Reference no: EM132974516

Imagine you are a manager, and that one of your employees arrived at work in the morning absolutely stinking drunk. The employee has a half empty bottle of whisky with him.

Your company has an ironclad rule - no being drunk at work, no alcohol on the premises - and it is a firing offence. But last week you attended a meeting held by Human Resources where they told you people with alcohol problems have a medical problem, and that they need care, not termination.

Will you take the HR view? Will you follow the company's policies? And what will your boss think of you as a manager based on your choices? How will this affect the rest of your group? There are lots of possible considerations and consequences to worry about.

Write up your proposed course of action. What will you do immediately? Then what next? And how should it end? Explain your choices at each step.

(Just so you know, when I had been a manager for about a year, this happened to me. What's worse, my boss had told me not to hire this person, but I did it anyway. It was a key experience that everyone who manages people will eventually have to deal with.)