Describe the history and present conditions of Employee Assistance Programs. Solution An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a voluntary, work-based program that offers free and confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals, and follow-up services to employees who have personal and/or work-related problems. EAPs address a broad and complex body of issues affecting mental and emotional well-being, such as alcohol and other substance abuse, stress, grief, family problems, and psychological disorders. Most employee assistance programs date back to the 1960s and 1970s as in-house alcoholism programs that formally recognized a recovering alcoholic executive\'s Alcoholics Anonymous 12th Step work. San Francisco Bay Area companies with such programs include Standard Oil and Bechtel Corporation. In the early to mid-1970s such programs expanded their focus to include emotional, family and drug- addiction problems, and hired more broadly-trained counselors to provide short-term counseling and referral to outside resources. San Francisco Bay Area companies who started broad based programs during this period include Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Wells Fargo Bank..