# Workplace Surgery #2: Top performer or high-functioning alcoholic?

- **Episode:** [180](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/180.md) (2025-03-18)
- **Type:** workplace-surgery
- **Tags:** performance, alcoholism, mental-health
- **Time:** 36:59–42:10 (start 2219s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/180?t=2219](https://truthliesandwork.com/180?t=2219)

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[36:59] Al Elliott: Good luck and Godspeed. Okay, question number 2. Top performer or high-functioning alcoholic?
[37:05] Leanne Elliott: Possibly both. Continue
[37:08] Al Elliott: I manage a team of 9 people, including a senior account manager who consistently exceeds targets and whom clients absolutely love. By the way, loving the use of the word whom there. I love it. The problem? I'm increasingly concerned he has a drinking problem. He arrives to morning meetings with bloodshot eyes and coffee that doesn't really hide the smell. His afternoon performance noticeably dips, and he's missed deadlines twice after lunch. Clients have also mentioned he was a bit off during late afternoon calls. Despite this, his overall performance is still better than most of his team. HR advised that unless his work significantly suffers or he comes to work visibly intoxicated, there's very little I can do. I feel stuck between protecting a high performer and addressing what seems like a serious personal issue. This is an interesting part of the question here. What is my responsibility here to the company, to him, and to the team? I like, I like that this person's looked at it multifaceted. It's not just like, how do I manage this person? But, you know, I've got to think about the team and also personally think about his life. Anyway, sorry, Leanne, I'm, I'm, this is your turn
[38:12] Leanne Elliott: This is your turn. No, please continue, Al. Continue
[38:14] Al Elliott: Well, what do you think? What do you think this person should do?
[38:17] Leanne Elliott: I mean, HR is right, legally speaking, and unless there is something significantly obvious about this, you know, they turn up to work intoxicated, it's conjecture. And, you know, it— in that case, you have to treat this as you would any other employee who is maybe struggling. It's these little behavior changes, these little changes in appearance, these little changes in in performance that a really great manager is going to pick up in everybody, whether it's because they have a substance abuse problem, whether it's because they're having challenges at home, whether they're going through grief, whether they're stressed. It's all these cues that kind of tell us, and what's really good is you recognize them ahead of time before there's a significant problem that would potentially escalate to a formal performance management issue or a referral to HR. So you've, you've noticed that, which is great. Approach it as you would any other conversation with an employee. Mention in your one-to-ones, you know, is everything okay? What's going on with you at the minute? Leave it at that. Don't add any context or leading questions and just keep asking that. If there are things that aren't acceptable, it doesn't matter how high-performing they are. If there's something that isn't acceptable, then you'd have that conversation as you would with any employee. If a client isn't happy, you go, look what happened with Jason down at ABC. You know, you're just going to have that conversation. So I think at this point you approach it as you would any other organization and any other employee. Try and suspend judgment or, um, coming to your own conclusions about what the issue is. It could be that, it could be something completely different. It's great that HR know, because if this does escalate, it's not going to be completely blindsided. Um, and just see where it escalates. In terms of your responsibility, Your responsibility right now is none other than to be a manager. You're not a health professional that helps people with substance abuse challenges. You're not HR. You are a manager whose job is to manage people, create a safe, high-performing environment, and give them the support they need to do their job well. As part of that is, of course, to have empathy and concern and check in with them, but checking in with them in light of these little behavior changes. shifts in performance that you're seeing. Approach it as you would any other employee conversation with these dips in performance or behaviour changes and see what comes out. And if it does come, you know, come to a point where, um, this person is struggling, um, with an alcohol problem, then you've already got that conversation, that relationship with your HR rep. You go back to them, you ask for all the signposting options, and you go from there. It's not your responsibility to counsel this person through their their alcohol addiction. It's your responsibility to manage their performance at work. So, approach it as that. Your responsibility is to manage their performance at work. Have the conversations you would with any other employee if you're starting to see signs that they were struggling
[41:06] Al Elliott: Yeah, absolutely. And of course, there's other options as well. Potentially, this person's got a new baby, so they're really tired. So, they're up at like 3 in the morning. So, for them, 1 o'clock in the afternoon is like midnight. So, there could be that. There could be health problems. They could have diabetes, for example, which means that you'll be tired after Um, after, after lunch
[41:26] Leanne Elliott: They could have insomnia, so they're trying to have a couple of whiskies to try and get themselves to sleep, but they don't. There's so many scenarios, isn't there, Al?
[41:34] Al Elliott: Yeah, there is. And I think what Leanne said is really, really— I think it's really cool advice because you're saying treat them like any other employee. Just like, okay, that's my, my hypothesis, but that's— I don't have any proof of that. And like Leanne says, when you do get proof, then perhaps you have to do something slightly differently
[41:51] Leanne Elliott: And it's okay to say, I noticed you looked, you didn't look as put together this morning as you normally do. Is everything all right? Or, I noticed that you're hitting a bit of a wall in the afternoon. Is there anything I can do to, to help you with that? Um, yeah, it's asking these open, open questions without agenda, without judgment, um, with only the view to, to try and help this person out a little bit