I was just given a drug test!!!!!!

[StellaBlue]

WTF?!

I got a job at the local bank as a filler and money-saver for about three months while I look for a job elsewhere and more suited to my qualifications and experience. (I just returned to the US from living in Europe for four years.)

The job was secured when I went in to talk to the president of the bank, who is a friend of my dad's... it lasted all of five minutes, and I was hired.

Later the HR lady called me to ask me to go by the locak recruitment office. Thinking this was a bit weird, as I had been hired already, and directly by the president, I asked, 'Oh, so you do all your hiring through them, then?', to which she responded, hesitantly, 'erm... no... but we need you to fill out some forms and things, shouldn't take too long.'

I was curious all night. This morning I went over there and had to fill in a form with my DL#, SSN, and signing to say it was okay for them to do a background check, credit check, and drug test.

Then the lady took me into a back room and gave me the little cup! I was like, 'Uh... I wasn't expecting this, so I will need quite a bit of water, as I went before I left my house.'

So then I wasted another half hour drinking tons of super-cold water (on am empty stomach!), and was finally able to pee in the cup. She wouldn't let me wash my hands or flush the toilet until she had checked it.

I was negative (duh). Then she was like, 'Okay, we'll send this over there, thanks.' And that was IT. Not even a typing test. Nothing.

If it wasn't for the fact that my dad got me job, and his friendship with the president, and this being a really small town (well, no, actually, I don't care about that at all!), I would've refused. Never in my life have I been asked to take a drug test. It's silly and invasive and none of their damn business. Who are they, the police?

To my line of thinking, if it doesn't interfere with my ability to do my job, it's none of their damn business.

WHEN DOES CHIMPY McCOKE-FACE have to take one?

I called my mother when I got back to tell her about this hilarious/upsetting incident, and she told me that about thirty years ago when my grandmother worked at the local drugstore, they made her take a polygraph every six months! WTF?!

Why do poor, hardworking people, who are taking the LOWEST jobs in society, have to do this? Why don't members of Congress or CEOs have to do it? Not only is it much more pertinent to their job whether they are thinking with a clear head, but I personally think that a higher percentage of them would be on drugs!

I am really glad I said no to a smoldering joint that was offered me a few weeks ago... although I have to say I kind of think it would've been REALLY funny if I had failed it.

This is not only the first time I have taken a drug test, but it will be the last. I don't care that my RW relative says, 'Well, a lot of places make you do that now' and 'If you're working for them, it's their business'. What's next? Tests to see if you drink alcohol? If you eat meat? If you're a loyal brainwashed sheep-patriot?

:grr:

I am shocked. Just shocked. I feel personally invaded, humiliated, and put down.

[LynneSin]

1. Your dad may have gotten you the job but...

...if their hiring policy requires drug testing they need to do the same with you.

I've peed in more cups for more drug tests and never failed any of them. It's just the facts of life and I feel getting outraged is a little out of place. Especially knowing that there might be others who would like to have the job.

BTW, I've been drug tested for part time jobs, it just doesn't upset me anymore! That was back in the late 80s

[Jokerman]

7. It may be a "fact of life" but that doesn't make it right.

Like endless war, the patriot act and other facts of life in fascist Amerikkka.

[StellaBlue]

9. That's just what I was thinking...

Isn't this the type of creeping, insidious fascism that we at DU are striving to stop dead cold?

I, too, though... 'Aah... Amerikkka...'

[Jokerman]

14. Creeping & Insidious are the key words.

Twenty years ago we were outraged by drug testing, now it's just a fact of life. Maybe in another twenty years warrant less searches and war for profit will just be another fact of life.

[LynneSin]

16. You know if this was something that just started in the past few years

Maybe I'd be more outraged

But I can't recall even a summerjob I've had outside of my first fast food restaurant that didn't require a drug test.

And I've been working since the mid-80s. If the country is somehow 'eroding' (another poster said that) then it sure is a long, drawn out erosion that probably should have been dealt with back in the mid-80s and not today.

And I've had a false positive - I was given another cup, piddled in that one and the results were clean. That was from my current job.

You know the original post summed it up best - if you don't want to take a drug test then don't work for companies that require them. However, my career path pretty much leaves me moving to a 3rd world country if I want to do what I'm doing and not ever worry about a drug test. This isn't a product that I decide I don't want to use anymore - this is my livelihood.

Most people I know including those who enjoy a toke know the system and know how to work around it. Some battles just aren't worth it knowing that your livelihood could be affected

[Susang]

13. Feeling outraged is totally appropriate

Employers do not have a right to your bodily fluids. End of story.

It's great that you allow them to test you, but if you stop to think about it, really think about it, you should realize how invasive and wrong this kind of drug testing is.

First of all, the tests are far from accurate. The amount of human error and false positives is staggering. Then there's the simple concept of what information your employer is entitled to. Personally, I don't believe that my employer has any right to know what trace substances are to be found in my urine/hair/whatever. Do they have the right to know what prescription drugs I take? How about what foods I eat? Where does my employer's jurisdiction over my personal behavior end?

There is a right to privacy in this country that is slowly being eroded with our consent. The fact that you and others are no longer upset by the fact that you are being subject to what amounts to an illegal search and seizure is proof of it.

[RandomKoolzip]

15. Exactly.

Plus, why would a drug test determine competence? If you're not under the influence of weed when you're actually flying the plane, but occasionally like to smoke some on your day off, why should that keep you from being a pilot? I've never really understood that.

Also, these tests they usually give are almost uniformly in place to check for marijuana usage. Pot stays in your fat cells longer than just about any drug, but it's probably the most benign illegal drug there is.

I've just never gotten the logic behind drug testing.

The other day, Ipassed by the Home Depot in Chicago where there's a big "Help Wanted" sign, but an even larger "WE TEST FOR DRUGS!" sign underneath, with a helpful "If you do drugs, don't even THINk about applying here!" in bold letters. Okay, first of all: if your occasional smoking of a joint after work somehow makes you unable to perform your paint-color-selecting duties or cashier duties at Home Depot when you're sober and at work, then you are most likely learning-disabled. Second, what about nicotene? Alcohol? Aren't THOSe drugs too? What if some lumber-totin' dumbass is having a nic-fit while stocking plywood and gets so squirrely he drops a load of wood on some customer's head? Well, as long as he's not smoking pot, I guess it's cool.

Again, these are the little signs of fascism we need to look out for.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. For pilots, it's even borderline understandable. But CLERKS? (nt)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Thank you for writing what I wanted to.

I ws too disgusted to concoct a response that would (a) tell things as they are, and (b) not get this thread locked in a storm of deleted messages. You managed to do just that.
:yourock:

[Susang]

23. My right to privacy is very important to me

I just don't understand why it isn't more important to others. This lack of outrage confounds me.

If your employer were to send someone into your home to search for drugs, you'd get angry. I see no difference in their demanding your hair or urine to test for drugs. To me, it's even more invasive than if they asked to search my home.

And people wonder how this country got this far to the right. Little by little, it eroded to it's present state. As I said before, it was done with our consent. That's what angers me the most.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. Hair is even MORE evil

It can tell you snorted coke YEARS ago ffs! What's the point of THAT?

[StellaBlue]

29. What she said.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

35. Well said!

[HEyHEY]

26. I'd never submit to one... no - one gets my piss but my GP

[Patiod]

27. I think she was saying she would have REFUSED the test

except for the fact that her dad got her the job -- she didn't want to embarrass or upset her dad by refusing the drug test, which she would have refused under other circumstances

I don't think she's saying she shouldn't have to take the test because Dad got her the job.

[StellaBlue]

30. Thanks

I was also more shocked by it because I was appoaching the job pretty casually, as I am super overqualified and have never been asked to submit to such a thing at any other job (when it would have MORE important for me not to be on drugs).

Also, I agree with the posts above re: alcohol. Pot just makes people want to hug and talk about world peace and sh*t. But alcohol makes about half its users want to beat people up - which is worse?

And, yes, to clarify, I would've refused if it was a job I was going for independently and was not sort of corralled into by my well-meaning father. Also his loans, etc. are through this bank and I don't want to harm his personal business/professional/friendship interests.

But if I had known, I might not have even gone to the "interview", as I had another job offer someplace else, too! haha

I think if your drug use is affecting your job, then they can fire you ANYWAY. They don't need a drug test. I said this to my stepmother, who thinks I am reacting this way because I am a pro-drug-wacko-commie-pinko-tree-hugger (maybe I am?), and she said that when she was a small business owner the only reason she didn't do drug testing was because it was really expensive (didn't seem a big deal at this recruiter today) and they were always fully staffed without any major problems (though we know that some of the employees were definite pot-smokers, maybe harder drugs). She said that it was in their contract that they COULD be tested at any time and fired for drug traces, but they never actually tested. She also said that the reason she would've made it a condition of employment was to avoid the cost of training and then firing people who were "druggies".

This is all still trumpted by rights to privacy, IMO.

I had to leave that sample there. So, if they wanted to, they could now test me for other drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, all sorts of things that are NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS and IN NO WAY IMPACT MY PERFORMANCE.

I agree that if someone wants to smoke pot (or crack or whatever, even) in their free time, so long as they are doing their job, I don't give a shit. With the exception, perhaps of pilots or people working with serious heavy machinery where even small amounts might harm OTHERS.

[RebelOne]

2. Years, ago I walked out on an interview because I was asked

to take a polygraph test. I didn't have anything to hide, but I considered it an invasion of my privacy.

[StellaBlue]

4. This is what I would've done

Except that a) I don't want to embarass my dad (though, he, of course, never tires of embarassinng me hahahahaha); and b) I was shocked.

I will avoid in the future jobs that require one.

By the way, I don't think I am special at all. I was just shocked, because I got the job casually and the place is actually really cool for a bank and it just never occurred to me, I guess. And I resent having to submit to something which I feel is an invasion of privacy and humiliating for a job that, really, I don't even want or need that badly.

:shrug:

[LynneSin]

12. Hope your parents have a nice inheritance for you

Because if you're hoping to get a job which provides a decent salary AND health benefits, be prepared to take a drug test.

Look, this isn't about the drugs, personally I could care less. This is about being logical about your future career in which you're going to find most companies large and small will require one. And in this very competetive job market, if you don't want to give them a cup of pee - move out of the way because someone else is standing behind you who will.

In college, I was good friends with a group of heavy pot users - we all spent about 1-2 nights a week playing pinocle. When our 2nd semester senior year came around and it was time for all of us to start getting jobs many of them quit ahead of time because they knew reality was that decent jobs = drug test. They got their jobs, passed their piss tests and then went back to their old ways.

I'm not going to get into a privacy issue debate here because I actually agree. But I also know that I am a single girl who needs a decent salary with good health care benefits and if I have to pee in a cup to get that job so be it. It's reality and sometimes you have to suck it up.

Thing is you can fight the system or you can work the system. Most people work the system. Drug testing is a necessary evil of working and therefore they work around the system to have a clean sample when they apply for the job.

I appreciate your willingness to make sacrifices for a principle but most of us find it's just a small blip in our career paths

[StellaBlue]

31. So...

Why are you on DU again?

Sounds very like Rove's 'Talking Points to College Graduates' to me...

:eyes:

Edited to add:

AND, I also turned down a 'foot-in-the-door' job today at a major energy provider's 'government affairs' office. Which was also nepotistically offered. Sorry, don't wanna work for those guys. I have two degrees, tons of skills, blah blah blah... but money ain't everything. Just ain't gonna happen... you can HAVE the jobs... you CAN take my place in the pee-in-a-cup line!

Also - I don't remember this being totally run-of-the-mill and accepted when I left the US four years ago, with the exception of low-pay types of jobs which employers perceive as likely to attract 'druggies' and 'low-lifes'. I certainly wasn't under the impression that white-collar, corporate BS jobs now required this. I wonder do the boards of directors take them? Or their sons who are interning between gold games? I have a sneaking suspicion they might show some heavy cocaine usage in their cups... :shrug:

In the UK, I NEVER heard of ANYONE being asked to take a drug test. And I worked in retail, as a waitress, at a university, in publishing, and with a large national residential construction company.

[StellaBlue]

32. hahahaha

Your nickname gives it all away. hahahahahahaha

How's Dick since his surgery?

hahahahahaha

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[WCGreen]

3. I went into Hollywood video right after I became disabled....

I wanted to see if I could work a day or two a week...

they said yes, but I would have to take a drug test...

I said you want to take a drug test so that I can rent videos...

company Policy...

I said, right.......

And walked out...

[StellaBlue]

11. It's all corporate BS

That's ridiculous. Do YOU care if your local video rental clerk is on drugs? I don't.

[WCGreen]

19. That's why I walked out....

[StellaBlue]

5. What the ACLU says

http://www.aclu.org/WorkplaceRights/WorkplaceRights.cfm?ID=9074&c=178

Privacy in America: Workplace Drug Testing

December 31, 1997


Today, in some industries, taking a drug test is as routine as filling out a job application.

In fact, workplace drug testing is up 277 percent from 1987 – despite the fact that random drug testing is unfair, often inaccurate and unproven as a means of stopping drug use.

But because there are few laws protecting our privacy in the workplace, millions of American workers are tested yearly – even though they aren't suspected of drug use.

Employers have the right to expect workers not to be high or drunk on the job. But they shouldn't have the right to require employees to prove their innocence by taking a drug test.

That's not how America should work.

(snip)

[StellaBlue]

6. From the ACLU article, too:

"In 1988, the Washington, D.C. Police Department admitted it used urine samples collected for drug tests to screen female employees for pregnancy – without their knowledge or consent."

:wow:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

8. Any bank job will drug test you.

Anything having to do with large amounts of easily stealable money will require a drug test. They don't want you ripping them off to support a habit.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. I can understand how you feel....

back in my 20s I applied for jobs and found out at the interview that a drug screen was required. And these were for administrative jobs, like a receptionist!

I always politely refused the screening, which is kind of ironic because I have never used drugs. It's just a principle thing for me.

I'm sorry you had to go through such a process.

[Gormy Cuss]

22. I wish more people would refuse.

I do. I have watched the erosion of privacy in the workplace over the course of my career. It isn't a good trend. Employers have become accustomed to asking and getting far more information on their employees with little regulation.

It's against Federal law to ask me for my age(other than to ascertain that I am at least age 18)or to ask for marital status or whether I have children prior to hiring but through the largely unregulated background checks potential employers can develop proxies for these based on credit report data and other background checks. Potential employers can then exclude applicants based on illegal grounds but couch the refusal in other terms. Such exclusions have always happened but applicants had ways to short circuit these (shortening work history and omitting graduation years were common ways to obscure age.) Now such attempts to level the playing field would be viewed as lying.

Employers hold all the cards. Federal intervention in the past has made the workplace snap back to a reasonable position. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act was supposed to be the ruin of business if you listened to their lobbies but the reality is that it works. We need Federal privacy legislation to effect similar changes in the workplace on this issue.

[Fox Mulder]

20. What would happen if you refused?

I would have.

[StellaBlue]

36. I dunno

I was just shocked.

I guess they would've said (from what my mom has since told me about how EVERYONE at this particular recruiter - basically the only one in our small town - has to submit to the drug test, and a lot of major employers around here hire ONLY through them), 'Okay, well, then, we will inform Mrs. X at X National Bank. I believe it is their company policy.' Then I probably would've gotten a call from her this afternoon telling me that it's standard company procedure and that I could not be hired unless, like everyone else, including herself, I submitted to the drug test.

Then my dad would've gone ballistic, as he was trying to help me by asking his banker to hire me temporarily. They created a position for me, even! They are at full capacity right now. Anyway, that would've burned a bridge and I would probably be blacklisted from working anywhere in this town except non-drug-testing retail/food service. Then I would've gotten a long lecture from my parents along the lines' of LynneSin's (see above). Then I would've gotten into a big fight with them.

And I would be unemployed.

But I think that, if this situation ever presents itself again, and I am not beholden to anyone, then I will refuse. And I might tell them to go to hell.

[Democrats_win]

21. What a way to start a business relationship: they accuse you of a crime

before you start working. Don't let it bother you too much things will get better.

[CanuckAmok]

25. Can I just say, as a casual observer froma foreign country...

I think anybody who accepts this as a "part of life" is fucked in the head.

If a company in Canada were to disqualify someone from a job because they refused to submit to a drug test, they'd be sued for discrimination, and rightly so.

Employment is a risk for both parties. Does a company have to submit to a binding test that they won't lay you off if their profit margin sinks by 0.005%, or because some middle-management asshat's brother-in-law wants your job? You lose your job in six months, and you're fucked. Lo lose income, you're emotionally distraught, you have to go through the whole job-finding process again, and for no fault of your own.

What about problem gamblers? Alcoholics? People on prescribed meds who stop taking them and become dysfunctional?

Are they pre-emptively fired? No. So why shouls you be pre-emptively fired for smoking pot on your free time?

It's completely invasive, and just another histrionic measure in the moronic "war on drugs" that Americans have been duped into supporting.

And this from someone who "doesn't partake".

[StellaBlue]

33. Ditto everything you said.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

34. Exactly!

[Patiod]

28. Thank god I've never needed to take a drug test

even though I work for Big Pharma. But they don't worry that the middle-aged women who hire out as Focus Group Moderators from local contracting companies are stoned.

I haven't touched anything non-Rx since the 1980's, but I live with a regular pot smoker, and worry about testing positive from trace amounts of his smoke.

[StellaBlue]

37. To be honest, having come from an EU-regulated workplace...

For the past four years... and not having ever been asked to take one before in the US (I have a total of 11.5 years working experience)...

I have to say, I was just as uncomfortable with the 'waiver' I had to sign authorizing them to do a background check (which I understand as it's a bank) and a credit check (how is that relevant? I am not borrowing anything from them, but getting PAID for WORK). I don't like how nowdays you have to give your DL# and SNN to every Tom, Dick and Harry. Next you'll have to supply it to use a public toilet.

F*ckers.

[miss_kitty]

39. The credit check is to make sure you are responsible with money

and won't turn into an embezzeler OTJ. While it shows them your credit, it will not show up as an inquiry on your CBR, except to the Credit Bureau and you, if you ask for a copy of your file.

[miss_kitty]

38. That is bullshit

It's too bad that happened. I would never submit to a drug test on principle. It is an utter invasion of privacy. What would this fuckin' country do if there were no way to test for drugs?

The only people I pee for (other than me) is my docs. and you know-I'd get all sorts of waivers for the drugs that are prescribed me. I'd pass-but that's not the point-it's "Guilty under proven innocent" and an imposition of Big Bro into your personal life.

It's just fucked up that so many people submit (not talking about you-it sounds like you were ambushed-and we tend to lose our bearings in those situations) that it's an accepted way of life.

Watch for tests to for tobacco use. They already exist and more companies will be Not Hiring based on that, due to lowered insurance rates.

It's a violation, pure and simple. I am sorry you were violated.

[StellaBlue]

40. WHEN DOES CHIMPY McCOKE-FACE have to take one?

Nobody answered my question.

:/

I think it's much more relevant to his ability to do his job AND we already suspect that he is a long-time substance abuser. AND Bill Clinton took lots of heat for admitting he 'didn't inhale'.

I think this is a worthwhile line of inquiry.