Introduction from Raise the Bottom: How to Keep Secret Alcoholics from Damaging Your Business

Alcoholism is rampant, but due to its stigma, it is rarely discussed directly as a business issue. Raise the Bottom explains the real danger of alcoholism -- the significant impact of alcoholic thinking and behavior, whether a person is under the influence or not.

Raise the Bottom is a business book, not a recovery book. It covers Step Zero, the real beginning of any program of recovery.

Through two main characters, Jason Burke, a recent MBA graduate from a well-known eastern business school, and Aaron Middleton, a veteran, highly accomplished business consultant, you will learn to see and think differently about many common business problems. In Raise the Bottom Jason’s knowledge of alcoholism evolves and matures beyond the range of his preconceptions and cynicism, typical of the general public, to the point that he is able to connect the dots between the disease, the behavior, and the bottom line - and to propose effective steps to a solution.

In Part One, Aaron and Jason discuss the problems created by alcoholism in the work environment, covering biological factors, definitions of alcoholism, and stages in the progress of the disease. In Part Two, Aaron teaches Jason how to identify alcoholism − often long before the alcoholic himself is aware he has a problem. Part Three closes with concrete responses to the problem, including disenabling the alcoholic, and the other steps necessary to protect yourself and your workplace from the damage an alcoholic employee can cause.

My twenty plus years experience in business and marketing consulting has provided me with wide exposure to many diverse business situations. As a recovering alcoholic, I can see in retrospect that many of the problems I tackled were actually the result of alcoholic thinking and behavior. However, all the stories and characters are fictional. Any similarity to real places or people is purely coincidental.

The premise of Raise the Bottom, like that of most treatment programs, is that an alcoholic must hit bottom before they can change. As one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous pointed out, we can effectively raise that bottom and intervene in the progress of the disease, reducing the harm done to the alcoholic and to a business. This is the goal of Raise the Bottom.

I hope that this book will demystify alcoholism and help business people guide those suffering from the disease get help. Should you see yourself in this book and wonder whether you are an alcoholic, take advantage of the insight and take corrective actions now. It will save you and others great distress later.