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Management issues THE HIDDEN


While staff leaving parties and end-of-year social events are fun occasions and often great for staff morale, they also present a dilemma for sport and leisure facility managers. Ralph Riley explains


dangersOF DRINK


many a centre manager has done at some point. How many of my lifeguards are fi t


to work? How many are still under the infl uence of alcohol, and could competently deal with any issue that supervising a busy


pool brings with it? In addition to alcohol, I also started to wonder about how many of the staff took recreational drugs, such as cocaine. According to Drugscope (1998) 40


per cent of the workforce under 40 years of age have experimented with illicit drugs. I wonder what those statistics would be if the research


was undertaken in 2011 and among the under 30s.


WHAT CAN MANAGERS DO? Unless somebody made an accusation against an individual, I doubt if testing staff for alcohol levels or drugs use would even be considered, but should it not be done as a standard procedure? Should we not be managing this problem as a real ongoing risk to public safety? T ink about this scenario. John B is a 21-year-old lifeguard. He arrives at


T


he Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (IMSPA) recently received an enquiry relating to staff social events and the potential threat to safety that these occasions presented, as employees arrived at work suff ering from the


excesses of the previous night. I think it is fair to say that the drinking culture has


changed signifi cantly since I was in my early 20s. My mates and I would go out at about 7:30pm and have a good drink but were mostly back home and in bed by 2am at the latest. Today, young people tend to drink in the house before going out later, and then stay out until at least 4am. In terms of the amount of time spent drinking, there is little diff erence. However, if you are at work the next day there is a signifi cant one. T is issue made me stop and think, as I am sure


40« May 2011 Sportphysical activity &


work at 6:45am for his shift after having less than four hours’ sleep after his night out with friends. He slips into the building and goes poolside. During the night out he drank a signifi cant amount of alcohol until 3am and by 6:45am his blood alcohol levels were still signifi cantly higher than the recognised drink/drive limits. He


About the author: Ralph Riley, FIMSPA, is a consultant for IMSPA


TODAY, YOUNG PEOPLE TEND TO DRINK IN THE HOUSE BEFORE GOING OUT LATER, AND THEN STAY OUT UNTIL AT LEAST 4AM


starts his day supervising a group of regular, early morning, elderly swimmers and after a break at 10am he is part of a team watching 100 young people and families in the leisure pool as the waves come on. Would you get in a car with him? I would hope not.


www.imspa.co.uk


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