For somebody just 38 years old, Suman Arora couldn't have asked for more from life. He was already the CEO of a mid-sized software company, had a wife and a six-year-old daughter, and stock options that ensured a more than comfortable retirement. His company was on a roll, and Arora decided to enjoy life. Nothing wrong about it except that he mistook hitting the bar for fun. Before he realised, his performance at work was slipping, colleagues were frustrated with his non-availability, and a time came when the board started questioning his abilities to lead the company. ''That was when,'' recalls Deepak Raheja, a psychiatrist at the National Institute of Psychiatry, Delhi, ''Suman came to me. It took him nearly six months to recoup and get back to work.''

Arora is hardly an exception in the hyper-competitive corporate world. As job security vanishes, performance pressures mount, and competition from peers escalates, India Inc. is waking up to the menace of white-collar alcoholism. Pyschologists like Raheja point out that incidents of alcohol abuse and dependence are the highest in industries like it, but media and entertainment, advertising, banking, FMCG and hotels, come a close second. ''When I started practising, I used to get around 30 corporate referrals a year. But today, I receive more than 180-there's been a five-fold increase,'' says Raheja

While some high-pressure jobs are more prone to this problem, Raheja emphasises that other functions such as finance, personnel, and administration are not immune to it. In fact, it even cuts across hierarchies.

While no reliable figures are available, experts estimate that the cost of alcohol abuse for corporate India should run into several hundreds of crores. (The US administration estimates that drug and alcohol abuse costs the American economy $276 billion.) For employers, costs show up in the form of absenteeism, losses in productivity and efficiency, and damage to corporate brand. Says Y.V. Verma, Senior VP (HR), LG: ''There are many ways in which alcohol abuse ends up hurting a company. At the worker level, it could mean a shop-floor accident and in the case of a CEO, crores of shareholder wealth could be at risk.''

According to Dr Harish Matai, another Delhi-based psychiatrist, companies are increasingly queuing up for counselling rather than giving their drunk employee the boot. And that's not purely for humanitarian reasons. It's easier and cheaper for a company to put an erring employee back on track than initiate a search for, hire, train, and acclimatise a new employee. For example, Matai charges only between Rs 1,500 and Rs 3,000 for every day of de-addiction treatment at his clinic, where 30 per cent of the patients at any given day are alcoholics.

Apart from the turbulent corporate environment, what's driving the alcohol abuse phenomenon? ''A few things,'' explains Dr Matai. ''For one, drinking has gained wider social acceptance; relative affluence is making it easy for people to spend more on drinks; and in some case drinking is seen as essential to moving up in career and society.''

Indeed. Alcoholism starts with peer pressure and social drinking, which kind of sanctifies the malaise. Problem happens when people fail to draw a line. To check out the profile of people at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting, this correspondent attended one and heard typical stories like that of a man, who identified himself as Jon. A general manager with a top foreign publishing firm, Jon first began alcohol abuse six years ago. The reason: his bosses were liquor-friendly foreigners, who'd drink on every occasion. Jon, however, wasn't used to such a lifestyle, and eager to be 'in' with his bosses, he matched them peg-for-peg. Then, things got out of control. Luckily for him, his employer sought the help of AA. ''Some people are unable to cope with their new lifestyle, which results in a confused response to their situation,'' says Shakuntala David, a Delhi-based management trainer and consultant in organisational behaviour.

The Corporate Response

Unlike companies in America, corporate India-with a few exceptions-does not have any policy on alcohol abuse, or even a formal employee assistance programme (EPA). L&T and Tata Steel are two big companies that have woven their alcohol and drug abuse policies into an overall company policy. But most others simply prefer to deal with such cases on an ad hoc basis. Notes David: ''It all boils down to the fact that corporate India still doesn't recognise alcoholism as a disease.''

The few firms who really care are now increasingly turning to third party administrators (TPAs) like Medsave who act as retainers. They serve as contact points and if a company has a case in hand, it will, for a fee, refer the company to a panel of experts. The entire transaction, needless to say, is cloaked in secrecy. Typically, firms, the caring lot that is, create awareness about the 'disease'; help executives recognise symptoms of abuse and motivate them for treatment. Some also tie up with hospitals and treatment facilities; create acceptance within the organisation; and, encourage support groups in their campuses.

When the employer is supportive, the outcome for an affected employee can be vastly different. Take the case of this deputy divisional manager at Tata Steel. He was one of the youngest in the company to reach that level, but felt that reaching the next level would be difficult given his humble background (he was a tribal). Not because the company had any problem with that, rather it was his envious colleagues who were trying to stall his promotion. When the promotion did not come his way (he was judged purely on the basis of merit), he turned an alcoholic. Instead of firing him, the company has allowed him to keep his job, and is helping him reform.

Not all companies are so patient, though. Take Lacoste India, for example. It does not have an alcohol policy because people are hired after extensive screening. But three years ago it did have problem with an alcoholic employee who stopped performing and eventually stopped showing up for work. ''Within six months, we gave him the boot,'' says Jayant Raj Kochar, the company's MD.

That's a more radical response to a problem that only promises to grow in the years to come. The best bet for companies would be to ensure that they have a policy in place to deal with such cases. For, what makes executives alcoholic is not what's inside the bottle, but inside corporations.

(Names of some people have been changed to protect their identity.)