Posted on 05/17/2016 8:17:47 PM PDT by Theoria
A few years back, the heavy-equipment manufacturer JCB held a job fair in the glass foyer of its sprawling headquarters near here, but when a throng of prospective employees learned the next step would be drug testing, an alarming thing happened: About half of them left.
That story still circulates within the business community of this historic port city. But the problem has gotten worse.
All over the country, employers say they see a disturbing downside of tighter labor markets as they try to rebuild from the worst recession since the Depression: They are struggling to find workers who can pass a pre-employment drug test.
That hurdle partly stems from the growing ubiquity of drug testing, at corporations with big human resources departments, in industries like trucking where testing is mandated by federal law for safety reasons, and increasingly at smaller companies.
But data suggest employers’ difficulties also reflect an increase in the use of drugs, especially marijuana — employers’ main gripe — and also heroin and other opioid drugs much in the news.
Ray Gaster, the owner of lumberyards on both sides of the Georgia-South Carolina border, recently joined friends at a retreat in Alabama to swap business talk. The big topic? Drug tests.
“They were complaining about trying to find drivers, or finding people, who are drug-free and can do some of the jobs that they have,” Mr. Gaster said. He shared their concern.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Hah. I’ll test positive for espresso and an approachable but amusing Cabernet.
Later, I caught this applicant, his step-mom, and step brother trying to steal racking from the back lot of the warehouse to sell for scrap.
My neighbor warehouse security guard and I held them at gunpoint until the police arrived to arrest them.
Drug tests are an extension of the nanny state. They don’t test for drugs that are perfectly legal yet more debilitating than many illegal substances.
The standard of “if you’re on Oxycontin and Ambien every day, you’re OK; if you smoke a joint once a month, you’re not” is just plain stupid.
It’s not age discrimination, it’s free market action. Older people want far more money and are far more costly especially where health coverage is obligatory. If they have not used their time to develop superior skills to offset those costs then it is uneconomical to hire them.
I don’t suppose obamacare offers any more privacy with drug test results than they do with social security numbers.
Post5
What??!! The Old Gray Streetwalker being hypocritical?? Now donning my shocked face.
People don't willingly ditch a potential interview knowing they ate a poppy seed bagel.
But they are willing to work at Walmart just to get employed! Don’t think they are pushing for the bigger salaries, ha. Many 50+ would be the best employee possible. But the country is full of screwed up thinkers doing the hiring now.
Have fun with your druggie work force!
I worked at the unemployment office years ago. This is not a new problem.
WTH? Obama says criminal history is off the table. Why bother with drug tests? How totally unfair in this world of every perversion and depravity being celebrated! If we’re going for bread and circuses while we head into the apocalypse, what the heck does it matter? The libs want a Mad Max world. Why draw the line there? What, at this point, difference does it make?
Almost everyone on the planet is an intoxicating-substance user of some sort or other. We already have a “druggie work force”, and we always have had it, and so does everyone else in the world.
Sorry, you are wrong. Not everyone is smoking dope or popping pills.
We can agree to disagree.
Fine. If the state and federal governments are so hell-bent to legalize drugs, indemnify employers for any damage done. Let them work on federal projects and become federal employees.
This might help increase employment amongst the drug-addled.
Construction and industrial sites will become disasters and killing fields.
But at least a heroin addict will not have to face the stigma of, well, being a heroin addict.
Alcohol counts as a drug too. It’s a pretty damn strong one, at that. You don’t get to pretend it isn’t a drug or its usage is any more virtuous than the usage of any other drug, just because it’s the one you like.
Of course not, why the hell would you think that was who I was referring to, after all my explanation? What is wrong with you?
OK, let me add, not everyone is a drunk.
We’ve reached a point where cause and effect have become muddled; people can’t get a job because they’re on drugs, and they’re on drugs because they can’t get a job. Here in NJ we don’t just have a growing heroin problem; we seem to have much higher rates of marijuana and alcohol abuse as well. I don’t think it is any accident that this is one of the worst areas in terms of economic recovery; the economy is still horrible here. Many young people are leaving, and those that stay wonder who moved their cheese while adding visible tattoos and substance abuse arrests.
When you add up everyone who uses alcohol, everyone who is on some sort of legally prescribed mind-altering substance, and everyone who uses outlawed intoxicants, you’ve covered almost everyone at that point.
There are a few people who do none of the above but we’re talking MAYBE 5% of the total adult population. Maybe. Probably less than that.
I had a dental procedure after which the dentist handed me a prescription for a Oxycodone. I handed it back to him, telling him I would never use it. He handed it back to me, saying he couldn’t fill it by phone if I had pain issues later; I still haven’t taken it.
As a cop described it to me, much of the heroin use is caused when people get hooked on prescribed painkillers and either can’t get any more prescriptions or can’t afford them.
Scary stuff...
Uses alcohol or gets drunk every night? Legal prescription for blood pressure or thorazine? There is a very wide spectrum that you’ve just tried to mash together as if all were the same.
It’s getting late, enjoyed the conversation. But I am employed so need to get some sleep. You might try googling age discrimination and read the comments on the forums. Would be a good preparation for your latter years.
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