Working After Drinking Alcohol

[NRM_Oz]

Most employers have banned alcohol consumption during work time (including lunch time drinks) and I was curious as to how many of you have experience people coming to work having been affected by alcohol and this includes LE people as well. What are your war stories and what was the outcome ?

In 1 employer I was acting RLPM for 3 months and babysitting a store for the absent LPM, when 1 afternoon I smelt beer on the breath of an LPO. He admitted he had 4 beers at lunch and claimed to not know work policies (a BS story). I asked him about licence compliance rules and he stated it was 0.02 which is old information but agreed he could be over 0.02. I suspended him without pay and sent him home. Next day he took it further to HR and he was suspended again as he was still drunk from the night before and eventually never came bac to work again.

At our DC I was on a visit when I spotted a work approved lunch time BBQ in progress. It was supplied by us with the union kicking in 2 beers per man on the condition NO1 went back to work and took a 1 hour penalty to go home early. At 1330 everyone left except for the afternoon shift who had against policy had their own 2 at lunch. Immediately, the shift manager informs me they were to be suspended on no pay (unfit for duty) as the workers all got ready to walk into the DC. The union had screwed up an were now liable for the payment of the lost wages all because of 2 beers and heavy machinery including cranes and forklifts require Zero Alcohol. It cost them about $21.5 K US for those 2 beers.

[EMTGuard]

I've not had a problem with coworkers drinking while working as a Secuirty Officer.
My job as a firefighter was where I had the problem. I'd be at work and have fellow firefighters drinking beers. In fact, me speaking out against this practice was what got me expelled from the Volunteer Fire Department and my quiting my job as a paid firefighter. The Volunteer Fire Department had been cited twice by the Alchol Beverage Commission for having beer at the station in a vending machine. Firefighters had been videotaped arriving on scenes visibly intoxicated. I refused to ride in fire trucks driven by guys who had just spent the first two hours of the shift drinking beers. I was rocking the boat so I was expelled which only encouraged me to notify several state and local agencies of what I witnessed. Within months have of the paid staff was fired and fined. The Chief paid a heafty fine and was put on probation for violating several State polices but managed to keep his job.

[JB diligence]

There have been a few times that I personally have denied entry to people with alcohol on there breath, one in particular received a 6 month ban from the property. I remember one occasion at a plant when a contractor came to my office requesting a cab, this idiot thought it would be funny to come in and tell his foreman personally that he would not be working because he was intoxicated, he wasn't just 'morning after' intoxicated he was wasted drunk. The policy is simple, it's law it is part of the Occupational Health and Safety Act to boot.

If one can not drive under the influence why do some think working especially with heavy equipment is any different? I tell them simply that I can not let them in, as well as that I'm the poor bastard that has to go in there and scrape their carcass off the floor after they get hurt/die as well as anyone else injured/killed if something should happen. The same goes for those who think it's OK to smoke a joint at work, though these ones are harder to come across as they will do it inside hiding somewhere.

My point is pretty basic; NO drugs or alcohol in the workplace, do yourself and coworkers the favor of calling in sick because this is a hangover that will never go away if it results in a fatality.

[Lawson]

Most employers have banned alcohol consumption during work time (including lunch time drinks)

Wait a minute... are you saying theres still jobs out there where you can drink beer for lunch?

[mad_malk]

Wait a minute... are you saying theres still jobs out there where you can drink beer for lunch?

I was wondering that too. I know thats not true in Florida at least not back in 01 when as an Area supervisor i sent a guy home for something like that.

[EMTGuard]

Maybe not here in the states but in some places in the world it's not uncommon to have employees drink a couple of beers at lunch. When I was in the Army stationed in Germany circa 1988 I learned that most labor unions allowed employees up to 2 beers at lunch time.

[JB diligence]

I was wondering that too. I know thats not true in Florida at least not back in 01 when as an Area supervisor i sent a guy home for something like that.

Maybe not at work but I remember hearing something about employees in Denmark aloud "beer Brakes" though I'm not sure how valid that was.

I wouldn't doubt that some people who may take there lunch off site might have a drink, but how about business people taking a client out to 'wine and dine' them in hopes of a deal? This could lead to a poor business decision should there be a lil too much wining going with the dining or even spilling the beans on sensitive business matters that could hurt the company, but this could happen at any time, so all people should watch what they say while drinking, you never know who's listening in.

It is interesting what kind of information you can gain while overhearing a conversation at a licensed establishment some people speak so casually about things, I remember an old saying I think it originates from the WWII days "Loose lips, sink ships".

[craig333]

Haven't had it happen with a fellow guard or any other employee. Sure makes me wonder why thats not covered in the post orders at some sites.

I know what you mean about the volunteers. Though I hear its not nearly as common now, I can recall a few times when I was working for CDF to have drunk volunteer firefighters show up.

[Chucky]

Many years ago when I was stationed at FT.Riley Kansas you were allowed to drive with a beer in your hand as long as it was in a brown paper bag and alcohol content of no more then 3.2. That law also was the same in Fl and a few other states. Those laws have long been changed.

[Tennsix]

I remember a time when that was legal in my state too. You could drink from an open container (no bag required) so long you weren't impaired or blowing a .10%. The police could still stop you to see if you were DWI but had to let you go if you passed.

[NRM_Oz]

Under our alcohol sales laws you must purchase your beer or wine inside a brown paper bag or in the case of a slab (carton) the paper bags are not that big.

`Liquid lunches` were common and working for the government for a number of years (not security) but as an investigator, we had pubs every 100yds so you could never die of thirst or starve (pub food is legendary and cheap). Many staff would wander off for 4-5 schooners of beer every lunch time (around 2.5 std drinks per glass @ 18 US oz each) and come back to work 45 minutes later. It was common for many people to do it every day or twice a week.

1 bloke I worked with drank 4 - 5 schooners every day but never ate lunch. He was never agressive after but it just became a culture with some people taking it too far (usually senior managers) and sleeping it off until going home. "Al Bundy" was a drop kick ex supervisor who had a late lunch and enjoyed a few beers and came back as our CEO was at the foyer watching him come in unshaven, shirt hanging out and smelling of beer. He was summoned to his office with our Branch Manager for a please explain session and it was nothing they could do in an employees OFF time.

Working the Y2K Project, every executive office had a mini bar that was re-stocked twice a day but being armed I could only look at an ice-cold beer on a hot summer afternoon, as I had to wait until I was off duty and unarmed to enjoy 2 quick ones before heading home after work some days.

[jbaerbock]

I've had a beer about an hour before work but never been there whilst affected by it, in other words have never had much before hand.

[gcmc security part 2]

I would say in absence of a specific law or company policy against it there is not much you could do about it.

My company has a policy of no drinking 8 hours prior to a shift.

Makes it simple.

[bigdog]

I would say in absence of a specific law or company policy against it there is not much you could do about it.

My company has a policy of no drinking 8 hours prior to a shift.

Makes it simple.

For us Florida officers drinking prior to assuming duty can be considered misconduct and actionable under chapter 493.

[N. A. Corbier]

For us Florida officers drinking prior to assuming duty can be considered misconduct and actionable under chapter 493.

That'd be a case law interpretation, the state would have to prove that providing services intoxicated at the level the employee is intoxicated to constitutes fraud or negligence.

So, if you blow a .01%, the state would have to prove that you were committing fraud (defrauding the client of services by being unable to provide them), or negligence (the licensee company would have to reasonably know that the guard was committing fraud, and failed to do anything) before the state could win a case.

This is the vagueness of Florida's Chapter 493. The actual statute for abandoning post, etc, is "committing fraud."