We have a drunk man in our overall dept. he is in grounds maintenance and I along with others’ reported him to our boss. He reeked and was shaking and only after he wrecked his work truck on a Federal installation did they take him to our clinic and tested his blood. This was around 10 am and his shift starts at 0700. He was over the limit to the tune of the equivalent of 5 drinks. He was suspended for 30 days w/o pay. Since then i have smelled stale alcohol and the boss is aware. He is so thin but I love him cause he’s a nice guy.
My prediction is he will have a fender bender off property and pop positive in a government vehicle. I pray he will not hurt anyone or worse. He’s one alcoholic that dare not detox without in-patient treatment.
I think this guy is jealous of your position and maybe you are a threat to him. You are the noob. I call BS. And you should as well.
Drinking beer at work is a disciplinary matter? Aren’t you all Canadian, for goodness’ sake?
Seriously, though, the worst-case scenario to consider is that someone with the ear of management has it in for you, and will continue to try to make life at work hard for you.
And I apologize for even asking, but just to be sure, you’re brushing your teeth and putting on fresh clothes before coming to work, right? You’re not committing some unstated large-scale social faux pas, are you?
Nope. Well, yes, sometimes. Just not in the story as described. We always have two kegs on tap and I typically have something harder stashed in a desk drawer. Not uncommon in the tech world.
My team at Microsoft had a throughly stocked bar with so many bottles we had to ‘requisition’ a rolling cabinet to hold it all. Of course it had to roll so we could take it with us to visit other teams from time to time.
Then they told me that someone said I smelled like I was drinking.
Which I shockingly denied. Then I told them the absolute honest truth, that I had two beers the night before, one with supper and one after supper. Complete truth. I have no reason to lie on an anonymous message board.
The last gulp of beer I had (mixed with Clamato) may have been as late as 10:00 or 11:00 at night.
I wasn’t keeping track.
I feel I should send them a CYA email tomorrow, but beats the fuck out of me what to do.
Man, that’s a tough one. Best thing I can think is to let it drop, otherwise the powers that be may think you are protesting a little too much. But I really don’t know. Could be just an honest mistake, could be a malicious co-worker, could be management latching onto an easy way out. Best I can say is be better than all that. Good luck.
I think I would not do anything about it now, but I would keep track of your interactions with this person. Buttercup may be right. It isn’t necessarily that you are a threat in the sense of taking his job. You may be a threat in the sense of being the new guy and getting attention. Watch your back around him. He clearly can’t be trusted. Lock your stuff up when you aren’t around him. Make sure your screensaver is on. Back up your work. Mind your Ps and Qs. Generally you’re just going to have to behave as though this guy is out to get you, because it seems to me he is. This means you must be above reproach. Unfortunately, I think the whole situation sucks.
In front of the rest of the team, you’re a team player. Everyone makes mistakes, right? No harm, no foul. You don’t mind a bit (of course you do, but don’t make a thing of it). If your boss brings it up again, that’s the line you take for now. It took you aback, everyone makes mistakes, no worries, we’re a team.
If anything else at all starts to seem awry, document. You may reach a moment where you’re going to have to decide whether to take it to the boss or whether to cut bait and leave. 25 people isn’t many. If this guy is a shit show, it may not be worth sticking around.
Thanks. I guess I will let it drop, although I get this conflict between saying nothing, implied guilt, and vehemently defending myself, doth protest too much.
Is it possible there is something going on with your health that makes your breath smell like alcohol even when you haven’t been drinking recently? If you drink regularly and your breath smells of alcohol for an unrelated reason then any accusation of drinking will likely coincide with having a drink or two the day before leading co-workers to think you’re drinking very heavily and leaving you wondering how the hell a couple of beers is detectable on your breath 10 hours later.
Assuming point 1 doesn’t apply, in practice, “too much alcohol” is not an amount that puts you over some legal or work policy limit, it’s whatever amount is detectable to others. If whatever you drank the previous night was detectable to a co-worker to the point that he would comment on it to management then you had too much to drink. Even if you didn’t, technically.
Edit for point 3. The other person may believe they are acting with integrity. Do you have to sit through bullshit code of conduct courses at your workplace? They may just think they are doing “the right thing.” In my line of work if I was to smell alcohol on a co-worker I’d be obliged to tell management, though in practice I’d quietly suggest they call in sick and go home before resorting to involving management.
The fact that your bosses told you that someone said you smelled like you had been drinking doesn’t necessarily mean it’s literal. It could be just that old trick to make people confess.
It may not be even necessarily a coworker’s doing. Maybe they are using the same tactic with several people in the office.
Saying nothing will not imply guilt, it will imply that you are confident that your future actions and the reasonableness of your management will prove that your accuser was imagining things.
You’re assuming that these people completely accepted the word of your accuser. If they had, and if being drunk on the job is a firing offense, they would have sent you for a BAC test, not asked you about it.