First and foremost: Document everything. EVERYTHING. Go get a composition book - the one I use is from Top Flight. Then keep careful notes. Go to your HR and complain about this behaviour. Write down who you spoke to, the date and what was said. Make sure that they know your condition(s). Be nice, they are there to help protect you too. But also be sure that you let them know that you will pursue legal recourse if you need to, in order to protect yourself. Try to phrase that statement well. It is hard to tell them that you will do so without it seeming like you are threatening them - but do your best to make it non-threatening. I would probably say something like: I am sorry to have to say this so baldly, but I want it to be clear that I will pursue all my options in defending my rights.
Fight what? You haven’t indicated that there is any continuing problem with your boss or additional accusations. When you told your boss about the lip condition, and why you are a bit unsteady in the parking lot, did he dismiss it, or accept it?
In dealing with open sexual harrassment, HR (which has the job of making sure the company does not get sued for harrassment) is generally the place to start.
For other issues: HR works for the company, not the employee. There are any number of cases in which HR has collected all sorts of information about a situation, then stood firmly behind management as they used selected bits of info to make a case for termination.
HR is not evil, but in an ambiguous situation, going to them too soon with a complaint can wind up costing the employee. They need to be included in any correspondence because they have a legal obligation to keep the records that your boss may not feel the need to support.* (“Oh, I always clean out my old memoes. I don’t have a copy of that.”) However, enlisting them as an ally against a boss before you have specific evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the boss is liable to “encourage” them to start collecting records to demonstrate why you are a malcontent and no longer a valuable employee.
(This is why I suggested a very neutral reply to the boss. Anything that suggests hostility or anger (or defensiveness) can be twisted to look like a personality problem on the part of the employee.)
(Taking your hard copies of any correspondence home ensures that if they “accidentally” fail in their job, you can still document the exchanges.)
Go above your asshole boss’ head. Tell his boss that you’ve been accused, you’re not allowed to know by whom, you have vision problems and an injured lip, and he searched your desk when you weren’t there. Tell that person you want the crap to stop.
If your job has a Drug-Free Workplace rule, look up in your handbook the steps your superiors are supposed to follow if they have a suspicion. If they don’t follow them, they are violating the terms of your employment. The search of the desk, the delay in notifying you, the lack of a drug test, all would violate our Drug-Free Workplace rules, for example.
Well every company is different. But having been in management for the last 7 years I can tell you that in the bigger companies the HR departments that I have dealt with want to desparately be sure that the company is not sued. I know that none of the HR departments where I have worked would have been encouraged - nor would encourage - a boss to start collecting records against an employee who was keeping well-documented notes. *Especially *one who is of an age that might permit an age-descrimination suit. In short, my experience with HR departments has been that they try to bring any situation to a close in a manner that will be as fair as possible under the law. Not every HR person is a good one, but most of the ones that I have dealt with are. I stand by my advice: Take good notes, speak to HR and express your concerns. Do so in a non-threatening manner. Ask them for their aid in a situation you are uncomfortable with.
I was in a supervisor’s training and they said that some medical conditions can leave the person smelling like alcohol, even if they aren’t drinking (diabetes, maybe??). So they definitely told us to exercise caution before calling anyone out on these kinds of suspicions.
HR person checking in. HR folks dread when this situation inevitably comes up, due to the wide variety of medical conditions people have and of course some outright alcohol and drug abusers as well. It is often felt to be a legal minefield.
My intuition tells me a neutral reply copied to HR will have HR all over your supervisor’s butt about how he should have handled it.
If your company is fairly large and has an HR department, I’d recommend your “escalation path” on this be through HR. If you work for a small company where one HR person also does payroll and orders the office supplies, then a better escalation path may be through your second line manager.
I didn’t read what I am adding in other posts, but if it is a repeat, sorry. I believe that one option that hasn’t been addressed is to write a letter to HR, telling of all that transpired, and then asking them what steps are taken to insure that this accuser doesn’t harass you again, or bring further slanderous accusations against you. One thing that worked for a friend of mine was similar to this: *Ask HR if they are aware of any training that this person has had to make him able to determine sobriety better than others, since he is the only person that noticed it. If your boss didn’t notice any of your ‘behavior’, and nobody else did either, this person may be a threat to you and or himself and you want the company to provide a safe environment. IANA psychologist (friend wrote), but I believe that some people have been known to fixate on innocent people before manifesting full-blown symptoms of Paranoid Schizophrenia. *HR will need this in writing. Make sure that you cc copies to all concerned and make appropriate notation on copies. Perhaps you would like to include a lawyer in the cc list. This may or may not solve your problem, but every time I observed an HR issue, or heard about any lawsuits, there was always the question “What steps have been taken…” IIRC, this kind of junk gets HR to really, really, (at least in one case that I recall) move in helping you.
Also, ask HR to start random drug tests. This would clear you, and it very well may highlight what the problem is with the accuser. Also, whoever tries this stunt again will perhaps find himself on the business end of HR’s microscope.
I don’t know that telling people that you are going to see a lawyer, or telling them you will ‘defend your rights.’ That sounds to me like a panicky person. You don’t want them to think you panicky. You want them to see you as a powerful person. You want to be known as the mature citizen whose lawyer calls you at work and leaves messages, and then let them know that you TOLD your lawyer to never call you at work. You don’t want them to know what you have a lawyer for. You want to let them wonder. Then, slap a subpoena on all of these punks.
I had a serious eye injury when I was eight or nine years old. While I came very close to losing all sight in that eye, I was fortunate enough to have doctors who were able to treat the problem without any serious side effects. Except that the injured eye is extremely sensitive to light, even now when I am in my mid-40’s.
I must wear sunglasses when I am outdoors if I expect that eye to operate normally. If I cannot wear sunglasses (usually because I am walking from a parking lot to a building, and it isn’t worth bringing glasses to change into later or my sunglasses are broken), I have to close my eyes to the barest slits to tolerate walking through bright sunlight. Sometimes I can get by with closing the “bad” eye and using only the other eye, but most of the time it is easier and more comfortable to simply close both eyes as I walk, with occasional “slit-views” to check for obstacles. I honestly wish I could get a white-tipped cane sometimes, so that I can check for obstacles without opening my eyes.
When I arrive at work these days, I have to park in a parking lot, then walk into the building. I prefer to leave my sunglasses in the car (which reduces the chance of forgetting them when I leave in the afternoon, and they are an absolute necessity for driving during daylight hours!), so I usually slit-stagger from the parking lot to the building. This could easily look like a drunk’s walk, I admit, but it definitely isn’t.
Age is not an issue here–my eyes have not worked “normally” since I was very young. Alcohol is definitely not an issue, either.
While it could not hurt to hire a lawyer for this, you should also remember that the US Constitution places the burden of proof on the accuser, rather than the accused. If there is no proof that you were drunk, they should not be able to penalize you for being drunk.
Employment is not a criminal trial. Many states are “at will” states (the employee works at the will of the employer) and the only requirement a company has in regards to firing is that they do not do so in a way to (be caught) violating the rights of a protected class (races, creed, sex, national origin, age). They may also be held liable if they are found violating the terms of their own employee handbook (which is treated as if it were a contract). They do not need to “prove” anything beyond a distate for the color of one’s slacks to fire a person, provided they are not caught discriminating against a protected class of person or violating any contract (explicit or implicit) established at the time of hiring. Khadaji has provided some good advice. (I reacted, earlier, only to the suggestion that the OP “complain” to HR, as I have seen that sort of behavior trigger a hostile overreaction from HR and management.)