Second Chance

While Human Resources members may joke that employees can drive us to drink, the truth is many have to deal with the issues that alcohol brings to the workplace. This is a true story shared by an HR collegue.

At a manufacturing facility, alcohol is not only detrimental to the work quality, it takes lives. When she had an employee with a serious drinking problem, she had to take action.

All managers, and even the company President, wanted this person fired.

When she had "the talk" with the employee, however, she discovered that the onset of abuse was immediately after the death of a child, followed by an abandonment by a spouse. And now this employee of sixteen years will loose a job.

This HR person then did something unprecedented at the company. She got the President to extend a second-chance plan to the employee. The employee had six months leave to go through a rehabilitation program and then see how things went upon return to work.

If this didn't work, however, the HR person would need a new job as well.

In six months, the employee was back on the job, performing better than ever. There was a new lease on life. Within a year, the person became the company's model employee.

The company became known as one that really takes care of its employees and referrals poured in faster than job openings. Turnover dropped to an all-time low, even in the dregs of monotonous manufacturing work.

That second-chance employee brought a new positive attitude to the job, and it became contagious. Soon, new orders blossomed as their defects, rejections and quality claims plummeted to all-time lows.

The employee was awarded many accolades and achieved promotions in time as well, not once forgetting that "one more chance" given.

We can all change a life

Looking past the strife

~ESA