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People with substance use issues employ various strategies to appear "normal" at work and avoid stigma. Some use substances to enhance work performance, creating a complex challenge in maintaining professional identity.

Keywords:
Goffmanembarrassmentface-workheavy substance uselife storiesnormalityperformancestigmawork

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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.