Drug Taking HR Manager

I need some advice. What should you do if you see your boss take drugs(prescription pain killers that do not belong to her) and your boss is the HR Manager?

There are a couple different answers to this question. The first answer assumes this is an ongoing problem. If she's regularly popping prescription pain killers that belong to other people (who?) and you're sure it's not just an old jar that she keeps her Tylenol in (are you?), then I would document the heck out of it, and take it to her boss.

I'm assuming since you've seen her doing this, she's doing it at work. Your workplace undoubtedly has a drug free work force policy (administered by, ironically, your boss).

Once you've turned over your documentation to her boss, it's time to let it go. If you see her directly taking medicine out of a prescription bottle with somebody else's name on it, you can say, "Oh, Susan! I think you grabbed the wrong bottle this morning. That says James Smith on it." This will ensure that she'll transfer her illegal pills to a more legal looking container.

Once you've reported it to her boss, it's not your problem. Continue to document and do your best work, but if her boss chooses not to deal with it, you're pretty stuck.

The second answer is if this is a one time occurrence. How many of us have bottles of prescription pain killers in our bathrooms? I know people who have narcotics left over from surgery or broken bones or childbirth or whatever that just sit in their medicine cabinet. While it is still illegal for someone else to take it, I don't think it's a huge deal for a family member who has a killer toothache and has already called the dentist, but the dentist can't see her until 4:30 to pop one of those percosets. (Yes, illegal. I'm not advocating illegal activity. I'm just saying that I wouldn't set about to destroy someone's career and reputation over a toothache solution.)

If that's the case, I'd totally ignore it, unless she's operating heavy machinery or something. (And HR people are more likely to be shuffling papers than driving forklifts, so you're probably okay.)

If it's serious, report her to her boss. If it was a one time thing, give her a dentist recommendation because toothaches can really, really, really hurt.