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Expert: Help Employee with Addiction By Sheila McGrath
When a top-notch salesperson falls into the grip of addiction, many dealership owners will want to give them the benefit of the doubt. They’ll send the employee to a 12step program like Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous in hopes of bringing them back to their former level of star performance. But what if they slip a second time – or a third? At what point does an employer let go of an otherwise good salesperson who can’t get over an addiction? According to Jay Schrader, admissions director and interventionist with The Recovery Team in North Palm Beach, Fla., there are particular aspects of the sales profession that might lead someone down the path toward addiction. “You’re working over 40 hours, you’re always on the job, and you take the job with you,” Schrader said. Drinking or drugs might help salespeople feel like they’re better able to socialize, he said, and they might be in the habit of handing out their cards in a bar setting. But whether the employee is exemplary or average, everyone deserves a chance to turn their life around, he said. “If you have a good salesman – he’s met his quota or goes way past or beyond what the job calls for – and he runs into a problem, you do want to get them into local 12-step meetings,” he said. “Sit down and talk with them, do a small intervention. Tell him ‘You mean this much to us. Can we give you some time off to go to meetings?’” Schrader said he’s seen car dealerships where they’ve had five or six people in treatment at the
same time. “They hold their own meeting at the car dealerships,” he said. Some employees respond well to the 12-step approach, experience a spiritual awakening and recover. But others will continue to relapse, attending meetings only sporadically or quitting them altogether. There are some telltale signs when that is happening, Schrader said. They might avoid eye contact and spend a lot of time looking down. “If you’re not going, you really get that guilty feeling, and it’s hard to look someone in the face,” he said. “There’s a lot of lying going on.” If a 12-step program isn’t working for a valuable employee, sending him or her to a 30-day stay in a rehab facility might get to the root of the problem, he said. If the alcohol or drug addiction is affecting the person’s job, it’s probably affecting their home life, too, and sometimes it’s good to have an interventionist come in and talk about other things in life that might be causing the problem, he said. It’s important, when the 30 days are up, to let the salesperson re-acclimate gradually to the job, he said. They need a chance to start a different life. “Let them work back into it, let him work his self-esteem back up,” he said. “If your self-esteem is low, you’re not going to be able to sell, you’re not going to be at the top of your game.” But if the employee continues to slide back into addiction even after a 30-day stay in rehab, it might be time to let them go, Schrader said. “Be supportive, no matter what,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you have to keep them, but you have to be supportive.”
Feds Say Missing Miles Mean Fraud A Missouri used-car dealer has been indicted by a federal grand jury for a mail fraud scheme in which he sold dozens of vehicles with fraudulent titles that greatly underreported the actual mileage of the vehicles. Kenneth W. Smith, owner of Cars Unlimited in Lebanon, was charged in a seven-count indictment that claims he obtained fraudulent replacement titles for dozens of vehicles between February 2010 and Nov. 7, 2011. Smith allegedly applied for and received 54 replacement titles from the state of Missouri, each of which underreported the vehicle’s actual mileage between 95,000 and 209,000 miles. Smith allegedly resold these 54 vehicles at auto auctions using the fraudulent replacement titles. These 54 vehicles were sold for
an aggregate total of approximately $346,450. Beginning in February 2010, when Smith purchased vehicles at auto auctions, the vehicle titles he received showed each vehicle’s actual mileage. After purchasing a vehicle, Smith allegedly submitted an “Application for Missouri Title and License” seeking a replacement title for the vehicle. Although Smith sought a replacement title, the indictment says, he in fact possessed the original title for the vehicle. In each of those instances, Smith allegedly forged the signatures of the previous owner of the vehicle. The state of Missouri prepared a replacement title that was mailed to Smith at Cars Unlimited. The federal indictment charges Smith with seven counts of mail fraud.
9/8/14 4:29 PM