New Delhi, May 11 -- There is a CV on a hiring manager's desk. Three months unaccounted for somewhere in the middle. Maybe a stint that ended after six months, no clear reason given. The candidate has a rehearsed explanation: a family situation, a health matter now resolved. The explanation is technically true. What it leaves out is the treatment centre, the group sessions, the slow work of rebuilding a life. What it leaves out is the thing that actually took courage-accepting a problem of addiction, asking for help, and working to get better. This is where the silence in the workplace begins. At the door, before the person in recovery has even been let back in.

There is a team dinner later, once they are hired. Someone orders a round. T...