Performing normality in working life among heavy substance users

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Occupational Health
• Psychology

Background:

• Work is crucial for well-being, but substance use can negatively impact job performance and attendance.
• Employee substance use is linked to significant workplace consequences, including absenteeism and reduced productivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the strategies individuals with problematic substance use employ to construct a "normal" self-perception in the workplace.
• To understand how these individuals avoid stigmatization and manage their condition within their professional lives.

Main Methods:

• Conducted in-depth, unstructured life story interviews via phone with 13 participants experiencing problematic substance use.
• Utilized interactional analysis and Erving Goffman's concepts (normality, stigma, face-work) for qualitative data analysis.

Main Results:

• Identified strategies for "producing normality" and avoiding stigma, including skillful substance use to mask symptoms, job changes, and feigning illness for absences.
• Participants strategically avoided social interactions and manipulated physical appearance to conceal substance use and avoid perceived abnormality.
• Some individuals used substances to boost work performance, presenting themselves as normal workers, highlighting an ambivalent approach to normality.

Conclusions:

• Maintaining workplace normality involves concealing substance use effects and paradoxically using substances to meet work demands.
• The dual role of substances in both masking and enabling work performance creates significant challenges for individuals with substance use issues in their professional lives.