Substance use and abuse in the catering industry : a managements’ perspective

Abstract

Drug use is a subject that intrigues many, mosly because almost everyone knows someone who is presently involved or once was, with drug use. The aim of this research was to explore the nature and extent of substance use and abuse in the workplace, more particularly, within the catering industry in the Maltese islands. Adopting a qualitative approach, the researcher gained insight into this sector through the means of face-to-face interviews with managers in the various branches of the HORECA sector. This research shows that substance use is evident in this sector. This research attempted to identify substance use risk factors; both job related and socio-person factors to explore what triggers employees within this industry to engage in drug use, both licit and illicit substances. Factors such as; occupational stress, pressure, long working hours, shift patterns and co-worker socialisation were found to increase the partaking of substance use. Additionally, this reserach identified that substance use increases during annual festivities because of the workload and during the summer season due to being the peak season. Furthermore, this research identified incured costs and losses caused by substance using employees on employers and companies alike such as lost productivity, absenteeism and company reputation. Additionally, this study suggests that the average substance using employees are a mixture of both female and males, ranging between 17 to mid 20s, pursuing job positions such as bartenders and cooks. Thus, individual oriented workshops and programmes ought to be created to cater for such factors, in order to lessen workplace substance use.