but God forbid we drug test welfare RATS...
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 ...
I sometimes think I’m the last guy left on the planet who isn’t using mind-altering substances — even the legal and socially acceptable one that is alcohol.
Not that I haven’t used them in the past, that is to say. I went to the ER with a rare abdominal infection years ago that they put me on morphine for because the pain was a ‘10’ on their pain scale. They gave me an injection and it was like I was floating on the clouds and saw a shirtless Jim Morrison in leather pants descending down from the sky singing “People Are Strange”. Just as soon as I was beginning to sober up, a little nurse came in twice a day and pushed in some more morphine. I was in the hospital four days and was so high I didn’t know whether it was day or night even though I could see out the window and had a clock right in front of me. I was watching hours of HBO movies and couldn’t remember the plot from the previous ten minutes because I was nodding off like a junkie all week long. Faaaar out man. Even when I was throwing up from the opiates I felt like a million bucks. Courtney Love must have gone through her entire twenties and thirties like this.
I can definitely understand how those unfortunate people who get involved with heroin never ever get off that stuff.
> There is a very wide spectrum that you’ve just tried to mash together as if all were the same.
I simply adopted the standard you implicitly proposed with your term “druggie work force”.
Just like it’s possible to both abuse alcohol and use it responsibly, the same goes for any other drug, and just like one drink doesn’t make one an alcoholic, one toke doesn’t make one a “druggie”.
Now that I have your agreement that use and abuse are not the same thing, I’m sure you can recognize then that testing for a substance that can remain in one’s system long after the active effects have worn off is a nonsensical standard for employment qualification.
I’m retired and have no desire to go back to work. But it looks like I’d have very little competition if I did decide to reenter the workforce and wanted to work in a drug free environment.
You are a winner in many ways.
> But age discrimination is this country’s dark secret.<
.
Well known fact — nothing dark about that.
Same here, except it was for Percocet. I told them not to send the script to the pharmacy, but they insisted. I picked up the ibuprofen 800s, but refused the Percocet. I hope the military has good internal controls, otherwise someone in the pharmacy got my prescription.
Oh, I had the paper itself; nobody else was getting that. As part of controlling the problem, the dentist couldn’t send it anywhere; someone would have to physically present the prescription for it at the counter.
This country is not serious about fighting drug addiction; if it was the penalties for dealers would be much more sever (Saudi-style, for example).
Yes, this is nonsense. I can pass a drug test no problem. No one or hardly anyone ever, ever, ever responds to this online business of job seeking.
Drug tests are the least of my worries. Getting someone who actually recognizes experience and doesn’t discriminate against a non-protected class, that’s quite another.
In initial phone contact with a potential housekeeper, handyman, yard worker—anyone who might work in your home— always require them to provide a xerox copy of their driver’s license and auto registration.
If the applicants actually show up—and most won’t—also write down their license plate number.
Make sure all three identifications match. People who do “homework”
often have criminal records and will give false names.
Then your stuff disappears, or even worse things can happen.
An online criminal record check is cheap. Also, you want to weed out people with a lawsuit history.
“These tests are good for catching drug users, bad for false positives when they happen.”
All of the companies I’ve worked for in the last 20 years take two samples. The first is stored in case the second yields a positive. Then the first is retested with alternative methods. Believe me, the more expensive tests can’t be fooled.
Some smoke in this story though, employers are not nearly as desperate as they seem. They are however VERY selective.
If your 26 years old, college graduate, drug free and have at least 10 years experience in the given field, your golden.
“”OK, let me add, not everyone is a drunk.””
There’s more drunks out there that won’t admit to it than those that will.
The money, in all this, is with the companies that make and sell the Drug Testing Kits.
but God forbid we drug test welfare RATS...
We should demand drug tests of any elected official.
And a psych eval for sociopathy.
Only one FReeper has brought up the issue of sneaking in someone else’s urine to the test.
I will add. There are companies that sell real, drug free urine. You warm it up, tape it to your groin or armpit, and you’re golden.
The thing is, they look for people walking funny or holding their arm in an odd manner, so it pays to practice in front of the mirror.
Not that I know anything about the concept.
Knowing this, I must assume these folks failing drug tests just aren’t making the necessary effort. I would not want an employee so mentally dull they couldn’t fake it.
A company I used to work for would very occasionally do a random drug test of existing employees. I was ‘selected’ for it, and wasn’t happy about it one little bit. The only drugs they’d be likely to find in me would be enough caffeine to kill a horse, but I was extremely concerned about the possibility of false positives. The way I see it, even if they retest you and find nothing, that false positive stays ‘on the record’ and can seriously impact promotions or have other consequences down the road.
I’ve decided that if it ever happens to me again, I’ll just whip it out and give them a ‘sample’ right there, as I’ve come to the point that I really am not interested in playing their games.
I understand. I’m just glad they don’t test for caffeine, I’d never work again. I gotta have my joe. I can’t imagine being hooked on a ‘real’ drug.
Sorry to inform you that I don't log on to FR breathlessy looking for your posts or point of view.
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