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Would you/do you submit to drug tests at work?

Would you/do you submit to a drug test?

  • Yes

    Votes: 83 67.5%
  • No

    Votes: 34 27.6%
  • Carrots?

    Votes: 6 4.9%

  • Total voters
    123
  • Poll closed .
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Not open for further replies.
As others have mentioned in this discussion depending on the state/country some jobs require the potential employee obtain a criminal background check on the applicant. I work with kids and have my own children. If I want to continue to work with children I accept that the background check will be conducted (usually at the employer's expense). A pre-employment drug screen is also part of the gig and since I no longer use this is not a problem either. While both are an invasion of my privacy I have chosen the profession I am in and accept the requirements that I need to submit in order to be employed. While I could be subjected to a random drug screen at my current job I have not been asked to over the 8+ years I have been at my current job. I worked hard to earn the credentials, which are required for my job, that I hold and would not want to risk loosing my credentials. I love my job and what I do. If being asked to provide a sample to demonstrate that I am drug free so that I can continue doing what I enjoy doing IMHO this action is a small price to pay.
 
No. That is unfair. I DEMAND that you hire me under my conditions and my conditions only!! :D

Ain't it the truth these days? Man, what a bunch of sensitive little spoiled brats.

"You should pay me well, provide benefits, let me wear whatever I want, let me listen to whatever I want while I'm working, let me text my wife all day, and not bother me about anything that..... well........ BOTHERS me."

Yep. You'll do just fine............ somewhere else.
 
In this case, they aren't invading anything. You're selling your skills to an employer who pays you for them. Don't like it? Go run through the forest. Most of this ideologue principled liberty defying of reality belongs romping around naked in a forest. We're the freest, most mobile group of people ever in history. I guess that's not enough for some people.
You would do well to revisit "for the want of a nail".
 
You just proved the point of the person you quoted. Work isn't a "privilege", you're selling your skills to an employer who pays you for those skills. If you don't stand up to the test, then step aside and let someone who does.

I personally can handle laying off the pipe in order to live a reasonable existence. My father did it, my grandfather did it, my great-grandfather did it, my great-great-grandfather did it.

This is the first generation of wholesale "entitled brat disorder".

Tone doesn't carry well, but yes, the privilege part was meant to come over in a more sarcastic manner.

Yes, you sell your skills to an employer for the time they pay you. I'm yet to have an employer who is paying for my time off the clock, as long as it stays that way, it isn't their business.
 
I'm a big "protect your rights" guy. Don't get me wrong (or get me started down a road that will end in a closed forum). But when you agree to work for someone else, for money, you give up just a few. I can tell you what to wear. I can tell you that you can't listen to the radio. And, yes, I can require a drug test to make sure my employees aren't stoned on the job. (By the way, my business is pretty casual, so I don't do any of those things. But I could.) Anyone who thinks it's their "right" to protect their pee is just wrong. And anyone who stands his ground on this issue, even though he has nothing to hide, is too prideful and not very bright (and better suited to work for someone else).


I am big with "rights" as well. But I am also realistic and know history and where we are. We are the first generation (we being mine) in the history of this planet to have the socio-economic mobility to such an extent as we do. My ancestors worked mills and mines and they had no choice. They had nearly no rights or none at all. I have been benefited to live in a society that respects my rights more than any other society probably in the history of the world. And yet, I also live in a society where this freedom leaves people irrationally clawing for every inch they can find. It's "gold fever" in a way.

In any case, when I sell my skills to an employer I sign their contract. If I don't like it, then I can start my own business and make my own rules. Then, when I have someone in my midst impaired because he can't handle his freedoms and he hurts someone else, I'll be responsible for the consequences. This is not an unrealistic scenario.
 
As others have mentioned in this discussion depending on the state/country some jobs require the potential employee obtain a criminal background check on the applicant. I work with kids and have my own children. If I want to continue to work with children I accept that the background check will be conducted (usually at the employer's expense). A pre-employment drug screen is also part of the gig and since I no longer use this is not a problem either. While both are an invasion of my privacy I have chosen the profession I am in and accept the requirements that I need to submit in order to be employed. While I could be subjected to a random drug screen at my current job I have not been asked to over the 8+ years I have been at my current job. I worked hard to earn the credentials, which are required for my job, that I hold and would not want to risk loosing my credentials. I love my job and what I do. If being asked to provide a sample to demonstrate that I am drug free so that I can continue doing what I enjoy doing IMHO this action is a small price to pay.

please explain to me what possible connection there is between having a drink or a doob off work and the job you hold.

do they also test to see if you've used alcohol within the past few months?

just askin'...because i can see no connection at all between having a drink or a puff off duty and what one does ON the job.

again...red herring...as long as one does not come to work stoned or drunk, and as long as one does not actually drink or smoke WHILE at work, there is NO connection



davesignatureII-1.png
 
And they choose not to hire you. If you can't look at the reality of a private employer-employee relationship, then you don't have a job. I choose to make a living instead of fight for frivolous things. There are reasonable things to fight for and ridiculous things. I don't live an ideologue existence but a realistic one.

They pay me to build stuff that makes them money. That's the reality. What I do when they're not paying me to build stuff that makes them money is irrelevant.

**edit**
Furthermore, it's usually me not choosing to work for them than it is them not choosing to hire me. If the offer is on the table, they want to hire you... Barring the required invasion of privacy.
 
This is a fair view point. Many people are unwilling to allow others the same right to choose they have.

I realize that I have chosen to work for any employer I bless with my presence. And that they have chosen to bless me with a job. If either of us is unhappy with the arrangement it's time to change the relationship.

Both parties should have the right to end any relationship. The right to freedom of association is a basic freedom. It's far from fairly practiced in this world.


And they choose not to hire you. If you can't look at the reality of a private employer-employee relationship, then you don't have a job. I choose to make a living instead of fight for frivolous things. There are reasonable things to fight for and ridiculous things. I don't live an ideologue existence but a realistic one.
 
Preach! +1 billion

If I pay for your skills, I own the skills while you are with me, not the man. I frankly don't care what you do on vacation or at home. I don't use drug tests. But if I CHOSE to start using them, my employees could take the test, or take about five minutes to gather their stuff.

I'd say you don't own anything, again, not an attitude I'd expect any reasonable employer to make.

The problem is that drug tests will show positive even if the use has only been at home or only on vacation, that's the issue people have here. You can be sober on the job and still fail a drugs test.
 
Quite presumptuous wouldn't you say? I know a couple handfuls of people that make $100k+ and smoke daily. Business owners, coordinators, programmers, architects, freelancers... There are many jobs out there where it matters not what you did the night, week, or month before. Then again, I'm in CO and weed has been all but legal for the last 7 years.

What's the difference between a poor drunk and a rich drunk? The rich one drinks better booze.

You'd also be surprised by the number of nurses and doctors who are hooked on the same pain pills their prescribing their patients.
 
Ain't it the truth these days? Man, what a bunch of sensitive little spoiled brats.

"You should pay me well, provide benefits, let me wear whatever I want, let me listen to whatever I want while I'm working, let me text my wife all day, and not bother me about anything that..... well........ BOTHERS me."

Yep. You'll do just fine............ somewhere else.

So a person is spoiled because they want to protect their own privacy, but you aren't spoiled for thinking you deserve the ability to strip others of their privacy? :eyebrow:
 
I'd say you don't own anything, again, not an attitude I'd expect any reasonable employer to make.

The problem is that drug tests will show positive even if the use has only been at home or only on vacation, that's the issue people have here. You can be sober on the job and still fail a drugs test.

BINGO!...give the man a cigar.

and also, that we are treating alcohol use very differently from pot use.

Michael ATW: you may say it is trivial and why waste time worrying about it etc., but i will point out to you what happened when they tried to make alcohol use illegal.

was THAT trivial?

davesignatureII-1.png
 
Ain't it the truth these days? Man, what a bunch of sensitive little spoiled brats.

"You should pay me well, provide benefits, let me wear whatever I want, let me listen to whatever I want while I'm working, let me text my wife all day, and not bother me about anything that..... well........ BOTHERS me."

Yep. You'll do just fine............ somewhere else.

Paying people well, that's is a bit of a strange gripe?
Benefits, in the sense I guess you mean, is a bigger thing in the US than it is here, so can't really comment.
Clothing should be suitable for on job requirements.
Music on the job tends to only be when I have the lab to myself.
I'll generally text the missues once or twice a day, generally at lunch (no point at any other time).

What does any of that have to do with what I decide to do on a weekend?
 
Most of the drug tests I've gotten are either A Pre employment. Or B Random testing while at work.

If there are drugs in you system at work your employer might not consider that irrelevant.

Imagine the liability if a post fatal accident drug test were to turn up traces of drugs in someone's system. Did they cause the accident? Probably not. Will the courts and lawyer be so sanguine on the matter? Please!

Much of what you're paying for when you purchase anything is the Lawyer Tax. And many freedoms, like riding in back of a pickup truck or driving a Corvair have been sacrificed on this altair

They pay me to build stuff that makes them money. That's the reality. What I do when they're not paying me to build stuff that makes them money is irrelevant.
 
So a person is spoiled because they want to protect their own privacy, but you aren't spoiled for thinking you deserve the ability to strip others of their privacy? :eyebrow:

When you apply for a job and sign the contract, you are obligated to abide by their principles. If you cannot, there will be someone who can.

Unfortunately, you also seem to not understand the employer-employee relationship.
 
BINGO!...give the man a cigar.

and also, that we are treating alcohol use very differently from pot use.

Michael ATW: you may say it is trivial and why waste time worrying about it etc., but i will point out to you what happened when they tried to make alcohol use illegal.

was THAT trivial?

davesignatureII-1.png

But remember, you'll never go anywhere if you touch alcohol, ever.

Better miss out on the cigar, it might be tested for tomorrow and we don't want to be under the influence of nicotine!

I also propose we institute tests to see if anyone masterbates in their own time, or worse, sex out of wedlock :scowl:
 
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