Is alcohol hurting your career?

Just because you’re not hiding a bottle of booze in your desk drawer don’t ignore the possibility that alcohol is hurting your career.

When most people think of struggling with alcohol the first and only possibility that comes to mind is alcoholic. There’s no thoughts or consideration that there is something in-between “normal drinking and alcoholic drinking.” And unless you’re drinking on your bathroom breaks or breaking into detox during the work day rarely is there any thought to addressing drinking behavior.

Your career could be in jeopardy.

I’m hoping that this article will entice you to consider and maybe even start a discussion about alcohol abuse well before alcoholism develops. There is a continuum of alcohol use, and the struggle doesn’t begin at the end.

You may be finding yourself having a drink or two, or three most nights when you get home from work. But you’ve never had a DUI, you rarely or never black out, and you get up and go to work every day.

However, you may find yourself running late, a little sluggish, and not as sharp. You know it’s the drinking that’s contributing to your less than stellar performance at work. Most people don’t pay a lot of attention to this type of drinking behavior. But going unchecked it will more than likely continue and can progress further along the continuum, moving further away from healthy behavior and having more severe consequences.

Along with the drinking progression, your appointments, sales quotas, reports, and projects, are starting to be missed or negatively compromised. Even if your boss doesn’t seem to recognize what the exact problem is or hasn’t said anything yet, they are usually aware something is amiss. Your career could be in jeopardy.

I have found most people who use alcohol excessively; their conscience is intact. The more they slip, disappoint, and screw up the more they turn to their coping agent, alcohol to ease the discomfort. And their intuition, that little voice inside, is screaming for help.

Don’t make the mistake I did and ignore it. Get honest, make a plan, and recruit some help for accountability. If you want to take it a step further with complete confidentiality check out ConsciousDrinking.com – Just because you struggle with alcohol, it doesn’t make you alcoholic.