Skip to main content

Workplace drug testing

The company I work has random drug testing, which occurs about once every three months. A couple of weeks ago I was called in to be tested. Fine with me, as I have nothing to hide and I feel that the company has every right to call me in for three reasons. One, it's a known fact that I'm on antidepressants. Two, I have had knee surgery three times, and who's to say I'm not hooked on pain killers(which I'm not.) And lastly, I have admitted to have used recreational drugs when I was in my twenties.

The reason we have this mandatory testing is that we work on jobs for the government. Is it fair? I think so as what they are looking for are illegal drugs and others that aren't prescribed to the person using them. It just strongly advocates personal responsibility.

Where I work we make maintenance parts for the railroad. It's not unreasonable to expect employees to work unimpaired. After all, we have people's lives in our hands.

Comments

Pat Jenkins said…
huh this has always been a tough one for me wixy, if a company has a right to "watch" what you do outside the work place....
May 09, 2008 12:03 PM
Cliff said…
Depends on your values. I've been told that they were looking for illegal drugs, but they sometimes catch the one who uses a pain killer prescribed to their spouse or someone else. Problem is where do you draw the line?

I worked jobs in the seventies where you would go out and smoke your lunch then come back and operate the machines. One of the jobs I had was in a state home for the mentally retarded. When do you become a danger to yourself and others? Stupid stuff like that keeps union stewards busy.
May 09, 2008 1:18 PM
kim23 said…
The company I work for also has random drug testing which occurs about once every two months. I strongly believe that a faa drug abatement program is absolutely necessary and helpful for any organization. Substance abuse issues can really be avoided with the help of this method.
September 02, 2011 8:54 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Post 800: Time to chat

Hi Guys, It's hard to believe that this is post number 800 for this blog. I started this blog out of my desire to communicate. Since radio and television is becoming more and more automated and less and less personal, I'm glad I made the decision to go in this direction as it has given me many blessings. When I first decided to write my musings, a friend from the radio and television boards who goes by the name of newsnomore, told me not to be discouraged if I didn't get any readers. The fact that I did in the early going made me surprised and grateful that anyone was enjoying what I wrote. I've had people tell me that maybe it wasn't meant for me to ever be in radio, that maybe my calling was blogging. Nowadays I think blogging makes for better two way conversation than terrestrial radio, especially the way I do it, non confrontational. The closest I come from any confrontation is the innocent digs that Pat and I shoot at each other. On an average day I get betwee...
12 comments
Read more

From a "Battleground State"

I am going to make this one short and sweet. I live in Ohio, in this election season, one of the so called "Battleground states," a state crucial for any candidate presidential hopes. Of course we have had many visits from presidential and vice presidential candidates. Other blogs have dissected both campaigns so I will not. The only questions I have is will the promises made by either of these candidates exclusive to these states be fulfilled, or will they prove only to be hot air?
19 comments
Read more

My job

I have worked at my company for, unofficially, 17 years. When I first started working there in June, 1992, the average work week was 55-57 hours. Sometimes you worked more than that. I was 36 years old at the time and I could handle the long hours and short nights of sleep. 17 years and three knee surgeries later, I need less hours work and more hours sleep. Even moving into a quasi desk job, I still find it difficult to crawl out of bed at 3am. I could get up later if I wanted to put up with both rush hours. But this morning, things will change slightly. I received a call from my department manager yesterday. I was notified that I had to cut my time down to 40 hours. This would be down from 44-45 that I normally work. No surprise there as all the other departments got notified before I was. And I had to split my time between plants, doing calibrations at the other shop 1-1/2 days a week. I'm actually looking forward to the change. I also like the prospect of getting an hour extra...
11 comments
Read more