A drinking problem--on the job! For those who may not know me, I work in metro Atlanta as a journalist. In May, our paper got a new managing editor and things have been chaotic to say the least. I won't go into much detail right now, but I will say I've noticed him coming into the office and reeking of alcohol. It's not like he comes to work smelling like that first thing in the morning. When he arrives, he smells fine. It's when he returns from...his 2 hour lunch breaks when he smells like booze. I've been the only person to notice and it's been going on for about four months off and on. On Friday, our photographer made a comment that he came to our small holiday gathering party smelling like booze. In my mind, I was like, "YES! I'm not crazy!" One other person in the office said it could be that he drinks so much at night that he still smells like it during the day. I call bullshit on that because he never smells like that first thing--it's always in the afternoon. Also, I think you'd have to be pretty damn drunk to still smell like booze 10 hours after you've been drinking--I mean, drunk enough that you'd probably get pulled over?! This person also said it could be a mint he's using, but I know booze when I smell it. Also, I can smell it on him when he sits down at his desk, which is about 10 feet away from me. I can go into how much stress, anxiety, depression, etc. I've been under since he started, but I just want to get some advice on how should I approach this. I know I need to go to human resources, but how would I tell them? I'm afraid that it could back fire on me if I'm indeed wrong and it's not booze. But, my gut tells me the odor I'm smelling on him is alcohol. It's a very distinct odor that just doesn't pass for breath mints. Help!!!
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So...I think my boss has a problem
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A drinking problem per se should not be something to complain about. If he's a quiet alcoholic who otherwise does his job OK, it should be his business alone.I assume, however, that you want to get rid of him because he doesn't do his job well. I still think it would be much better to complain about the deficiencies in his work, but I can see that sometimes the less relevant complaint is the only one that gets taken seriously.Even so, you should never bring a complaint without having very strong evidence to back it up. Otherwise, you'll be the one who gets fired. (I thought hard drinking was traditional in journalism? Barry Humphries used to say that the way to get journalists to anything you wanted them at was to put on the invitation "Refreshments provided".)