My employee is always hung over on a Monday. Help!

Dear Aunty B,

I am sick to death of arriving at work Monday morning to find that one of my employees doesn’t roll in until 9.30. He has obviously had a very hard weekend and isn’t even embarrassed as he smirks away as the other staff tease him.

I can barely get any sense out of him on Mondays and sometimes other days in the week when he can be quite snappy. I had assumed he was drinking heavily as when we have work functions he always goes home drunk, but one of my staff mentioned that he had been talking about drugs so it might be both.

He also can present quite untidily on occasion and has obviously shaved unevenly. Sometimes he even has nicks! He is about 35 so you think he could shave by now.

What are my rights? Can I tell him to cut down on his boozing?

Sick of his boozing,
Gold Coast

Dear Sick of his booze,

Gee. What’s to like? You didn’t have a good word to say about him.

Look, this is a performance issue. So treat it as such. Call him in and run through his poor performance: arriving late, being bad tempered, sometimes not making sense and presenting untidily. Explain the differences you want to see and give him a timeframe in which to achieve them. Call a meeting in two weeks time and review his performance.

If he doesn’t improve you may need to manage him out. You don’t need to discuss his drinking at all. Even though it may be the source of the problem, it is your job to simply deal with the affects of the drinking and leave the other stuff to his wife or his shrink.

Don’t forget your primary responsibilities here: which are to your shareholders, your other employees and your customers.

Good luck!
Your Aunty B

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