Unpopular Opinion

My company does not do drug tests and never has. Someone asked the owner why and he said 'Id lose a lot of good people'

That's an American thing.

Thanks Reagan. Fun fact, in the mid 80's Reagan's administration did a big study to show how effective drug testing in the workplace was, and how much it raised productivity. When they got the results back, it found productivity had dropped, and workplace safety hadn't changed. The results said the program was a complete failure. They tried to bury the report and not release it. Rolling Stone magazine sued the government to get a copy, since it was made with public money, and won. They were the only media outlet to publish the results.

I run a manufacturing business; you oversimplify.

Quite coincidentally my HR person came to me just an hour ago and told me that two people have complained of a coworker smoking on breaks and at lunch and being high on the job.

He drives a heavy forklift. Am I to ignore the situation? If I do I expose my employees to danger and my small business to lawsuits.

How are the employees that reported it supposed to react if I say "Whatever, that's his business."

To a large extent businesses have their hands tied by the rules and laws of society.

You know it's all bullshit because they don't/can't test for alcohol dependence, which is way more devastating to a person's productivity than cannabis.

Damn, América really is crazy. I wouldn't accept such tests and I've never even tried drugs.

Hard drugs also don't show up on a drug test nearly as long as weed does, so you're really only stopping people who smoked in the last month, while others are doing whatever.

You should see how they do it in the service industry. No tests to get the job, but if you're ever hurt at work and entitled to workman's comp they give you a test and if you've smoked weed anytime in the last month the presumption is that you were high at work and not only do they not have to pay you for your injury but they just flat-out fire you.

It really depends on the position and what they're testing for. Do you really want a heavy machinery operator to be a cokehead or heroin addict? There is a real risk of them killing someone. Testing someone in a job like IT for smoking weed? That's a different story.

Also a lot of the time they only test you post-hiring if you fucked up somehow.

It can definitely be used against people (usually the disenfranchised) though to prevent them being hired or to get them fired.

Imagine thinking "my employees are performing great but maybe I should check their pee to be sure"

They can't do this in Europe unless it's actually dangerous for the job, medical professional, operating heavy industrial machinery, cop etc. It's just because the US has no worker rights laws.

You don't want someone who is still high driving a train, but it's probably fine if all I need to do is off work.

My biggest fear is failing one when I haven't taken anything. I never have, but I know people who have. I've also known people who have passed after getting totally blitzed the night before. They are wildly inaccurate, aside from being an invasion of privacy.

In Canada (and I think in most of the world) it's illegal to randomly test employees unless you have reasonable cause.

Testing of an individual employee may be allowed in specific cases where there is reasonable cause to believe the employee is impaired by drugs or alcohol while on duty or is unable to work safely due to impairment from alcohol or drugs.

It's especially frustrating as someone who needs cannabis for severe anxiety, because it's anxiety inducing in itself to have to hide it and that pretty much cancels out the benefits for me- it's something we absolutely need to destigmatize at work especially.

I am so glad my new job doesn't test unless if there is an industrial accident or in very specific dangerous positions where it is warranted. Handbook basically says don't show up to work fucked up. What you do on your own time is your business.

It is a huge breach of privacy, especially when you have to start disclosing legally prescribed medications that they test for. Why a company has a right to my body, my medical history, or any other private information is nuts.

The fact that there is a system, run by Equifax of course, where employers can choose to hand your work history, paystubs, and other information to and then other companies can then pay to get access to is also nuts. You can request to have it frozen, but who the hell even knows to do this? It is messed up.

https://employees.theworknumber.com/employee-data-freeze

You know teachers are never drug tested in the US.

Like ok maybe drug testing someone who is driving/flying a bunch of people around…I kinda get it. Safety of the public etc.

But drug testing at an office job? Come fucking on. That’s political face. Nothing more.

The main thing is, as long as you don't show up to work blitzed I don't see how anyone should give a shit. Whatever you do at home is your business, provided you leave it at home.

That's the policy at my business. IDGAF if you spend all of your off hours at the bottom of a bottle or on top of cloud nine, just don't bring it to work.

Additional problems include: If there is a workplace accident and someone gets injured, both OSHA and insurance companies immediately come knocking to try to do drug tests on everyone involved purely as an attempt to shift blame and deny claims. We don't have any heavy equipment here or anything so I'm not too worried about that, but there are businesses in America that would get fucked in a situation like that so they're kind of forced to enact drug bans even if management doesn't want to on a personal level.

I completely agree.

Many years ago I applied for a McJob at Worst Buy. They had mandatory drug testing even (especially?) for the lowest level job I was applying for.

I couldn't pee when I went to the medical place for the test. Not sure I recall correctly but I think I went back a second time and drank a lot of water and was full of piss so I could do it. They never got back to me. No idea why. I guess they picked up the nicotine and didn't want to hire a cigarette smoker.

When I think about this now I'm pretty horrified that I even did the pee test. It would be exceptional circumstances for me to do this for anything employment related now. I'm very clean now but it is none of their fucking business. It does surprise me that it is legal.

I agree, but some jobs I can see why, like if you're an air traffic controller, operate heavy machinery, etc. Government jobs and Government contractors ($100k+ contracts) also require them but that's a government job...

You're right, but also it's to get cheaper business insurance. Because businesses that don't test have to pay more to insure themselves. If you own a business, you have to buy insurance for the business to ensure that if your business gets sued, it's the business that takes the hit, not you personally.