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Recovery in the Workplace · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to Talking Facts.
• 0:03
  What you need to know about family food finance and fitness.
• 0:07
  This nationally recognized award winning podcast is hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
• 0:16
  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals,
• 0:19
  families and communities to improve quality of life.
• 0:24
  Hello and welcome to Talking Facts.
• 0:26
  What you need to know about family food finance and fitness.
• 0:29
  I am your host,
• 0:30
  Mindy mccalley Extension Specialist for instructional support with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
• 0:38
  We are housed in the Martin Gatton College of Agriculture,
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  Food and Environment.
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  My guest today is Doctor Alex Elswick,
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  who is our extension specialist for substi prevention and recovery.
• 0:51
  Welcome,
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  Alex,
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  good morning,
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  Mindy.
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  We are going to talk about recovery in the workplace today and specifically,
• 0:58
  we're talking about substance use recovery,
• 1:01
  but I know that this is a topic that's near and dear to your heart.
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  And I know that it's important that employers and employees both understand what recovery looks like when you're working.
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  You know,
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  when I present on recovery,
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  ready workplaces,
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  I I won't do this now in this context,
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  I promise.
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  But normally what I do is start by sharing my own experience with employment and recovery.
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  So really employment transformed my life.
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  Employment was one of the bedrocks,
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  the keystones of my recovery.
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  So,
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  so important.
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  I mean,
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  that alone I'm already bought in.
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  But I also know uh I gotta get everybody else's by it.
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  That's part of what this is about.
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  Yep.
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  Yep.
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  That's why we talk about important topics like this on the talking Fads podcasts because we really want to make sure that people are aware of some of these things that might not come up in the other conversation everyday conversation.
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  Exactly.
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  Yes.
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  Yes.
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  What does addiction have to do with work?
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  You know,
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  fair question.
• 2:00
  What do the two have to do with each other?
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  I think the first thing to remember is that we're still in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic.
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  We lost 100 and 8000 people in 2021.
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  We're about to get the,
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  the 2022 numbers,
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  things keep getting worse and that means necessarily that employers have been impacted.
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  So for instance,
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  I just read this recently in Massachusetts.
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  The leading cause of accidental death in the workplace is overdose.
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  Wow,
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  that's,
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  that's the extent to which workplaces have been impacted.
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  And,
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  and also it's,
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  you know,
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  we always use overdose as the,
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  the indicator for how bad things are.
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  But that's just one measure.
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  And you got to remember for every single overdose their entire families impacted entire communities,
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  lots of devastation and then for every overdose,
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  there are,
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  you know,
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  dozens and dozens of people who are addicted,
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  who haven't overdosed,
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  but whose addictions are impacting the workplace.
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  So we talk about turnover.
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  We talk about lost productivity just through a loss of uh lack of focus.
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  We talk about absenteeism.
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  People with substance use disorders are,
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  are certainly more likely to miss work but also a phenomenon called presenteeism,
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  which is workers who can get their physical body to work,
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  but they can't bring their brain and their competence and the best of their abilities to work.
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  And that also is costing,
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  uh,
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  employers in terms of their bottom line.
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  And the reality is,
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  I mean,
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  addiction,
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  you know,
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  is impacting work every day.
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  Oh,
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  yeah.
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  And,
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  and it's just logical because it impacts your whole life.
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  And so of course,
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  it's going to impact your work life as well.
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  That's it.
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  That's exactly right.
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  It's,
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  it's,
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  it's everywhere.
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  So it shouldn't be surprising.
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  It shows up at work.
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  Yes.
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  So this to me is like a big flashing red light to employers.
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  Ok.
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  You need to be involved in the recovery process too.
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  Is that what we're seeing?
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  That's what we're saying because what I would say to employers is the question is not,
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  how do you want to be involved?
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  You're already in bulk.
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  You didn't,
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  you didn't get a choice.
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  Addiction didn't knock on the door.
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  It didn't wait to be welcomed in,
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  it barged in and it's here.
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  And so the question is not,
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  do I want to be involved?
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  But how do I want to be involved?
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  And that's what a recovery ready workplace is about,
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  is instead of kind of living in a little bit of denial and just saying like,
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  I hope addiction doesn't come to our workplace instead,
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  it's like,
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  let's get serious about being prepared to help our employees um to,
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  to seek new employees who might be in recovery,
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  who might be really competent employees to really change the landscape of the workplace.
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  That sounds wonderful.
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  I I especially like the idea of,
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  of helping to foster the environment where people in recovery are welcome because part of it reducing stigma and just changing attitudes.
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  So what is a recovery ready workplace?
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  I figured we would do well to include one good old fashioned definition.
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  So I'm just gonna recovery ready workplaces are characterized by the adoption of policies and practices that do a couple of things.
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  First,
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  as you might imagine they expand employment opportunities for people in or seeking recovery.
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  And you know,
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  I hear on a regular basis,
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  one of the biggest concerns in the workforce development space is we can't find good workers.
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  And then after a few years of saying that people just started saying we can't find workers,
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  we can't even find people who will show up,
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  right?
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  Or people who can pass a drug test.
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  I've heard that from so many employers.
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  And so what recovery,
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  ready workplace,
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  one thing that recovery ready workplaces attempt to accomplish is to bring together those two needs.
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  You have people in recovery who need jobs and you have employers who need workers.
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  And that's a perfect marriage recovery ready workplaces inform employees in recovery that they have the right to reasonable accommodations and other protections to help them keep their jobs.
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  And what we mean by that is some people are surprised to,
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  to learn that substance use disorder as a clinical disorder is a disability,
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  it's covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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  So that means people with substance use disorders enjoy the same rights to reasonable accommodations as folks the other disability including physical disabilities.
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  Um and oftentimes people,
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  part of the reason it's important to mention that is because frequently people in recovery are ashamed to take advantage of reasonable accommodations because they don't want folks to know recovery ready workplaces,
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  reduce the risk of substance use and the related harms,
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  as you might imagine,
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  facilitates help seeking and access to treatment services.
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  So it's it's about bringing more people in recovery into the space.
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  It's about um creating a healthier work environment that prevents overdose,
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  that prevents workplay accidents,
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  but then also giving your employees access,
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  making it easier for them.
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  You know,
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  if you think about it,
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  if I'm an employee and I'm struggling with an addiction,
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  I probably feel like I can't say that to my employer.
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  If I tell them struggling with cocaine use,
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  they might fire me right off the rip.
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  And so what,
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  what happens most often is people suffer in silence and they struggle on their own.
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  They don't reach out for any kind of support or any kind of help and things fester in the darkness and in isolation,
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  people really need to be connected.
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  So that's what uh recovery workplaces do.
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  Well,
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  and it seems to me like it would give them a community,
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  give people a community if they don't have that support in other places,
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  maybe your workplace is your support.
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  That's,
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  that's right.
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  And as a friend of mine likes to say,
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  you know,
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  if you're working 40 hours a week,
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  you're working eight hours a day,
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  five days a week,
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  that's a significant amount of your waking time.
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  It really is a family.
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  I mean,
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  whether you like it or not,
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  you're gonna spend so much time around these folks who are in that context that,
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  that,
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  yeah,
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  it absolutely matters.
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  So,
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  what are some ways that employees can become recovery ready?
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  Yes.
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  So the first thing that we recommend to employers,
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  this is almost such low hanging fruit.
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  It'll make you want to laugh,
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  but I'm very serious about it is having a drug free workplace policy.
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  It seems so obvious.
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  But just like we would tell parents when,
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  when it comes to communicating about substances to their kids,
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  one of the things we say is there need to be clear and consistent expectations that are communicated to,
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  to your kids.
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  And we really want the same thing for employees,
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  clear,
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  consistent,
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  um,
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  expectations that are being communicated,
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  even though many people would say it should be obvious that,
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  you know,
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  not to show up how to work or whatever,
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  um,
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  to,
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  to have that in writing.
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  And the research shows 80% of employers currently don't have drug free workplace policies.
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  So it's really a good place to start.
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  So they just assume that everybody knows that they're drug free or that they want to be drug free and really not a fair assumption.
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  Right.
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  Well,
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  and I,
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  I'm going off topic here but I'm wondering if it seems to me like when our employer went to a tobacco free workplace,
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  I certainly saw tobacco use a whole lot less,
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  you know,
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  it's on the fringes,
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  you know,
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  around the hospital a little bit and out on the streets,
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  uh,
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  that aren't considered campus.
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  But I'm guessing,
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  and maybe this is a strong guess,
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  but that maybe our use of tobacco reduced when we became tobacco.
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  Your intuition on that is spot on.
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  So I'll confess something here in part because hopefully it'll help destigmatize a little bit.
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  But I used to smoke cigarettes.
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  Even after I got into recovery,
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  I still struggled with quitting.
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  It was the last thing that I would get rid of was cigarettes.
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  I thought I was gonna smoke for,
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  for forever.
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  And when,
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  when I got to UK,
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  and they had the tobacco free policy on campus,
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  it genuinely makes you both smoke less smoke,
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  fewer cigarettes and also contemplate quitting because it gives you so many incentives to be like,
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  man,
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  I don't want to go stand out here and walk cold to do this.
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  So,
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  yes,
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  I think you're exactly right.
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  Ok.
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  So then that would lead me to think that having the,
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  the drug free work plates also would make,
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  yeah,
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  same,
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  same effect.
• 10:18
  Ok.
• 10:19
  So how did employers benefit from hiring people in recovery?
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  That's a great question.
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  And this is all really surprising to employers who I think have been led to believe that people who used to use drugs must be lazy or must be not quality employees or whatever.
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  It is.
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  Um,
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  what's surprising is that research shows people,
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  um,
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  in recovery are less likely to miss work.
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  So they take fewer vacation days,
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  they take fewer sick days.
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  This is like documented in the scientific literature.
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  They're also very importantly,
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  the least likely to leave their employers.
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  So there's much lower rate of turnover among people in recovery than among the general population.
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  And,
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  um,
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  in fact,
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  uh,
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  a 2017 study found the rate of turnover for people in recovery is 21% lower than workers who have no addiction or no past addictions.
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  And I think it has a lot to do with their life experience.
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  I think it has a lot to do with things like gratitude and loyalty and purpose and the fact that they're grateful to have stability and to have a paycheck.
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  And um it makes for a really dutiful worker.
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  I was going to guess that loyalty would be really high among people who have been hired out of recovery because they would feel that gratitude for taking a chance on me,
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  which may not be a chance,
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  but in the eyes of an employer might be.
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  I feel that gratitude.
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  I hope this doesn't sound like I'm Brown nosing on the UK podcast.
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  But uh I do,
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  I mean,
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  I,
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  I think I can speak to that personally that when someone gives you an opportunity that you're not entirely sure you deserve,
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  you wanna perform so well for them because you say man,
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  I,
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  I'm so glad to be here,
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  you know,
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  and that is,
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  and I'm,
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  I'm sure that that continues to support the recovery process because when you feel valued and important and necessary,
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  then I would think that that would lead to not feeling the need to use as much.
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  These are all my guesses your intuition is on today.
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  We sp OK.
• 12:28
  So do we have any advice for people who are in recovery when they are seeking employment?
• 12:36
  Yeah,
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  that's a great question to my,
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  my best word of advice.
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  Folks who've heard any of my presentations,
• 12:41
  we talk about language a lot the importance of destigmatize language and why it matters because it'll change the recommendation of a judge or a jury or a doctor.
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  But it also matters because language will change the beliefs and the actions of an employer.
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  And so,
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  I mean,
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  by that is if I go to a prospective employer and I say,
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  hey,
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  I'm an ex addict that while true brings with it all of these negative associations that makes it less likely that that person's gonna give me a job.
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  Now,
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  if I go ahead and say I'm a person in recovery that it's,
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  it's,
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  it might mean the same thing by definition,
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  but it feels different and it brings with it different associations and most importantly,
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  it's a focus on your potential and not your,
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  that's what I was gonna say.
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  It's the positive of your experience,
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  not the negative.
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  Yeah,
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  I,
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  I like that um annotation and I think that we have benefited definitely from your input into our programs and,
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  and our resources and I know that there are others who have your same spark that will make that,
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  that change as well.
• 13:51
  Thank you.
• 13:52
  As we wrap up Alex.
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  Do you have any other points that you want to make sure that we leave with?
• 13:58
  I guess just two other things popped into my head before I forget them that I think are important related to the topic.
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  The first is that a,
• 14:04
  a recovery ready workplace should be prepared to respond to an overdose since we,
• 14:09
  we talked about overdoses showing up.
• 14:12
  So um accessing naloxone and doing an overdose response training would be important e employee assistance program is the other thing I failed to mention is that EAPS are really effective in part because if you're gonna be afraid to admit that you have a problem because you're afraid of the consequences and it's really helpful to have that sort of third party avenue there,
• 14:32
  a safe space where someone can go and say I'm having this problem.
• 14:35
  I don't want to have to quit my job.
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  I don't want to have to,
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  you know,
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  I just need for it and a little help.
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  That is,
• 14:42
  it's great,
• 14:43
  Alex.
• 14:43
  Thanks so much for taking the time to share with me.
• 14:45
  I know that this is an important discussion both for those people who are in recovery and for employers who are looking for quality employees and maybe haven't thought about the fact that people in recovery would be the,
• 15:00
  the answer to their,
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  to their needs.
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  That's right.
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  Hopefully,
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  it can be a win,
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  win for Kentucky.
• 15:06
  That sounds fabulous.
• 15:08
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• 15:10
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