Would you tell your boss if your work colleague had a drinking problem?

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Would you tell your boss if your work colleague had a drinking problem?

We received a Facebook message into the show over the weekend. It is a dilemma that I’m sure some of you out there will be all too familiar with. Here take a listen.

“Hi Niall, I’ve never written into the show before but I know that you sometimes get your listeners to help with problems that some people have. I need help or more specifically a friend of mine at work needs help.

 I’ve been working in the Civil Service for the past 6 years. Another woman joined the same time as me and we have gotten all well. We’re both in our late 20’s and enjoy the craic. There is one problem that seems to be getting out of hand.

Lisa (not her real name) enjoys a drink like all of us. However Lisa will happily be out on the town 5 nights a week. She jokes that she has the constitution of an Ox but I have been noticing that you can now smell the alcohol off her several mornings when she comes into work.

She’ll drink a bottle of mouthwash in the morning to mask the night before. While she’s in work she meets all her deadlines and our boss praises her.

That’s all great but I know that when she goes to the bathroom with her handbag – she’s going in to take a drink.

I’ve mentioned it to her before and she has promised that she would be more responsible but that only lasts for a few weeks and she’s back to her normal ways of pretending that she’s not out drinking every night.

Her response to me all the time is that we’re only young once and we should make the best of it. However Lisa has taken to driving into work some days when she’s running late and this now is getting out of hand. What if she kills someone or gets pulled over by the Gardai. She would definitely fail a breath test after the nights that she has.

My Mum tells me to stay out of the problem. She’s worried that if I tell our manager at work that this could end in a disciplinary case in the Civil Service. I don’t want to be seen as the employee who ratted out her colleague? On the other hand should I tell our manager as she is [potentially going to kill someone or have an accident at work if her5 drinking continues to get worse.



I feel like I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. I’m finding it hard to sleep with the worry. Can you and your listeners help? Louise”

There you have it. From the sounds of it Lisa is working with a fully functioning alcoholic. You know there are many people out there who hide their alcohol addictions and they do it so well. The longer they do it without being caught or an intervention from work colleagues or family the worse the situation will get. So what should you do? Should you bring your colleague’s and possibly friend’s drinking problem to the attention of your boss? Would it be for their own good or should you just mind your own business? We all have to take responsibility for our own actions.

So would you rat out your work colleague if they had a drinking problem?

Listen to what you had to say.

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