What would you do if a colleague was abusing drink or drugs?

GOVERNMENT minister Pat Carey believes that a person should tell his or her employer if they believe that a colleague’s lifestyle, health or work performance is unduly influenced by the excessive consumption of alcohol or any intake of illegal drugs.

The Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs believes that firstly a colleague should “talk to them, confront them (the alleged offender)” and then “if necessary make sure their employer knows”.

Interestingly he believes this should be done on the grounds of suspicion, not hard proof, “particularly” in the case of cocaine use. This could potentially lead to some very interesting claims for defamation should an ungrounded allegation be made. It’s not hard to suspect that some people would make false claims against a work rival in the hope that some mud would stick; it could be very detrimental to somebody’s career prospects if people believed that there is no smoke without fire, even if the subject of the claim was cleared of any wrongdoing. It could happen simply because one person doesn’t like another.