Spiked Milk

November 24, 2009

Spiked Milk: Class assignment

What course of action should the manager follow? Why?

A Kranz (wreath) of Kölsch beer.

English: Total recorded alcohol per capita consump...

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Larry is a good employee. No change in his work performance has been noticed and his job performance is pretty decent. The manager already knows that Larry has drinking problem and has an unstable home life as well. Many of the workers have claimed that they have smelled alcoholic breath of Larry. Manager has also smelled alcohol on Larry's breath once. Manager has already confronted Larry and Larry denied drinking at work. It is a Construction Company, and construction work is considerably a very dangerous job and workers need to be attentive all the time at the construction site. Safety at work is employer's biggest responsibility. If an accident happens due to Larry's drinking, it can hurt him or any of his fellow co workers. In that case employer can be held directly or indirectly responsible and employee can still collect workers compensation. Court can say that employer could have avoided this. Therefore, it is in employee's best interest to start inquiring the issue to avoid any unwanted incident. Workers compensation is not the only issue here, there is also negligence law (Story2009 & Power Point).

Not only other workers but manager himself also smelled alcohol on Larry too. This gives manager an opportunity and reasons to confront the employee. However, manager needs to play it safe. He cannot jump into conclusion that Larry in fact drinks at work because he smells like it. We have to take this fact into consideration that Larry has never been caught drinking at work. But, there must be steps that managers should follow at this point. Manager can follow discipline approach like counseling. If the employer suspects alcoholism, manager must inform the employee of...