South Africa has a culture of drinking. We use it to celebrate and commiserate.
Due to the fact that it is so acceptable, some people are not aware of the fact that they are drinking too much. We often forget that alcohol does not discriminate. It is an unbiased menace that is capable of attacking the mind of any individual, regardless of their gender, wealth, intelligence or upbringing.
This became even more apparent when I contacted Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). I was put in touch with two men who had attended AA meetings – one an ex-school principal and the other a straight-A-pupil who is now a successful architect.
The school principal began drinking at the age of 17 and was in complete denial about his issue for many years. He would binge drink over the weekend and avoid alcohol during the week. He was able to come up with a modus operandi whereby he could function during the week as a respectable headmaster.
The straight-A-pupil excelled in school. He was head boy and was awarded a scholarship to university. He only began drinking after school during a gap year in the United Kingdom where he worked as a barman. He was so talented that he was able to obtain an architecture degree, even though he had an alcohol problem. His alcoholism crept up on him and destroyed his job at a world-renowned architectural firm. It was only after a decade of drinking until he blacked out that he turned to AA and received the help that he so desperately needed.
Can one get fired for going to work smelling of alcohol? The answer is not as clear-cut as you would imagine.
Whether or not you can be fired is determined by the company’s alcohol policy. In certain jobs such as those involving driving or mining, any alcohol consumption is completely unjustified. One also needs to differentiate between dismissal related to alcohol, based on misconduct and incapacity.
These men are both successful and intelligent, yet they became alcoholics. Their story is a valuable lesson to us all as we need to realise that alcoholism is an issue that so many people have to face, regardless of their circumstances.
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