Recovery Already At Work
“Recovery-friendly workplaces do not bring the problem into the workplace,” says Eliza Zarka of the National Recovery-Friendly Workplace Institute. “They’re bringing solutions for the problem that alr…
For Employers
Recovery is already at work
Journey has reported on employers hiring, keeping, and supporting people in recovery since 2019. This is that reporting, gathered for the people who make those decisions: owners, managers, and the person who ends up handling it when nobody else will.
What you’ll find here
- Workplace profiles. Kennebunk Savings, Nonantum Resort, The Holy Donut, EMDC, Seabreeze, Maine Paint. What each one changed, in their own words.
- Practical ground. Hiring, retention, employee support programs, and how to have the conversation when someone’s performance slips.
- The certification. Maine’s Recovery-Friendly Workplace program, what it asks of an employer, and what it does not.
The reporting
26 pieces, most recent first.
Thriving During the Holidays: What Employers Can Offer
When December hits, your payroll shifts. Shifts get missed, focus scatters, performance dips. For employees in recovery, this season carries sharper risk. Employers notice it first as absenteeism and…
Rethinking Gatherings Recovery Friendly for Everyone
At a networking conference, a professional in recovery watched colleagues cluster around the bar while she stood alone with sparkling water. Event planners are rethinking gatherings to welcome everyon…
Kennebunk Savings: Shifting Culture, Reducing Stigma
When Brad walks through Kennebunk Savings, he sees employees who've become "lighthouses" for colleagues struggling with substance use. The bank shifted from treating addiction as a performance problem…
Nonantum Resort – Building a Recovery-Friendly Culture
At Nonantum Resort, a staffer mentions an upcoming sobriety anniversary at the team meeting, and colleagues applaud. This moment captures what happens when a workplace decides recovery belongs there.…
Workplace Wellness – Fostering a Culture of Openness
A manager admits to her team that she's in therapy. A colleague mentions he's taking mental health days. These small moments shift something in the office culture. When leaders speak openly about thei…
Removing Stigma From the Employment Equation
Nearly three thousand working-age people were missing from Washington County's employment figures. Economists wondered who they were and where. That question led to something unexpected: a network con…
Compassionate Conversations (Issue 29)
Tips for employers on how to recognize and compassionately respond to substance use challenges in the workplace.
Workplaces at the Forefront
Three panelists gathered to discuss how businesses can reshape workplace culture around recovery. One statistic stopped them: three out of four people with substance use disorder hold jobs. Yet most s…
Maine’s Newly Launched RFW Certification
At Kennebunk Savings Bank, hiring someone in recovery isn't charity. It's strategy. Maine's new Recovery Friendly Workplace program helps employers build cultures where people dealing with substance u…
Employment: A Cornerstone of Recovery
Marcus walked into his new job on Monday morning, clocking in for the first time in five years. By lunch, he realized something had shifted: he belonged somewhere again. Employment does more than pay…
4 Considerations for an Employee Support Program
A manager notices an employee's missed deadlines and withdrawn behavior. Before assuming performance problems, she connects him with the company's support program. The conversation changes everything.…
Supporting Employees Through Addiction and Mental Illness
A manager notices an employee's performance slipping, attendance irregular. Before assuming the worst, she has tools to help. Workplaces are discovering that supporting employees through substance use…
Eastern Maine Development Corporation (EMDC)
Lee Umphrey walks through Eastern Maine Development Corporation's Bangor office, where one in six employees is in recovery. For Umphrey, hiring people rebuilding their lives isn't a special program. I…
Employers Play a Vital Role
Doug Dunbar sat in jail wondering who would help the young, poor, sick people around him find the resources they desperately needed. Now a recovery specialist himself, he knows the answer: employers w…
Seabreeze Property Services
When someone notices a perfectly manicured lawn in Maine, they might be looking at work done by a person in recovery. Seabreeze Property Services, the state's largest landscaping company, has built so…
Creating a Mentally Healthy and Happy Workplace
An employee dreads Monday mornings, calls in sick twice a month, and quietly struggles with anxiety that nobody at work knows about. Employers are discovering that mental health support isn't just com…
Making It Work for Employees in Recovery
Maine's tourism industry faces two crises at once: nearly one in five hospitality workers struggle with substance use disorders, while understaffed restaurants and hotels scramble to fill positions. B…
Hiring People in Recovery
Dana Lariviere got a phone call two years after firing Sarah, an employee who struggled with attendance. She was calling to apologize, explain her heroin addiction and recovery, and ask for her job ba…
Recovery Friendly Workplaces
Keith Hornberger needed one chance to turn his life around. As a business owner in recovery, he understood that hiring others facing the same struggle meant offering something invaluable: purpose and…
Recovery Works for ME
A peer support specialist at a recovery center watched employers turn away qualified candidates because of past convictions and employment gaps. That observation sparked a workshop teaching business o…
Recovery in the workplace is an asset for employers
A peer specialist in long-term recovery watches employers struggle to understand why hiring people rebuilding their lives matters. He's spent years seeing how a paycheck transforms someone's ability t…
The Holy Donut
When Jen Horton walked into The Holy Donut for her job interview, she heard laughter and singing from behind the counter. The CEO smiled and said, "That's our culture. I love knowing people are happy…
Recovery Allies: Business Owners
A yoga teacher in Portland opens her studio doors free to people in recovery. A credit union helps someone rebuild their credit score. A gym owner reserves one night weekly for members seeking wellnes…
Employers Open The Doors for Those in Recovery
Charlie Bickford runs Maine Paint's four locations and regularly hires people newly sober. When someone from a recovery meeting asks about work, he considers giving them a chance. His reasoning is sim…
Employers Can Be Champions For Recovery
A manager notices an employment gap on a resume and sees potential instead of judgment. This is recovery allyship at work. Employers shape whether people in recovery can rebuild their lives through me…
Working with Journey
Journey is a magazine, not a consultancy. We do not certify workplaces or sell training. What we do is make recovery visible — in print, in community locations, and in the hands of people who would not otherwise pick it up.
Employers partner with Journey to sustain that work and to put it in front of their own people.