When I began by career I heard stories about “staff meetings” held in the 1970s or early 1980s where beer was consumed by the case. While that sort of wild behavior is a thing of the past, it isn’t uncommon to hear stories about colleagues struggling with alcohol issues, which probably happens in every profession.
However, I was still surprised to hear about the accident involving an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife hatchery truck on December 30th, for which the driver has been cited for driving under the influence and reckless driving. After a hydraulic failure put thousands of chinook and rainbow trout at risk at two different hatcheries, and a group of employees were tasked with releasing them. The truck went off the road at a sharp curve and overturned after striking a power pole and several trees. The driver suffered a broken shoulder and several lacerations while being pinned inside the truck.
Being drunk while on duty is most likely foreign to most wildlife biologists and making sure your employees aren’t hammered isn’t something that has even crossed our minds. While the days of agency sponsored beer bashes are over, we still need to be on the lookout for signs of trouble caused by drug and alcohol addiction in our colleagues and employees. Most likely there are counseling and other programs available that can help our friends with these problems and we have to be willing to have the uncomfortable conversations need to make sure they use these resources both to protect them, their families, and the general public.
If you’re a supervisor, I just don’t think this is something that you can afford to turn a blind eye too because they are a “good guy” or are otherwise great biologists. Do you want to be the one to tell their wife they ran their state truck off the road because they were drunk on duty and you knew this could happen? Some agencies may have mandatory drug and alcohol testing requirements and if you suspect something, you probably should make use of the tools available to you to make sure they are working soberly and safely.