Addiction is a serious disease that takes hold of all the facets of a person’s life. We know how badly it can disturb your relationships, imbalance your finances, and change your physical appearance. Intense addiction for a prolonged period can bring disturbances to your work as well.
Likewise, recovery heals you completely and helps you improve those facets of life. You begin to take good care of your relationships, you enjoy sober and fun hobbies, and your friends support you of your new outlook.
But how does this affect your job? How can you tell your boss about your sobriety?
Let us look at it in detail.
- Be honest
Your boss might already be aware of your struggle with addiction. Nevertheless, you need to be straight and confess your willingness to improve. Honesty is always appreciated, and the boss will be imbued with a sense of confidence and compassion. This always helps in feeling secure and letting people feel what you are going through. This is certainly the best thing that will help you keep your job. All the bosses hold honesty and integrity as virtues above everything else. And when you go to him and tell him about your struggle to go against the tide and become a better person the boss will understand that you are strong, capable and a responsible person.
Honesty always takes you farther away and makes you feel good about yourself as well. So, especially when discussing something as important as sobriety and recovery, you must make sure that you are as honest, genuine and unpretentious as possible.
- Do research
It is highly imperative to ensure that you know the ins and outs of the treatment. You must know the whole scope of it and understand how it is helping you become a better person.
This will only help you to explain your boss better. It is not necessary to spell out every nitty and gritty of the treatment. More importantly, you must sound confident and bridled with enthusiasm when talking about it so that he understands that you are wilful on the path of sobriety. If you show passivity or hesitance, then it will not come out as a confident stance.
One of the important things is that you must brief yourself with the company’s alcohol and drug policy. You will be informed about your leaves for treatment or if the company provides any additional resources.
Either case it is also better if the company does not have provision for extra resources. You do not want to be in a position asking your boss for resources.
- Confidence
When you confront your boss, you must maintain a straight and comfortable stance. Your body language tells a lot about your personality than your words. You can also prepare the important pointers that you want to talk about, so you don’t find yourself in loss of words. Nothing can bring rise to speculation more than a person losing track of his thoughts when explaining himself. So, rehearse if that is what is required.
And when you talk to your boss about sobriety talk to him about why it’s important to you and how it is helping you transform yourself spiritually as a person. The boss will be more than happy and accept you.
- Understand the law
The Federal Government passed a law in 1993 that was called the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This act is applied to most companies and industries.
This law ensures complete protection and secures unpaid leaves for employees who are seeking out family and medical support. This might include any kind of severe illness, medical inspection, and pregnancy.
This act makes you entitled to take leaves if required for your treatment. So, this time can be utilized for treatment and guarantee you that the job will be secure for you.
Conclusion
Recovery plays a highly crucial role in a recovered addict’s life. People must understand that sobriety and recovery is a life-long process.
It is still considered a taboo to disclose about treatment and recovery in professional space. However, it is time to break this barrier and arrive at a much broader understanding.
Once you complete your treatment you lay down a strong foundation for yourself and you can talk about it with your close friends and loved ones. However, when you talk to your boss make sure you tell him about your recovery and how it is changing your life without delving into specifics and unnecessary details.
Your boss is the person who only needs to be assured that you are fully recovered and ready to take on your professional challenges. If your relationship with your boss is beyond the confines of professionalism, then you can go ahead and share it. It is very much up to you.