Alcoholism_in_the_Workplace

Brian Ballantine ENG 122 Professor MacGrotty Research Paper Drinking and Driving A 50,000 Pound Killing Machine English Composition II Date Submitted: 6/21/10 I work for the Department of Sanitation of New York City. A requirement of my job is to have a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Everyday my co-workers and I are given a partner and a route to clean. We go from house to house collecting refuse and depositing it in the back of our assigned trucks. The work assigned to us is predetermined to last us an entire day’s work which is six hours and fifty minutes. This time can change depending on how hard the workers work, and how we decide to work the route. The route is put in an order that is supposed to allow us minimal driving in between lines or blocks, but there are better ways and easier ways to work almost every route. This being said, many of my coworkers change the route around so that they can finish earlier. When we finish earlier we get a relay bonus which is an incentive to work harder. We get an extra five dollars by taking the truck to the transfer station and emptying the truck. This is where the trouble begins. Many of my coworkers, for whatever reasons, decide that once they are done with their routes that they can now start drinking. I find this to be completely and totally absurd for many reasons. First, our shift is either 7 A.M. to 3 P.M. or 6 A.M. to 2 P.M. Recently, our union, Local 831, has allowed us to change our shift year round to 6 A.M. to 2 P.M. Many of my coworkers are done with their route and on the way to the transfer station by 9 A.M. Now you might be wondering if what I said earlier was correct. I will reiterate that when done with the route many of my coworkers feel that this is now time to start drinking. So at 9 A.M. many coworkers start drinking as they drive fully-loaded sanitation trucks to the transfer station, which is approximately a 12-mile round trip. I have never participated in this action, which I feel necessary to make you aware of because I, from day one, have been in awe of this irresponsibility and possibly dependency. The actions of my coworkers make me ask myself many questions. Is it possible that all these people could be dependent on alcohol' Does everybody want to drink or do some people drink because everybody else is doing it' How come the threat of being caught doesn’t force any of them to stop drinking' Why do people use drinking alcohol as a way of interacting socially' Are there ways we can go about preventing this from happening in the future' The first question asks if all these drivers could be alcohol-dependent. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse Alcoholism, this could be caused by workplace alienation. “Work that is boring, stressful, or isolating can contribute to employees’ drinking. Employee drinking has been associated with low job autonomy, lack of job complexity, lack of control over work conditions and products, boredom, sexual harassment, verbal and physical aggression, and disrespectful behavior” (Alcohol Alert, 1999). When I read this statement a few things jump out at me. My job is extremely easy and very rarely stressful. There are few times of isolation because we always have a partner and we work in the general public. We have very little low job autonomy because all the thinking has been taken out of it by our supervisors and their supervisors. It is not a complex job and we have no control over the weather which is the only work condition we face. There are only a few women that work in my garage and thus sexual harassment is very low, if there is any at all. All in all, it is a mindless job with very little problems. Anyone that is physically fit enough to lift certain heavier objects could work my job. I am convinced that my job has resulted in many people becoming alcoholics. The second question asked if everybody drank because they wanted to or are they just following the crowd and the trends. “It is not uncommon for a group of friends to have particular habits or activities that they do together – for example, drinking” (Reach Out Australia). I think this habit started as way to kill time after everyone’s work was finished, but now I think people drink because their bodies require it. Many of them get belligerent and angry if they don’t have their morning alcohol fix. We are all creatures of habit and our bodies are no different. I have approximately 105-110 people in my garage, and I would estimate that nearly 40 of them drink alcoholic beverages at work on a consistent basis. The third question I pondered was about how come my coworkers don’t fear being caught drinking at work. I am not positive of the punishment that the Department of Sanitation or the Safety Bureau of New York City would impose upon any offender for this crime; however, I am sure that it has something to do with the Commercial Driver’s License being, at the absolute least, suspended. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe the punishment does not fit the crime, and the result of being caught is not something they need to worry about. I know, for a fact, that if alleged or convicted of a civilian alcohol-related offense while off-duty we are given a punishment called “grounded.” Being grounded means that you are not allowed to use your Commercial Driver’s License at work. When we get our routes and partners in the morning, whoever is paired up with someone that is grounded must drive the route all day and never do anything physical. This is entirely not followed. In addition to not being able to drive you are forced on the day shift. The day shift provides you the opportunity to make more money. So if you take a step back you can see that getting in trouble for an alcohol-related offense actually results in you making more money. Who would fear getting in trouble if they were going to financially benefit from it' The fourth question I thought of was why people use alcohol as a “ice breaker” in social interactions. I understand the fact that alcohol lowers inhibitions and thus allows someone to be more personable and outgoing, but at the same time the instance in which I am talking about is the workplace. “Let’s face it – alcohol is extremely popular with the vast majority of people but it’s a drug, legal and non-prescription, which affects every organ in the human body and changes behavior to threaten life and health” (“Fighting Alcohol Abuse,” 2010). Everyone is well-aware of alcohol’s immediate effects, but drinking while driving a 50,000 pound truck is definitely threatening more than one person’s life. I believe that my coworkers start drinking early in the morning as they are on the way to the transfer station so that by the time they get back to the garage to hang out with everyone else, they are already loose and uninhibited. I don’t see another explanation. After leaving the transfer station, it takes another half hour to 45-minutes to get back to the garage. I don’t condone drinking at work, but if you are going to do it at least wait until you get back to the garage. The fifth and final question I asked myself related to finding ways to prevent these actions from occurring in the future. Many cities and states, including New York and especially New York City, have inducted a no tolerance policy. “Even though all 50 states list 0.08 BAC as the legal limit, many law enforcement agencies have adopted the notion favored by the Ohio State Highway Patrol: "There is no absolute 'legal limit' except 'zero.' “ (S. Longwell) A no tolerance policy is a good start for someone driving their own personal vehicles under the influence, but these are city owned vehicles I am talking about here. On occasion we have random urine testing to make sure people are not using alcohol or drugs, but this method is time consuming and expensive. I feel that anyone would want to make sure that if they see a fully-loaded Sanitation truck driving down their block at speeds up to 45 miles per hour, that the driver behind the wheel of that vehicle is not under the influence of any drug and totally aware of his or her surroundings. There has to be something that can stop the consumption of alcoholic beverages at my work. “Ignition interlocks are in-car breathalyzers that measure a driver's blood alcohol concentration.” (S. Longwell) Ignition interlocks could stop this problem, and potentially save lives. This is a severe problem in my eyes. I remember when I first started working for the Department of Sanitation, and was being trained. Training was very strict, and they stressed that since it is a quasi-military organization we are forced to follow certain moral codes and ethics as a means of keeping order and foremost for safety purposes. While training, I was shown the proper way to do everything, and taught how to drive all the different vehicles that I may be ordered to operate while an employee. Never once during my training was there anyone drinking or even joking about people drinking on the job. I think my garage may be the only garage that does this. I have been ordered to work at other garages before, and I have never noticed this anywhere but my garage. Five years ago, before I was hired, a sanitation worker from my garage was working a route in Brooklyn. This was his weekly route, and he worked this route for the past four years. While collecting house to house refuse, he came upon a bed frame that owner of the house was discarding. A bed frame is somewhat awkward to handle while disposing of it in the back of the truck or “hopper.” He placed the bed frame in the hopper and proceeded to cycle the hopper. There are two handles on the side of the hopper that operate the claw which comes down and cycles the refuse into the bed of the truck. As the truck began to cycle the bed frame into the bed, the bed frame slipped and began to protrude from the hopper. The sanitation worker attempted to catch the bed frame and push it back in the hopper at the same time the claw was coming down. The claw caught and crushed his hand, but in order for refuse to be cycled the two handles on the side must be used once again. In pain, he went to operate the handles and accidentally pushed instead of pulled. The sanitation worker has his right hand taken from him by his own misjudgment. His partner responded and called for an ambulance. The sanitation worker not only lost his hand, but lost his life because he had so much alcohol in his system that he was unable to clot properly. By the time the ambulance arrived he had bled to death. This is just one story of many stories I am aware of in my department. In conclusion, drinking and driving is a major problem that needs to be stopped in its entirety. Drinking and driving and/ or operating heavy-operating vehicles should be a crime punishable by jail time. I feel every time a sanitation worker drinks and drives the vehicles we drive, they are taking their own lives and anyone else’s life that is near them into their own hands. Stricter means of detecting alcohol use as well as harsher punishments for anyone who operates with a Commercial Driver’s license are a necessity. The situation is getting worse as newly hired sanitation workers see the ways of the veterans and begin to follow in their footsteps. It appears the problem will not go away on its own, and someone needs to take control and make changes. This is an issue that affects the health and well-being of everyone involved. “And it's not just our health, 46% of all violent crime is fuelled by alcohol and half of all adults believe alcohol is a major cause of crime. (“We Need to Hit the Drink Issue Hard”, 2010). Almost all of my fellow employees have some sort of criminal act in their backgrounds, and it is joked about saying a felony is a pre-requisite to being hired by the Department of Sanitation. I, however, must be the exception to the rule, and am culture shocked by all of this. This is a life threatening issue that I see every time I work the day shift. I feel obligated to say or do something every day. With the use of ignition interlocks, random drug and alcohol testing, as well as giving employees something else to do after their routes have been cleaned may be effective means of preventing drinking and driving or at least diminishing the problem. How many more lives must be lost before someone makes a change' I think the relay bonus of five dollars is the root of the problem. I think that if the relay bonus was taken away than less people would be inclined to work faster and drive to the transfer station. Whatever the solution is it needs to be put into use immediately before it’s too late. . References Alcohol Alert. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism No. 44 July 1999). Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://www.veneto.dronet.org/avanzate/veneto/sospsico/upload/art001.pdf. Anonymous. (2010, January 19). We Need to Hit the Drink Issue Hard. Evening Chronicle. Retrieved June 18, 2010, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb'did=1943711191&sid=8&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD. Anonymous. (2010, March 1). Fighting Alcohol Abuse; Letters Social Drinking Problems. Evening Post. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb'did=1973373701&sid=13&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD. Longwell, S. (2009, January 30). Let the Punishment Fit the Crime. Connecticut Post. Retrieved June 18, 2010, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb'did=1635831711&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD. Reach Out Australia. (2009). Managing Pressure to Drink. Where Might Peer Pressure to Drink Come From'. Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://au.reachout.com/find/articles/managing-peer-pressure-to-drink.