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Threat to Quality: The Workforce is Impaired
We’re going to share some statistics today about how the workforce is impaired. This is part of our overall understanding of why people don’t do their jobs.
Historical References
Probably this has gone on since the invention of labor, or maybe the invention of impairment.
If you want to go back as far as Dickens, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, it looks like there was a sick, drunk population that was trying to survive in the world. Mr. Micawber? Yeah, that guy. There was no mass education, and life was fairly miserable for a lot of the population, if you believe Dickens.
If you want a further reference, you can go back to that scene in The Jungle, circa 1900 by Upton Sinclair. The meatpackers gave some of the child labor some of their lunch beer, with gruesome results.
Back in the Mad Men era, it was fairly common to have the “three martini lunch.” Has this practice died out? No, I have to say it still exists in some places, and in some occupations. There are certain places, such as the dynamite factory, that this is a less good idea. I suppose if you are an office drone you don’t think too much about it. If you’re around heavy equipment it is not a good idea to be loaded.
I guess we could get into the fairness issue of why it is okay for some of the suits in the office to have a few beers over lunch, but not the fellow on the assembly line. But, that’s not what this is about. It’s about that the workforce is impaired.
This is about someone showing up wasted and not doing their job.
Who am I to be telling you this?
There were a few instances through the years of being in a dangerous place after chugging cold medicine but I tried to keep out of the danger zone.
In addition to deriving a revenue stream from people not doing their jobs, I have a long history in quality systems. I’ve been in a number of places where workforce is impaired. I’ve been an ISO9001 quality systems auditor for more time than I care to remember, which has made me intimate with human failure. I get the hard job of helping organizations recognize and deal with their screwups.
www.jimshell.com/quality-systems-training/
Disclaimer: For awhile, it was my job to take clients out to lunch and lubricate them a little. I am not going to pretend otherwise. Did this hurt anyone’s productivity? I was a bit worried about a couple of them. Did it hurt my productivity? Well, if it was my job to do this, maybe not.
Here’s a little video for you.
I made this video a couple of years ago, about how the workforce is impaired. This is an opportunity to update a few of the statistics. Did the problem go away since then? No, I am ready to say that because of “long covid” and a lot of other things that have happened since then, it may have gotten worse.
The reason workforce impairment is important to you and I is that this is one of the many reasons that things aren’t working right now. I have noticed this at all levels of the economy and across many different industries.
We’re going to have a lot to say about this later.
The Workforce is Impaired: The Workforce Is Drunk or High
Yeah this. It is hard to put an exact number on this, because the publicly available statistics are not consistent. I’ve put a couple of recent references below. Somewhere between 5 and 15% of the employees in a given work group drink, or get otherwise high, during the work day.
A significant fraction shows up at the start of the shift drunk or high.
The number seems to be highest in hospitality, namely bartenders or other alcohol-serving people. I’d drink too, if I were some of them.
Is this dangerous? I suppose, like we said above, that if the worker is some office drone that was a danger only to him or herself, it is harmless. But if the worker is some forklift operator moving drums of hydrochloric acid around the place, that is not a good thing.
Cultural Differences
Did I tell you this story? I once had to go to a place not too far from Salzburg, which is in the lovely land of Austria. The factory was located in a beautiful mountain valley. It was December, a gentle, fluffy snow was coming down, and there were pretty little towns all around.
The factory itself was not especially beautiful but in this place, they were feeding the workforce comfort food. This consisted of lots of meat and potatoes for lunch. Along with that, the national drink, namely beer, was available free-flowing. Was 15% of the workforce “loaded?” It was hard to say, but in that place maybe they’re used to it.
We can go into the weird attitude toward drugs and alcohol in the US in some other book. For now, let’s stick to the idea that it’s probably not a good idea, in most companies in the US, to give free beer to the workers.
The Workforce is Sleep Deprived
I actually don’t believe the statistic below, which states that on a given day, 43% of the workforce is sleep deprived.
I think it’s worse than that.
Any new parent is sleep deprived. 100% of the people on the night shift are sleep deprived. I was a night shift person for awhile and I can attest to it. In the places that work rotating shifts, 100% of the workforce is sleep deprived as well, all the time. No one can get on a fixed sleep schedule.
I am sleep deprived right now, as a matter of fact.
Sleep deprivation can cause all sorts of problems, including lack of concentration, loss of coordination, reduced reaction times, and mood disorders.
Over the long haul, it is a contributing factor to a lot of other metabolic diseases that can cause further workplace impairment.
The Workforce is Impaired: They’re Sick
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at a given time, 1.5% of the workforce has called in sick. A similar enough percentage of the workforce is sick, but showed up anyway.
If the total of those things is 5%, that’s one person out of a 20 person work group.
About 25% of the workforce in a given year had perfect attendance. Actually I have a perfect attendance story for you. There was a hard headed production manager in the place where I worked right out of college, and he had “perfect attendance” for 45 years. Does that mean that he didn’t get sick? No, of course not. It meant that he powered through it and contaminated everybody in the building.
Maybe we’re a little wiser now.
They’re Hurt
According to OSHA, the statistic was that 10.2 out of 100 workers got hurt back in 1972, and nowadays, this number has shrunk to about 2.7 workers out of 100.
This, we presume, would be the OSHA “Reportable” injury rate. That doesn’t include the non-reportable injuries.
Keep in mind that in the USA, the percentage of the “non-farm” employment in manufacturing, which is known to be dangerous, has dropped by 50% in that time. When the manufacturing resurgence happens, which it will, those numbers will go up.
The point is, that depending on the job, it is likely that a fraction of the workforce at a given time is hurt and there are a lot of rules surrounding the Americans with Disabilities Act and “light duty” that suggests that a significant fraction are on the job at less than full strength.
I’m having more trouble than I used to coming up with statistics for this, because the government data is outdated. Even AI does not have the answer.
Absenteeism
According to the BLS, the “absenteeism rate” in the US in 2022 due to injury is 2.6%, and in addition the overall absenteeism rate is 3.8%, which in a work group is about one out of 30.
That doesn’t include the people that are limping around the office in a walking boot because they twisted their ankle playing pickleball. I am going to walk around the issue of obesity for the moment. Obesity is so widespread right now that it might be a concurrent condition for most of these issues.
I am not ready to say that unless you are a ballet dancer, obesity in and of itself is a reason for people not doing their job. However, I can be convinced otherwise. It is an element in being sick, having injuries, and having other medical conditions.
They’re on Opiates
This was fairly shocking to me. 10% of the population, and we suppose the workforce, is walking around on painkillers. These are the legal painkillers, and doesn’t include the illegal painkillers and other opiates that are prescribed at a rate of more than 100% of the population (that’s right.)
They’re Stupid, have Psychological issues and/or Personality Disorders
This is enough of an issue that we’re going to tackle them separately. Except, that is to say, according to Bahnhover’s Five Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, stupidity is independent of any other human condition.
So it is likely that a certain fraction of the population is both stupid and has one of these other things going on.
Child or Elderly Care Issues
I am also going to briefly touch on the people not working because they have child care issues. A significant fraction of absenteeism is because their day care situation for that day fell through. This is a horrible problem, and probably the number is greater than the 104,000 people who lost work days per month that is cited in the references below. That would be 0.6% give or take but like I said, I can assure you it’s higher than that in some occupations where there are a lot of female employees.
Someone might be perfectly healthy but need to stay home for a sick dependent.
This is a significant stressor in various systems including the family system, and there is no good solution if we, as a society, want these people to work and do their jobs.
The Workplace is Using Social Media
At the time I did the video above, which was in the 2017-2018 time frame, it was estimated at the time that 10% of the workforce was distracted by social media at any given time.
As of 2022, per the reference below, it is estimated that up to 25% of drivers now are sending emails or texts while driving. I suppose it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to apply this to the workforce.
It is hard to get an actual number as to what fraction of these employees are distracted enough to cause peoples’ jobs not to be done. But, it probably doesn’t matter too much. If someone is streaming TikTok, they probably aren’t doing their job.
The Workforce is Impaired: the Bottom Line
I suppose you can argue that none of these things is mutually exclusive. It’s possible for one poor fellow to be drunk, sleep deprived, injured, strung out on opiates and streaming Netflix on the job.
But short of that, in a work group of 20, it is fairly obvious. On a given walk through the production line or office or restaurant or other workplace, it’s likely that half of them have something going on.
These are the people that are flipping your burgers, installing your toilets, or doing your demolition work. If not them, the people in the office, or bank or government. In a system where there is interdependence, like an assembly line, the whole thing shuts down at some point.
Why don’t these people get fired?
Well, in some of the big industrial operations that I hang around in, they do.
But in a lot of little offices, or family businesses, or other smaller operations, they don’t.
There is a list of reasons that people don’t get fired, most of them associated with some relationship between the worker and the boss. I will add to this the ongoing labor force problems due to the pandemic and other issues that are going on in society.
I would refer you to my favorite talking head on the topic, Nicholas Eberstadt, who has written the book on this.
My other favorite talking head on this topic is Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs guy:
To make a long story short, because of current labor shortage issues, and because of the lack of people willing to get into some nasty field like toilet installation or manufacturing, people are more reluctant to fire someone even if they show up loaded.
I have a couple of references below about the whole issue of workplace drug screening, which was a big deal awhile back. It is less of a big deal because of the legalization of weed in certain areas of the US, raising the question that if someone shows up high on a legal drug, what can you or should you do about it?
Coping Strategies
Well, there are a couple of coping strategies if you have the misfortune of being in charge of any of this.
The basic approach, if you are in a supervisory role, is to approach the employee carefully but directly, gather and present data, and set expectations. The HR department at your work, if there is one, may offer guidelines on this.
Keep in mind that use of some of these substances can be considered a medical condition, which makes you, the manager, potentially exposing yourself and the company to liability issues. Someone in rehab has “protected status” and you may find yourself in a lawsuit if not careful.
As a co-worker, the main strategy seems to be to approach the fellow employee, and ask if you can help. Keep in mind that the chances of you alienating the employee are greater than zero in a case like that. It is possible, that if this is a workplace acquaintance, you can encourage them to seek professional guidance.
In either of these cases, excessive tolerance for employees showing up wasted might be considered a toxic workplace situation, and you may be better off hitting the road. As we suggested above, there is an apparent shortage of people who do their jobs.
The Workforce is Impaired: What to make of all of this?
What I am saying is this:
In any given work group, there is an excellent chance that people are not doing their jobs because they are impaired. In my opinion, backed up by statistics, this is on the order of 50/50.
We’re living in a time where there is a strung out, sleep deprived, sick workforce. I believe this is a symptom of some underlying societal issues, but I also believe that there has been a certain amount of it since the dawn of time.
There are a lot of strategies to detect and deter this, but there may limited success. In some cases, there are legal issues.
That doesn’t necessarily help fix anything, but at least you are aware of the situation so that you can cope with it in whatever way you can.
PS: Have you seen my Udemy course?
Here is my link to Udemy course, “How Not to Fail at ISO9001”
https://www.udemy.com/course/how-not-to-fail-at-iso9001/learn/lecture/34733460#content
Here’s the link to my Quality Systems Training. You can hire me to give this training in person, complete with questions and answers, and along with a few decades worth of horror stories about product quality, dangerous products, and why people don’t do their jobs.
And, here’s the link to my book “How Not to Fail at ISO9001” available at Amazon.
The Spanish version is also available.
Links and References
U of Buffalo 2006 15% of the workforce is drunk or high
Web Tribunal 2023 1.8% of the workforce shows up drunk, Up to 15% of the workforce drinks during the day.
https://webtribunal.net/blog/drinking-at-work-statistics/#gref
Sleep Deprivation
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/sleep-deprivation
CDC Pain killer use is 10.7%
Opioid prescription rate is over 100% in about half of the US (2015-2018) National average was 43% in 2020
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/rxrate-maps/index.html
National safety council 43% of the population is sleep deprived, 60% of the night shift
https://www.nsc.org/work-safety/safety-topics/fatigue
SHRM
Most common sick day is August 24, followed by February 13.
90% of the workforce have come to work sick
More Links and References
23% of the workforce doesn’t have sick pay
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-state-of-paid-sick-time-in-the-u-s-in-2023/
AIHR absenteeism rate is 1.5%
https://www.aihr.com/blog/absenteeism-rate/
Injury Rate
https://www.osha.gov/data/commonstats
Manufacturing Employment
https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-9/forty-years-of-falling-manufacturing-employment.htm/
750K of jobs in manufacturing are unfilled (labor force is 167 million)
Fraction of the workforce that is obese
https://cdn.pfizer.com/pfizercom/products/Obesity_in_the_United_States_Workforce.pdf/
NIH Statistics obesity statistics
Child and Elderly Care
90% of the labor force uses social media at work, 50% “for” their work. 13% of companies block youtube at work.
“Funemployment” literally shows up to work and does nothing
https://www.vox.com/money/23733244/bullshit-jobs-work-employment-lazy-jobless-employed-nothing-to-do
The Great Resignation
40% of the workforce is planning to quit
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation/
21% of the workforce on the job for less than a year
https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/job-seekers-survey/#inflation-soaring
5% of supervisors have quit, 2.8% of the people quit in May.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/7/7/23186233/managers-great-resignation-quit-job
82% of the employees would quit to get away from a bad manager
https://www.valuepenguin.com/news/majority-workers-would-leave-job-becuase-of-manager
Personality disorders somewhere around 11%
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2861520/
Time wasted complaining to others, or doing someone else’s job
Drug Testing less common (weed)
Why employees don’t get fired (2007)
1. The employee has a relationship with someone higher up.
2. The boss relies on the employee.
3. The employee brings more value to the company than he or she costs.
4. The boss thinks it could be worse.
5. The boss is afraid of the employee.
6. The boss feels sorry for the employee.
7. The boss doesn’t want to go through the hiring process.
8. The employee knows something.
9. The employee has everybody fooled.
10. He or she is not really a bad employee.
Rat them out
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/deal-employees-suspected-drinking-17868.html
Gather data
Have a one on one meeting
Soften the blow
Present your data
Give the employee a chance to defend him or herself
Discuss Consequences
Set goals
Write everything down
Monitor the employee.
Encourage them to get help
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/20/drunk-work-advice/
Rat them out
Keep a journal
Encourage them to get help
Do not leave people alone with them
Warning: There are government protections for employees in rehab. Also, it is possible that someone may be sued for ratting them out.
Five Basic Laws of Stupidity
Use of Social Media
