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Poor performance. Addiction impairs your ability to correctly complete your work in the workplace and at school. The simple fact is, people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol don’t do quality work . The cost of poor performance on the job and in college is high: Employment: On the job, drug and alcohol users make more mistakes. In fact, analyses of workplace fatalities showed that at least 11% of the victims had been drinking on the job . The impact of substance abuse on workplace safety costs employers money. Employees with poor performance records are more likely to be fired for errors or passed over for performance bonuses, raises and promotions. Employees who perform poorly on the job also have trouble obtaining those all important job references when they leave. Education: In college, drinking and drug use are highly associated with poor academic performance . In a survey of 94,000 students, those with an A average reported consuming little more than four drinks per week, B students had 6 drinks per week, C students averaged almost 8 drinks per week, and students with D’s or F’s consumed almost 10 drinks per week. Students who use drugs or alcohol report devoting fewer hours to studying than non-users. Moreover, alcohol and drugs disrupt memory and sleeping patterns which are important for learning and successful test-taking . The economic impact? Students who get caught up in drugs or alcohol have higher remediation rates . If a student fails a required class, they have to take it over again. That additional tuition is not covered by financial aid. Another consequence of poor academic performance is a low GPA which can make a student ineligible for some types of financial aid or even result in a loss of a scholarship. A low GPA can prevent entry into a competitive graduate school and make it hard to obtain letters of recommendation from professors. Reflect on Learning: Imagine you’re a college student who went out and partied late one night. The next day you’re too tired to study. Later that week, you’re taking a test. When you read the questions, you have no idea how to answer at least half of them. So you guess and are most certainly wrong. How would you feel at that moment? Would you make the connection between your binge drinking and your test failure? Would it make a difference if you realize that you, personally, are spending $25,000 per year for an education of which you are not getting the full benefit? Would you understand that your poor performance in school may have a long term impact on your ability to build wealth? Quitting. Remember, for people addicted to drugs and alcohol, their addiction is their number one priority . As their job and education impose more responsibilities on them, they turn away, quitting their job or dropping out of school in order to pursue their addictions. Although addicted people offer excuses, like “I don’t have enough time” or “I didn’t really want to do that anyway,” quitting a job or dropping out of school has a serious financial impact : Employment: Not only do users quit their jobs more frequently, they have a heightened probability of long term unemployment following a quit . The cost of quitting a job includes lost income and lost employee benefits . A sketchy employment record creates an appearance of instability and is hard to explain to a prospective employer. Prospective employers don’t hire quitters. Over time, income lost as a result of not advancing in a career, or from quitting or being fired from a job before vesting in 401K benefits can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars ! Not only that, the financial struggles associated with unemployment can lead to depression and increased severity of addiction. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 1 in 6 unemployed workers are addicted to alcohol or drugs which is almost twice the rate for full-time workers. PRODUCT PREVIEW
Chapter 17 | How to Lose It All 332
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