How to Help Employees Avoid Addiction

Work is hard – and especially as the boss, you recognize that. It can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression which can lead to other issues such as substance abuse.

In a previous article, we discussed how to help an employee who is struggling with addiction – through talking it through with them and offering help.

But, what about if you could help them steer clear of that addiction in the first place?

Sometimes, you might even be lucky enough to catch them on the brink of a break down and you might just be able to step in and help stop it.

Here’s how you can help an employee cope with stress and anxiety, possibly helping them avoid addiction:

1. Talk to your employees about addiction.Maybe at your quarterly meeting or if you do some type of weekly check-in as a group just to see how everything is going, bring up the topic of addiction.Addiction is a thing that lurks in the dark – but, by bringing it to light, we can help destroy it. So, bring up how the pressure of work can sometimes be too much for us – even for you. Also mention how that can put people at risk for addiction, but that there are ways to cope with stress and anxiety that are healthy.This helps everyone feel like they can be open about it and lets those struggling know they aren’t alone.
2. Offer stress-relievers at the office.A lot of times, people get stressed and just simply don’t know what to do to get past it. They are unable to come up with stress-relieving activities or ways to cope with the stress of work.But, you can easily provide safe and healthy options for coping with stress in the office place. Try things like:Encouraging everyone to take a 10-minute walk outside if they are feeling stressed (without clocking out), provide stress-relief balls in the break room for people to borrow in their office, try bringing an office pet around once a week to help lighten the mood.As the boss, you have the power to change things to help make it a better and less stressful workplace.
3. Offer information on where to get help.It could be something as simple as a poster, but just giving easy access to resources for help could help save someone. They might still feel extremely stressed and need an outlet, so they might just follow the advice of that poster you put up and seek a therapist.

We can all do our part to help those around us.