Drinking in the workplace (case study)
...problem would worsen. He wondered what to do? Should he talk with Andrei about his drinking or keep quiet and mind his own business, leaving the problem up to Andrei and those who have the responsibility to select someone for the job. Finally he decided not to talk to him. II Hristo Hinkov, plant manager at Kremikovtzi, knew that Andrei and Peter had worked together many years. He had narrowed his choice for Head of Quality Control to Andrei and one other person. He invited Peter out for lunch to see if he could learn something more about Andrei from Peter. At the lunch Hristo said, "This is a really important decision. We need a top person for the quality control job. We've had some real problems the last few years with shoddy production, probably because of alcohol abuse in the workplace. I had to move Ivan Solakov out of head of quality control because he was drunk on the job. We have to get this under control. The new policy might help. But quality control will still have to keep a really close eye on things." Then Peter desided that keeping quiet, and not saying anything about Andrei’s problem is unloyal to the company, so he told Hristo about his concerns. The concequences of this is that Hristo didn’t offer the position to Andrei. III Several weeks later, Andrei understood what was the main reason not to receive the promotion. He iniciated a conversation with Hristo. He told him, that he had not any drinking problems, and Peter told lies. He stoped talking to Andrei. Their co-workers divided into two groups about this issue. Some of them thought that Peter did the right thing, some of them think the opposite. The working environment become worse and worse. What should Hristo do? How he can handle the problem? To: Hristo Hinkov, plant manager Re: The conflict between Peter Kolev and Andrei Popov Dear Mr. Hinkov, You have asked me how we can handle the problem between Peter Kolev and Andrei Popov, and also between the two groups of our employees who support each of them. I talked to many workers in this department, and it occurs that Andrei’s drinking problem is a “public secret”. Everybody knows it. So the real problem between the two groups of our employees is that Peter didn’t talk to Andrei first. Some of them even think that he shouldn’t have told you, which make me very concerned about their loyalty to our firm. Although I think that Peter Kolev should have talked with Andrei Popov about Andrei's drinking problem, I am convinced that he did the right thing telling you about the problem. Peter is not the kind of person who is comfortable with the discussing such problems with anybody. In this respect, most people are like Peter. There are not many people who find it easy to initiate such a conversation. But he showed his loyalty to our company and we should a...