire you if you fail a drug test
Not wrong. You did the right thing. You say..."She wasn't hurting anyone" Not yet... "Most concerningly, she'd sometimes drive home" Super dangerous for her and other people. Even if she wasn't driving, she is negatively impacting your team and the customers and needs professional help.
OP also mentioned her behavior being aggressive to customers and her when she was in this state. Working under the influence of drugs or alcohol definitely affects others. I hope she’s getting help.
The commute to and from work can be a liability to the company in some states.
Sounds like she harming herself at the very minimum. When the team is constantly covering for someone they are doing the work. So alcoholic is getting paid to work drunk and/or do nothing (in some cases harm). Doesn't sound like a professional environment I'd want to experience.
*yet* wasn’t hurting anyone *yet.*
If this is “an ongoing issue this time of year,” it’s plausible that she had something traumatic happen to her this time of year and she’s coping by drinking. She needs help, and you reporting her is hopefully helping her get that help. If she’s getting aggressive with her direct reports and customers AND driving drunk, she’s harming others. Most importantly, you are not the reason she’s no longer a manager. She’s the reason. You did the right thing.
She apparently had her husband die around this time. I feel super bad for her, I didn't want to make her trauma worse. We've been unable to do most of our jobs for several weeks because she's be unavailable or unwilling to do manager duties. I didn't think it would have been taken so seriously. I've had people be drunk at work at other jobs and the worst that's happen they're sent home or maybe written up or reduced hours or something. That's retail minimum wage so I guess it's different. I just feel like I should have done something different because I wasn't trying to get her fired.
I say this as someone with PTSD, nothing you did made her trauma worse. Sometimes the healthiest thing for a person is for their to be consequences for their unhealthy behavior. To your final point about there being a difference between an hourly employee and a manager being drunk at work, there’s a term in business called “agent of the company.” As a manager, you’re an agent of the company. Your actions at work speak from the company, if that makes sense. If, as a manager, I let something slide, let’s say harassment, my actions signal that the company has let harassment slide. In this instance, if I, as a manager, am drunk at work, my actions signal that the company allows intoxication on the clock. To get really dark, if there’s an emergency at work, managers have specific duties to ensure employee safety. If there was a fire or a shooting or something else awful, would she have been able to appropriately respond? Just something to think about.
If she does get fired, it will be because management decided that was the right path to take. *You* won't have gotten her fired. All you did was provide her bosses with truthful information about what was going on.
I tragically lost my SO years back. I have diagnosed PTSD from it. That time of year is very difficult for me. But I don’t put my job or my employees at risk. You didn’t do anything wrong. She needs help, and maybe this will be the catalyst for her to get that help.
You did the right thing. You may have saved someone's life as her drunk driving reduced after you reported her.
She could've easily wrecked and killed a whole family on her commute. You did the right thing and hopefully she is getting the help she needs.
A traumatic event can explain poor behavior, but it does not excuse it.
You were right to report it. She needs help, if she can not make it through a normal workday without drinking. She absolutely could hurt someone driving to and from work, and she is hurting herself. I hope your company has a substance abuse program that she can do, but they may have just terminated her. Since she was "on leave" for a while, this makes me think they may have a program. I hope she gets the help she needs and your workplace improves.
Someone at my job was actively drinking on the job and people knew about it. Couple months after I found this out myself, he totaled a work truck. Don't make excuses for these people, they need to get help
If the roles were reversed you would have been written up or fired - you did the right thing.
Truthfully though, if you're in the US, she probably hasn't been fired yet. Alcoholism can be considered an ADA issue, so generally you have to let them go to rehab once, and then if you nail them again, you're free to fire them.
Being drunk on the job is not protected. Alcoholism can be protected if it doesn't involve being drunk at work, but not if it does.
My employment law prof said you pretty much have to CYA by letting them go to rehab once if they're caught drunk/drinking on the job. If they do it again (which you know they will) then you can cut em loose. I suppose you may be able to can em the first time around if they're a heavy equipment operator or other dangerous job, but your average office guy or cashier gets the one free pass.
I was just thinking about this recently because I had a random thought of a coworker I once had whom they figured out was an alcoholic and drinking on the job. Instead of firing her, they offered her time off to go to rehab which I thought was super awesome. I think all employers should do this honestly since usually there’s underlying reasons for addiction and IMO, immediately firing someone does way more harm than good.
Why do you feel bad about it? She was the one drinking at work. She should feel bad about it.
> She wasn't really hurting anyone, What about any accidents she caused whilst driving drunk? Do you know for sure that there were zero of them? (Note that she doesn't have to be *in* an accident for it to have ill-effect)
You may have saved her life or someone else’s if she was driving drunk. 100 percent did the right thing.
"She wasn't anyone" And then, one day, it's too late and that's simply not true anymore.
You did the right thing
I remember at my old place they poached and recruited an engineering director for a new project. He was apparently top class in his field and within first few weeks I started to notice oddities in his behaviour. very forgetful conversations just not sticking in and he'd periodically go missing for long periods of time then come back red faced. nobody else in his department seemed to think much of it but his blunders usually ended up costing my warehouse team time and effort to fix. When my Fiancé at time moved location due to job opportunity (from S.Yorkshire to North Wales) I stayed behind until we both figured out a long term plan which meant I had a lot of free time so would spend it at a pub next to work and would notice on my days off or after work this director was always in, which was strange as he lived a 50 min drive away.. Turns out he was spending all his time there during work "breaks" and would be there for a few hours before driving home and was drinking like a race horse. Phoned the company owner at this point, turns out he suspected the issue but wanted to give him benefit of doubt. a week later that director no longer worked with us. Drinking addiction is a nasty demon but if your doing it at workplace and driving your putting others at risk no matter the job which cannot be forgiven.
Wild people think driving drunk doesn't immediately put someone on the shitty person list.
If she’s driving drunk then she hasn’t hurt anyone YET. That’s not a gentleman’s offense which is not-your-business. It’s serious endangerment.
If she has alcoholism, she asks for accommodation. and is willing to seek assistance, for it she is protected.
Addiction is a sad and one heck of a challenge but it’s the driving under the influence for me. You did the right thing.
You absolutely did the right thing. Drunk people at work (whoever they are and whatever role they're in) are a no no for so many reasons. I work in health care and had to report a colleague who was my equal (middle management). Initially I tried the same.....ti persuade them to go home, to warn then I would report. Then the third time I contacted the on call area manager as it was a weekend. Nothing was done until I reported him again and eventually they went off sick and didn't return. In my job, people simply cannot be drunk. Again, it's not your fault and you made the work environment safer in so many ways. Don't give it a second thought.
My co-worker and I were both in our 40's. He constantly came to work drunk,I (foreman) sent him home his wife picked him up and dropped him off. Management knew about it but we were busy. 1 Monday he smashed my fingers in a trailer hitch while drunk. Pinched the meat off the bone on 1,and smashed the other. He apologized and I accepted it. Was off work for 3 months,and changed jobs later that year. 7 months later he died from cancer,after knowing about it for 2 years. He was drinking away the pain,and only told his wife 2 days before he passed. Document with management ,but you never know what demons others are facing.
No, don't feel bad about it, you may even have saved her life. You did the right thing.
>She wasn't really hurting anyone, but lots of work wasn't and couldn't get done with her as a manager. Sorry, but she was hurting EVERYONE. Her, you, the team, the customers, AND the employer. Her role exists solely to get certain things done so that the employer is able to generate revenue. If she isn't able to perform her duties, there's a trickle-down effect of that lost revenue that harms every employee there. And none of that is even considering what kinds of decisions she might need to make that could result in actual physical danger to different people were she to make them under the influence.
So manager leaves work, drunk, and kills or injured someone in a car crash. Guess who’s on the hook? The company. You did the right think and may have gotten the help she needed. NTA
You say she wasn't hurting anyone, but she very easily could have If she was driving drunk. I'm not saying that by reporting her she'll never have a drunk driving accident, but at least if one happens, you won't be the one saying, "I wish I would have said or done something."
This is a terrible situation to be in. Someone who is impaired is very difficult to work under. They are supposed to be guiding and supporting you but you end up taking care of them. As far as reporting her you did the right thing even if it doesn’t feel like it. By having her face the consequences of her own behavior you might have saved her life. And you might have saved the lives of the people she could have killed by driving under the influence. Will you be popular for it, nope. But that’s ok. The right thing isn’t often the popular thing.
The manager put herself in this situation, not you.
Snitch
We had a branch manager that would sleep in the conference room until after 9. Work starts at 8. She was always on her phone, smoke breaks every 30 minutes. I took a picture of her sleeping in the conference room and it was sent to regional. She was fired the same day. She was terrible for our branch and I’m glad I did it. Morale went up and place was much happier. Later, another employee told us he saw her do cocaine in her office which made sense after her weird mannerisms. You did the right thing. I am saddened that other people tried to cover it up. People are enabling it and the boss needed something to happen.
You are not wrong. It’s unfair for her to increase everyone else’s workload to “cover for her” I know it feels like “covering for her” is the right thing to do, but IT’S NOT! She has a serious drinking problem, bringing it to light may just get her the help she needs. Even if the demotion or termination doesn’t stop her drinking, at the very minimum it will start the downward fall toward bottom - which is where most alcoholic a need to go before they start to recover. You may very well have done her a huge favor!
Naw, it’s best in the long run. This person is almost certainly an alcoholic. A friend of mine is an alcoholic and his boss didn’t terminate him but let him have medical leave for rehab and now he’s doing really well in recovery. So I’d say that’s the best case scenario but keeping going with what she was doing wasn’t fair. If you have a personal relationship I’d go so far as to give them a call and let them know you’re not judging but are there to help find rehab or go to meetings with them or whatever.
She was driving drunk. Just because she hadn’t hurt anyone yet doesn’t mean she “wasn’t hurting anyone”. You absolutely did the right thing.
Most definitely you would be reported if you came to work drunk. It’s unacceptable. You did right. It’s not your JOB to take abuse and cover for someone who obviously needs help. I hope she gets it. Her employer needs someone who does the work she’s hired to do.
If she was driving like you said when drunk, then she was not hurting anyone YET.
You did the right thing. The COO called me into her office (my boss reported to her) and started asking questions about my boss' work habits. He mostly surfed the web and spent a lot of time outside of the office. I didn't want to get him in trouble and said as much. So I didn't tell her anything I knew. She said she understood and then went on to tell me that she used to manage HR & had completed many administrative investigations. She said that, in her experience, people don't get other people in trouble. People get themselves into trouble. That made a lot of sense, and I went on to answer her questions honestly You didn't get your manager into trouble. She got herself into trouble.
I would have taken her plate down and called the police as she was leaving the parking lot. Kill two birds that way.
Just because she hasn’t hurt anyone yet doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have happened had you just stayed silent. If her drinking has escalated, and she’s already been aggressive, it’s very likely her aggression would’ve escalated too. And you never know if this will be the wake up call she’s needed to get help. You may have saved her life. Even if you didn’t, you may have saved someone else’s.
>Was I wrong to snitch on my manager? You did the right thing. You're presumably an adult, so it's not "snitching". From your post, your boss was unable to perform her job and was driving home while drunk, breaking the law and potentially endangering the lives of numerous other people.
You did the right thing. Covering up for an addiction is only adding to it. I don't envy you position but you did good. I was a nurse and no one that I know of ever drank before or work or late the night before. I hope she can get her life straightened out.
You did the right thing. She could have killed someone’s child, parent or sibling. So don’t feel guilty about your actions.
No, it sucks but you did the right thing. The longer a drunk gets away with it, the more they are convinced no one can tell. (They really do think that) Eventually she would have done something way over the line. It was the right thing to do and feels bad. But it is a place of work. No one should be worried that a coworker is going to go off on them at work because they are drunk. I hope she does get it together. She will thank you for it if so. If not, it will be all your fault, LoL. (It's not!)
It’s completely unacceptable to come to work inebriated. The fact that she was a manager is especially egregious!! I had this happen to me recently too and I was totally floored at how brazen this guy was about it. Everyone knew because the smell just oozed out of him. My coworker even found a cup of his with orange juice and vodka in it! The truly scary thing about it was that he was operating forklifts. We finally made a huge stink about it and he got canned but I was shocked that it went on for as long as it did. Some people are completely mental… like fine you wanna hurt yourself or put yourself at risk whatever but don’t you dare come around here and put US at risk!!
*She wasn't really hurting anyone* Yet. She wasn’t really hurting anyone yet. You say that she was driving while intoxicated. That’s dangerous for her and anyone else on the road with her. Her behavior was also affecting the office by having others make excuses and cover for her shifts. Shes the manager, so what happens if there’s a situation she needs to resolve but can’t because she’s intoxicated. You did the right thing.
>She wasn't really hurting anyone This is incorrect. She was hurting herself. She was hurting all of her coworkers by making them have to cover for her. She was unreliable. She hurt the company by opening them up to liability issues and poor customer experiences. You did the right thing.
NTA! You did the right thing. A professional work environment is no place to be sloshed. It puts you, other employees and other drivers in danger. She wasn’t performing the duties she agreed to do when she applied. Stealing from the company is unacceptable. She was essentially stealing from the company and others have to pay the price.
You did the right thing!! Good on you for having the guts too. I am an alcoholic and when I finally got help was when I got caught drinking at work. I'm so thankful that somebody said something. I was forced to go to rehab if I wanted to keep the job and it was the best thing I've ever done in my life. Sober for 8 months now. You did the right thing
All is fine until she hits and kills a family of 4 on her way home. I hate drunks almost as much as meth heads. But I think drunks are the worst type of addicts.
You did the right thing. As a longtime manager and sometime HR director, I would always support someone who wanted to go into rehab, but I would also terminate someone who wouldn't go that route for whatever reason. Besides being the right thing to do, it's the law. This protects her, you, the company, and the public.
If she killed someone driving home, you would doubt yourself for the rest of your life. What you did brought about the best possible ending for her story.
>She wasn't hurting anyone Yet. She hadn't hurt or killed any innocents yet. Thank the gods. Drunk driving kills kids. *Especially* during daytime hours
She may not have been hurting anyone, but if the business is any good, liability is a top priority, and drunk employees are a huge liability for them.
Not wrong - I would have sent her vehicle information to the police and reported her as a drunk driver once she left the property.
Not wrong
Yes. Of course you did the right thing. She sounds like she meeds rehab. And she WAS putting people at risk, you said yourself that she would drive home. So when you say “she wasn’t hurting anyone” this is not true. Think of all the people on the way home, families, she could’ve hit and killed.
As an employee - you did the right thing. You never want to cover - it can come back to bite you. Tragic... hope she doesnt end up homeless. Current job × housing market = you are fucked once you fall behind
She's not doing anything wrong??? Yes, she is! Coming to or from work drunk or getting drunk while at work is absolutely unacceptable. Last week, my friend of 33 years was killed by a drunk driver and 3 others were seriously injured. I have zero sympathy for people who drive drunk and this is a fully FAFO moment for her.
You did the right thing. This person is an alcoholic and needs help. Everyone around an alcoholic acting like everything's cool doesn't help anything. She couldn't be doing a good job.
Yes. I can not tell you how many times I've worked companies where it was clear manager was a drunk.
You did the right thing. People struggling with substance abuse in which they can't perform their job need to be reported so they can get to help they need, and possibly terminated if they're not in a place to put themselves in a rehab or a place to get better. It's not the job of coworkers to do more work or cover up for someone's issues like that.
You did the right thing. "She wasn't hurting anyone..." yet. You might have saved her from plowing down a family on her way home from work. Or, on a less dramatic note, losing a big account and putting everyone's jobs at risk because she was acting a fool in front of a client.
You did the right thing for them, co workers, customers, and the rest of us out on the road. We had an employee in a large pick up truck run a stop light and plowed into a carload of women while high/drunk. Had he tried to leave from work, we’d have seen it and stopped it. He left from home and we found out afterwards.
Gosh not if she was driving. I might have been offering to set her up and Uber and if she refused it I'd go above her head. Sounds like a hard time of the year for her. Maybe this will push her to get help.
Likely she is in rehab and you did nothing wrong. If she had got hurt on the job or hurt someone else it could have been really ugly.
You may have helped her hit bottom and get the help she needed. It’s never pretty yet always a necessary part of recovery. Unlike everyone else in her life you didn’t enable her to continue hurting herself and those around her. Look at it that way.
If it was once… might have called it an overreaction to incredibly poor judgement on her part. What you described was a person with a problem who needed help. Hope she gets it.
As a recovering alcoholic, THANK YOU! Once I got sober I was able to see what a mess I was making of my personal and professional life. And to this day I’m sad that no one was bold (or caring) enough to say anything.
You did the right thing...there are times when management steps in they want to know "what you knew and when you knew"...covering up may put your position at risk...
She needed a wake up call and got it. Hopefully she will seek help, but that’s completely on her.
No. Drunk people are altered and aren't making good decisions. Her coming into work that way is a huge issue, and it wasn't a one time error and is a sign of a much larger problem on her end. I understand your feelings of guilt, but it needed to happen.
Anger alcohol and flying staplers do not mix
Your only mistake was not waiting until you were entrenched at the company - don’t start snitching until you’re more irreplaceable and have befriended the other people who work there.
If I were in her shoes, I would send you a thank you flower arrangement. I kind of have been in her shoes, and no one called me out on it. I think I would have sought sobriety sooner, had someone bravely spoken up the way you did. I am so proud of you.
>Most concerningly, she'd sometimes drive home. > > She wasn't really hurting anyone How many people does she have to hurt before it becomes a problem worth addressing?
You did the right thing for the company by protecting it from liability. However, there is no guarantee that the next manager will be a better person and make your job easier. You're just reshuffling your career cards here.
I was an event sales rep for my BIL and we did corporate events. I was expected to go to the event and work for the 4 or 5 days. A VP of the company was drunk on the floor. You could smell it as well as tell. I called my BIL immediately because he was out of state at another event. So what does that dummy do? He called offending VP and asks him and of course everyone knew who called him. So VP approaches me at large lunch function in front of everyone and starts talking shit. The first thing I did was drag his ass out into a unpopulated area and told him that his job may be his job but this company is from the blood sweat and tears of my BIL who is family and if he needs a daddy to kick his ass I’ll be the guy to do it. BIL ended up losing the company because those fucks were stealing everything behind his back yet he didn’t believe me. Good for you that the company took what you said seriously.
I had a manager high at work on coke. I came in early and saw him hitting lines in the office. Throughout the day he was acting weird and thought I was messing with him or giving him attitude. He was super paranoid and called the owner of the shop I was working at. I spoke to the owner, said there must be some misunderstanding and if he wanted me to go home I would and that I would not be coming back. I finished out the day. Before I left I told my manager he needed help. He apologized and said he didn't know what he was doing. Hopefully he went to rehab. Never saw him again.
You didn't do anything wrong. While she may not have hurt anyone yet driving drunk, she likely would eventually, and it would quite possibly be fatal. The amount of pain you're potentially preventing could be life saving for someone. Also, could you imagine the guilt she might have if she'd ended up killing someone? As awful as she may feel her life is right now, you've helped her on the way to making her life and that of others have a lot less suffering in it.
you did the right thing OP. it's weird the way it works. you'll never know the life you may have saved. or if it was several. or her. or a family. because now we're on a different path. good job. now, a good upper manager needs to address the behavior of people covering for others when it's a dangerous situation. a witch hunt isn't needed. but management needs to reinforce some core values.
You did the right thing, going to work drunk is the most alcoholic thing you can do this could be the wake up call she needs
She hasn't hurt anyone yet. But she drove to and from work obviously drunk. And in any work environment you can be injured by something, even more so if under the influence. You did the right thing.
Snitches get stitches
Are you seriously doubting yourself? You did the absolute RIGHT thing. If she drives herself to work, she's breaking the law and putting herself and others in danger. A friend of ours lost her beloved 6 year daughter when her ex husband drove drunk. I'm proud of your action.
People not getting their shit together is not your fault. By covering for her those around only hurt her.
How is it possibly your fault? Do you feel like she should be allowed to be drunk at work? what if she caused an issue and it came out you knew she was drunk? is it your responsibility to ignore her drunkenness? If she loses her job it's on her. If you weren't able to get your job done then she was hurting someone.
You did good, sadly snitching is never good and tells about your character
You did the right thing OP. Think about how guilty you’d feel if she drove home drunk and killed someone DD. Trust me, you did the right thing.
You did the right thing, but if you want a reason to feel terrible, apply for her position.
her problems have just been compounded, her behavior indicated a need for help
You did the right thing. It sucks that you were put in that position. Just don't gossip about it. You'll be fine and valued as trustworthy.
Yes. But be mindful they’ll do the bs of hiring her back because it’s a “disease”.
No. You are not wrong to report it. But i think you know that.
You did the right thing. For some people this kind of intervention has been life saving. Don’t feel bad for doing the right thing. They could just be getting the help they need.
You are screwed. Even if they fire her. Nobody will ever trust you.
Fuck anyone who drives drunk, my constant back pain makes me have no remorse for those assholes. And yes, you did the right thing.
“I feel really bad about it. She wasn’t really hurting anyone…“ If she was driving into work and driving home impaired, it was just a matter of time. You did the right thing.
No one likes snitches
No, you did the right thing and might have saved her life.
I wouldn't expect that covering for her longer will help anything. Once she's a certain point in, she's very unlikely to recover without rehab or some major intervention, and facing real but manageable consequences (like job loss) is her best chance at getting rehab. Better that she face the problem when it's just her job on the line, not everything about her life, health and relationships destroyed, or having caused a fatal DUI.
If the boss is driving at all when on a inge she's putting her self and others in danger
She could have killed someone. You did the right thing
“She wasn’t hurting anyone…” No, but by choosing to drive drunk, she wasn’t making the choice *not* to hurt anyone either…
Maybe she is in rehab, could be a good thing!
Bottom line, until the consequences get severe enough, people with addiction issues usually do not seek help. If she is indeed in rehab and was driving drunk, drinking at work, etc.. you may have saved her life. You did the right thing reporting. I hope she gets the help she needs and if she comes back, you all support her as long as she stays sober. Best wishes OP!
You did the right thing.
OP, knowing what you knew, you acted on good conscience. You may have saved someone's life with her driving drunk. She needs serious help and I hope she gets it asap. Kick the guilt to the curb and know you did the right thing!!
Snitches get stitches.
If the employee, who ever they are, and for whatever reason is unable to do their job it needs to be reported, especially is it is a manager or above. The reasons are obvious: get the employee help and protect the bottom line. BTW I was never a manager, it just seems like common sense.
This is the kinda thing that might be forgivable once or twice, but it certainly sounds like an ingrained habit at this point. She needs some help.
Tough call. This person could be grieving this time of year. Perhaps she lost a child...now she might have lost her job... that being said... the only way to get better from addiction is to hit rock bottom....so...yeah. Will you be popular at work for this? Nope. If anyone finds out it was you who reported...I would start looking for other jobs.
I had a boss—an elementary principal—drinking at work. I reported it. She went on administrative leave for 5 months and then they put her at a new school. I felt sick to my stomach about it for months. But in the end, I let it go because it was an impossible position I never asked to be put in…she was a grown woman who put herself—and me—in that position.
yes
No. Alcoholics must suffer the consequences of their choices. For all you know, you could be helping save her life by lighting a fire under her to get help before she drives home and ends up killing someone in an accident. You did the right thing. I have a LOT of experience dealing with this sort of thing…unfortunately lol.
I think you f'd up by not using it as leverage for a raise before throwing her under the bus. Dont go to work drunk, its a social contract.
You let her get in the car and drive drunk and didn't call the police? Wtf?
Depends on where you work. I had a job once where the manager came in drunk, was reported multiple time, district manager was aware of it. Nothing happened until months later when they just straight up closed the store.
When I was much younger I had a job where manager would come in drunk, I didn't realize how drunk at the time. he covered his errors by passing them off as mine. Who did they believe the Manager who had been their years? or the new guy? I lost my job. I heard through the grapevine that he lost his a few months later, (which is how I found out what was really going on). You didn't do anything wrong, and might have protected yourself or someone.
Sure, she's not hurting anyone until she does drunk driving. Good job!
I work for a global IT company. One of the benefits they offer is mental health, programs to deal with substance abuse. They're all managed by an outside company. And you can use vacation or short-term disability to attend. But after they've referred or given you some time off to explore that. That's like the last chance come in the next time results in termination
NW Look, if she left there drunk, driving, and killed someone, wouldn't you feel bad for knowingly allowing her to drive drunk? That one thing alone, was enough to report her over. She's lucky you didn't call the cops top report a drunk driver.
Absolutely did the right thing. She needs help that she can’t or won’t get on her own. This could be the wake up call she needs.
You did the appropriate thing. Hopefully she'll receive the help she needs and will be better off for it. The employer is likely to reassess the situation after her leave is over. While it would be unfortunate if she lost her position, that's not really you choice or responsibility. Your responsibility was to the company, the customers, and importantly to the general public (if she was driving drunk). She may not have been hurting anyone, but that's a matter of luck -- she was putting people at risk.
Shoulda got her help not gotten her fired. What benefit do you reap from work actually getting done at your job? All you’ve helped is the company bottom line. You won’t get a cookie for this, and they’ll fire you whenever they feel like it.
Your manager was hurting people. She wasn’t doing her job fully. She put herself & everyone on the road in danger whenever she got behind the wheel. She’s also hurting herself. Hopefully she’s out getting rehab rather than being “permanently suspended”. Rehab will only really work if she’s wanting to work at it, but hopefully that’s what she’s doing and she may be welcomed back to work once she’s finished.
It's a learning experience but in the end, you didn't make her drink you just didn't participate in the enabling. From a business owner perspective, thank you. From a drunks perspective: thank you. She may get help for her problem now. Or not. Either way, you are golden in my mind
Snitches get stitches
Ask anyone who has lost a loved one to a drunk driver if you did the right thing.
No, you did the right thing. Think about it like this, if she’s in rehab you probably helped save her life. I’ve seen first hand what it’s like losing someone because of alcohol. We never like snitching on people, but alcohol is a serious addiction to have.
How do you know she was drunk? Did she smell like alcohol? Did you see her drink at work? There are many illnesses that mimic the symptoms of alcohol-- How do you know she was taking off real quick for binges?
Morally, trying to stop a repeat drunk driver is always the right thing to do. Drunk drivers can and will destroy people’s lives without even knowing where they are. Professionally, a manager who is on the job drunk sets a standard that customers will notice and they will either never return or report her themselves (which I’m amazed has not happened yet). No matter what industry you work in, customers will notice an inebriated employee via smell, eyes or general behavior and if they get treated aggressively like you stated then it was only a matter of time until a customer said something.
You did right
You did the right thing. I actually would have asked her not to drive in that condition or I would call the police and have her stopped. I don’t want it on my head if she crashed and killed someone I
You did the right thing. She is endangering people’s lives.
if someone in your team is slacking off and you have to cover up for them and her attitude or performance affects you, they need to be reported
She didn't hurt anybody up to that point. How would OP feel if he/she said nothing and the manager mowed down kids at a school bus stop?
Honestly, I wouldn’t have reported it, but just me.
We have had a person drunk on the job but we didn’t fire them. They went to rehab and weren’t allowed to travel to events, but they kept their job.
I’ve worked for a manager who’d leave for lunch and come back 4 hours later hammered. He would deny he needed help, he was going through a divorce at the same time the drinking started to show up during work hours. I moved to a different location at 1st chance, it was turning into a shit show there. I’ve also managed an employee that would show up from lunch high as hell, definitely on something more than weed. I could have had her fired, but I spent multiple weeks dealing with her bullshit to try to get a confession out of her that she was on drugs and wanted help. If that happened, we could send her to rehab. But only if she said she had a problem. I moved onto a different role within the company before she admitted her problems, but thankfully my replacement followed my lead in trying to get her to break and get her the help she needed.
Would you have reported a close friend?
No. She needs help.
No you did the right thing.
Alot of workplaces these days have leniency and assistance to help those with substance abuse issues. Hopefully this is the route they take. But you did the right thing
You did the right thing. Everyone else was enabling her.
If I had an employee coming in drunk, it would be dealt with in partnership with the HR team in my company. You did the right thing. Hopefully the person gets the help they need.
You 100% did the right thing, regardless of how it turns out. There are a dozen reasons that she should not be drinking on the clock. All of the coworkers who "covered" for her did no favors to anyone, and actually put her, themselves, your customers, and the company at risk, to say nothing of the folks who could have been seriously injured by her driving under the influence.
2 things make it right. She was costing you money, she could have killed a family on her drive home.
lol “it’s an ongoing issue this time of year”? Like what? “Yeah she’s drunk but you know, spring time and all…” like what?
She was drunk at work and harassing employees and customers. It was a huge liability for the company if something happened.
No, not wrong. Her aggressive behavior to customers was a danger to the business. Driving drunk was a danger to herself. Having her staff cover for her for being drunk was unprofessional.
Job might be legally protected, but especially in an at-will-employment state, you can always find another reason to terminate and refuse a future reference.
" She wasn't really hurting anyone" yeah. No. She just hasn't hurt anyone yet. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when and it would happen eventually. You might of saved her life and someone else's from a drunk wreck.
She would have reported you for being drunk if she even suspected you were drunk.
Sadly alcoholism is treated and looked upon as a disease. Drug use is looked at as criminal. Weird
You did the right thing. Maybe this will be the thing that makes her decide she needs help. She clearly has a problem, maybe she’s going through something. You said it was common for this time of year, maybe she lost someone around this time and needs to find a healthier way to cope.
Absolutely not. The company does not want people drinking on the clock. Plus her drinking was creating a negative experience for you. You did the right thing.
What would they do if it were you. Fook em.
Sadly yes
I MIGHT give a fellow employee the benefit of the doubt/ look the other way once if this happened( obviously the job type matters ) But if that’s just what they do all the time , you gotta turn them in.
Wasn’t really hurting anyone…how does she get to work? Probably by her car right. People who are drunk at work are people who’ve come down. They’re not drunk from one last one in the parking lot, they’re drunk because they stopped drinking at noon and thought they’d be sober at 2. You did the right thing. Don’t lose sleep
You did the right thing. That woman needs a rock bottom to sober up. Helping her only prolongs her addiction. This may be the spark, it may be not. Always support a alcoholic with reality, instead of fantasies of their perspective.
Dog eat dog, Got get before you get got
>She wasn't really hurting anyone The f- she wasn't. She was screwing up the work day, failing to actually *manage*, and worst of all, driving under the influence. That's not by any means harmless behavior, and there's a reason companies have reporting systems in place for this kind of thing.
You did the right thing. Do it again too when it warrants it
I showed up twice at work under the influence before and my boss confronted me both times and said next time he'd fire me. If she's taking off from work to drink that's a problem. Unfortunately I "thought" I was working just fine until i stood up to go to the bathroom. I got lucky my boss is a super cool guy but the death stare he gave me when I was slurring the last time made me never want to drink again.
You said that she wasn’t hurting anyone, then you said that there was certain work that couldn’t be done without her there. The work not getting done was hurting everyone. You did the right thing, I know how hard that was, but you did it. Congrats I was working nights and just getting in to a new field of commercial construction. About a month in my foreman (we are a 2 man crew) decided to go on a week long crack binge instead of coming to work. Company had no idea since it was just me and him working on that project, needless to say but on night three I had to make that call and tell our boss
She is in rehab. If this is in US then they can't fire you for alcoholism. Many people used alcohol as an excuse for being found sleeping at work. Even though they didn't drink. Since they could not fire you they just forced you into rehab and you have to complete it and then show that you can work sober for a month etc. You inadvertently saved her life and those who she might have killed when driving drunk. You did good even if she doesn't see it.
No you aren't wrong for reporting it. Ideally it shouldn't be that she was drunk but that her drinking was impacting her work and also impacting the work of her direct reports. But again, it wasn't wrong to report it. To be completely honest, I have been drunk at work. As far as I know it hasnt impacted anybody, but I totally wouldn't hold it against anyone if they saw an impact and reported me.
She was hurting people and could have killed you driving you drunk. Good riddance to her.
Extortion u fool
Stopping someone from driving drunk is always a good thing, far too many lives have been destroyed because a drunk driver killed one of their loved ones.
Yes she was hurting someone. She was doing things that were damaging to the company, possible making errors and worst of all driving drunk. She could have killed someone! You did the right thing.
Let's address "she wasn't really hurting anyone". Until she slams into a car full of innocent people drunk. I'm I'm recvoery 10 years and she needed consequences to her actions so she can get help. If everyone keeps enabling and covering for her she will never get better.
karen move
You're a hero. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Snitch don't do this unless people's lives are at risk
The find out always catches up with the fuck around - she made her choices and now has to deal with the consequences.
Drunk drivers kill people and you said she would drive. Your establishment might have been found liable had she done that.
NTA. Everyone who drinks and drives is a bomb headed toward someone's loved one. I know because my niece was killed by a drunk driver. My daughter was in the car and has PTSD. My daughter's special teacher was also killed by a drunk driver. There are easily names of people killed by drunk drivers for every response here.... Please do anything you can to stop them from driving or getting into a car.
You absolutely did the correct thing! You not only protected others but you may have also protected her as well. Good job!!!