Opioids are known as pain relievers.

But some companies may be looking for a pain reliever to relieve the pain of having workers on pain relievers. It is one thing to take care of the selfish pain that we all go through, just so we can keep working. While working is dignified, and many of us have reason and motivation to work as much as we possibly can, there is something to be said to get some rest to make sure we’re recovered and feeling healthy before returning to work.

Pain at Work vs. Pain at Home

Many of us will have a choice that is not that hard. If we have a choice that we really think about, we would much rather take pain relievers and work than stay home. It’s usually not a choice for many of us; we automatically do what we need to to make sure we are at work.

And while those opioids might be good at relieving that pain in your body, those drugs can lead you to being a pain at work – and there are no pills for that.

The struggle with opioids is that often people take them and try to go back to the work they were previously doing, even if it means operating heavy equipment, driving or using precision instruments. Yet, as workers many people don’t realize the dangers because the opioids do what they are supposed to do – relieve the pain so that doesn’t distract you from you work.

And often, workers would rather take the drugs that actually work on the pain, and they don’t think much about taking a lower-strength analgesic to keep focused for work even if it means still enduring pain. But those stronger drugs can lead to mistakes at work due to mental fog, and then the pain that you felt in the first place may pale in comparison to what be felt if you make an unfocused mistake at work.

Rights and Responsibilities

We all have a right to work, but every right we own has a level of responsibility. Supervisors have a right to force a worker to stay home, or to send him or her home if he or she is lacking productivity or is doing dangerous or risky activities.

Companies have the right to know the health of its workers and they also have the responsibility to know what workers are working hurt and how they are dealing with the hurt. Opioids are highly addictive (or can be), and it can be very easy for someone who is taking one of these prescribed drugs to use them more often and for a longer time than would be originally prescribed.

As a worker, we have a right to take care of ourselves, and we have the responsibility to know the side effects of the opioids we are taking and to make sure we communicate to our supervisors and family members what we are taking and how often and for how long.

Heading Off Addictive Trouble

OK, I know it’s unrealistic that everyone who is on an opioid will actually communicate it to those around them who care about their safety and health. So knowing this, the responsibility about opioids falls on supervisors, managers and safety officers. Opioids are addictive and thus we should handle opioid use in the workplace in a similar way to other addictive substances like illegal drugs or alcohol.

And this means communicating where others won’t.

I’m following up on a couple of previous posts regarding an article written by Joseph Semkiu and Eric Lambert for a recent issue of Professional Safety magazine that dealt with opioids and the dangers they pose in a workplace.

An Opioid Strategy

To address the issue will take some proactive work by supervisors and managers to understand and implement a safety plan for workers who are working through pain rather than staying home to fully recover. While supervisors may not be able to force workers to stay home, there are things they can do to ensure as much safety as possible for all workers:

  1. Have a substance-abuse plan/protocol and express it. Policies mean nothing if workers and supervisors don’t know about them.  Educate workers about how to spot signs of opioid abuse or addiction, and have open lines of communication whenever a report is made. Communicate how seriously the company takes the issue of opioid use and be clear and direct so there is no confusion.
  2. Provide support to those opioid users and don’t let them back to full duty too soon. Provide information about substance abuse, including information about treatment options. And if a worker has been abusing opioids, work out a careful program where the worker eases his or her way back into full service. They won’t last long if you go from not working to working them with full duties. Getting over addiction is a process that isn’t solved quickly, so you should be able to “love” your workers to bring them along at a pace they can handle until they are fully functional again.
  3.  Enhance drug testing. It is one thing to put workers through a drug test at the time of a job offer or after the worker returns to work following an incident, but the increased use of opioids in recent years has now added a random-testing protocol to safety programs.
  4. Align several benefits. Healthcare, wellness and worker’s compensation benefits don’t have to be exclusive. Find ways to marry them together to serve as a prevention program for opioid abuse.
  5. Encourage doctors to promote safety. Companies should work with insurance carriers and physicians to detect those opioid users who may have an addictive tendency, and be stringent in prescribing opioids to avoid their misuse or overuse. Careful evaluation of patients, and reporting of those who may have the potential of abuse, can be vital to not only worker health and safety but also could save insurers and companies money in the long run.