As we began discussing last week, addiction is a major source of trouble that invades every aspect of a person’s life. The individual may be addicted to a substance or activity. Or they may be involved in other people’s addictions. Or they may have grown up in a family that had an addict in it. Active addiction issues encroach on the work environment. The addict may be using their substance or engaging in their activity on the premises, at lunch, or on company time. Or they may keep the active use out of the workplace, but the effects still cause significant problems. The longer this addiction problem goes on for, the higher the chance of them having a tolerance to it. There will be many healthcare professionals in your area who will be able to help with substance use problems should you want to get your life back on track. But for some people, their addiction can carry over into their workplace. Signs can include poor attendance, lack of productivity, being preoccupied to the point of distraction, mood swings based on getting their fix, hostile interactions with others, lying, cheating, stealing, secretive behavior, and punishment for those who do not help cover the addict’s tracks.
In much the same way, people who grew up in an addicted family who have never dealt with those issues, also show classic behavioral traits that disrupt the work environment. This also can create a toxic undercurrent that erodes trust, productivity, and mission accomplishment. It also does a lot of damage to healthy people, in much the same way that a daily dose of poison would hurt a healthy person. There are some great lists online about the behaviors that are commonly seen in adult children of addicted families. We don’t have time to go into them in detail today, but in general, it comes down to a person living by rigid rules and roles, with severe consequences for anyone who steps outside that restricted world. The goal with every trait, rule, and role is to protect the addict from the consequences of his/her own behavior. The addict shoves off their responsibility to the rest of the family, and rather than taking responsibility for themselves, they force their family to take responsibility for them. It is crazy-making for people who aren’t actually responsible for something, to be required to take responsibility. There is a lot of hysteria about this. If someone doesn’t play their part, the addicted family acts as if it is a matter of life or death, when in reality if someone knows of a close one that is suffering from addiction, they should make it a priority to get in touch with rehabilitation services perhaps coupled with some form of treatment through a facility you can find if you to click here, as an example. However, if the family has been dealing with the addicted relative for some time with no signs of remedy, they will stop at nothing to make a healthy person look like a sick person. There is enormous desperation to hide the truth of their downfalls.
The addicted family creates a highly distorted world for everyone in it. It’s not always clear to the people inside that system, what is real and what is distorted. When the children of these families grow up and enter the work force, if they have never dealt with these issues they will end up functioning in their teams the way they functioned in their family. Leaders will end up creating workplaces that function like their addicted family. They will select a narrative for themselves, perhaps that they need to be taken care of (the this website victim). This translates to a mandate that their employees keep secrets for them so they don’t have to face any consequences for their behavior. If there is a staff member who grew up in an addicted family and never dealt with their issues either, they may leap to the defense of the leader at any cost (the rescuer). Healthy employees who have dealt with their issues, make good choices, and don’t buy into the sick rules or roles they are assigned are branded the enemy (the villain). What happens in these situations is that a battle develops between the healthy people wanting to do their jobs and being focused on the mission, and the unhealthy people wanting to stage a drama each day to fulfill unmet emotional needs within themselves. The “victims” send out distress signals to the “rescuers” and together they fight to vanquish the “villains.” They replicate in the work environment the same destruction that took place in their living room growing up.
Next week we will talk about the next category of troubled co-workers / leaders. Until then, be well, be safe, and stay strong!