Looking for opinions and experiences in this area. My employer just implemented a policy that mandates a clean drug test prior to final offer of employment for new hires, plus can test for cause - work accident, complaint, etc. I have little problem with testing if suspicion arises from a specific incident (though that can certainly be abused), but the requirement for new hires is over the top in my opinion. Anyone else have a view?
It depends. If you're applying to McDonalds, being asked to pee in a cup before learning to run the fry machine is probably a bit much. If you're applying to the CIA, it's probably justifiable. It really depends on what your job is. I don't have a problem with it, as long as a positive result doesn't lead to an immediate dismissal, or revoking the offer of employment.
There's only one job I know you can get without a drug test: Mayor of Washington DC. With all the health concerns and the threat of legal action, companies need to protect themselves as best as possible. I have no problem with drug testing as I have nothing to hide.
A while ago the company I work for were bought by an American firm. One of the effects of this was that some of the terms of employment were changed to bring them in line with the rest of the organisation in the US. One of these (apparently quite common over there) was a ruling that anyone under the influence of alcohol faced instant dismissal. Luckily, although the top management agreed to bring it in, nobody gives a toss about it and continues to go for a beer at lunch time. (We were also told after 9/11 that we had to set up a separate post room in the car park and handle all mail in a protective enviroment. We agreed then just carried on as normal as the odds of our company every being the focus of a terrorist threat are zero ...err... apart from the time we had to evacuate the building as there was an IRA bomb on the other side of the street. We weren't the target though. The real target was 100 miles away in Brighton. To explain (and yes this is hopelessly off topic, I know) a number of the rail routes that cross the country converge at Reading and it seems that part of an IRA cell took the bomb in a sports holdall on the train to Reading, with the intention of making his way to the conservative party conference being held that week. The suspicion is that the bag was 'dropped off' to be picked up by another IRA member and taken down to Brighton. As luck would have it, on that day a small-time thief from Reading was in the station looking for things to steal and he came across an unattended sports bag. Not wishing to draw attention to himself he took it without looking inside and caught the bus home. It was only once on the bus that he had a peek inside, which must have been interesting. Undeterred, perhaps thinking that semtex may have a street value, he took the bag home with him. Realising that having a bomb in the house might not be the wisest thing, he took the precaution of hiding it in the garden under some cusions. A while later he decided to get rid of it, so he carried it round the corner onto the busy Basingstoke Road, and dropped it into a litter bin, over the road from our office. He made an anonymous tip-off to the police about the location of the bomb, only to discover that witholding your phone number doesn't work when ringing the police.
I can't stand workplace testing, but do you really want to hire someone who is too stupid to get around a pre-employment screening?
Richard! try to use some punctuation...or at the least, break your statment up into paragraphs....gives me a headache to read that!