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Weed the people? Companies relax drug-testing policies in bid to attract more workers
Near-full employment and changing attitudes about cannabis are prompting some companies to drop pre-employment drug screenings for marijuana, experts in human resources say. "It is happening," said Brian Kropp, group vice president at Gartner's HR practice. "In all the conversations we've been having with executives about this issue, more and more of them are dropping it," he said.
According to attorney James Reidy, chair of the labor and employment group at the law firm of Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green, an increasingly common viewpoint among employers is: "It's an artificial barrier to employment. ... It's no different than having a beer Sunday night."
[...] A 2011 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 57 percent of employers conducted drug tests on all job candidates, a number which likely has fallen since then, extrapolations from smaller studies suggest. A Colorado survey conducted by the Mountain States Employers Council (now called the Employers Council) in 2014, the year the state legalized marijuana for recreational adult use, found that 77 percent of employers said they conducted drug testing, a figure that fell to 62 percent three years later.
Also at Southeast Missourian (AP).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by moondrake on Tuesday May 08 2018, @10:48AM (5 children)
First time I heard about this. I am amazed that over 50% of the employers do this in the US. I would have thought it would be none of their business what I do in my free time, as long as I perform well when working.
Why did people ever put up with this? What kind of drugs do they test for?
(Score: 5, Informative) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday May 08 2018, @11:58AM (3 children)
When the heat turned up on the "war on drugs" in the 80s, the federal government started requiring drug screening to apply for jobs. Many contractors that worked for the government, rather than waiting for the government to decide they'd be required to do it, and not wanting to be the last to the party, started requiring it also. This spread to other large companies. Special clinics solely for drug testing started popping up and well, and the rates for tests were so affordable (and often paid by the job applicant anyway) even smaller some companies started requiring it.
I'm not sure exactly what they test for - marijuana and prescription painkillers I'm told are the most commonly detected things, so presumably those at least. There's a lot of "hiring tips" that you hear, that mostly amount to urban legends these days, for tricks to passing the tests like "avoid over-the-counter painkillers 24 hours before the test" (I've been told in the 80's and maybe 90's these would produce false positives sometimes but that's not been the case for a long time).
(Score: 4, Informative) by DavePolaschek on Tuesday May 08 2018, @01:58PM
A friend had to go through this last week.
Previously his employer had offered a $500 "bonus" if you went through (and passed) the drug screening.
This year, his employer would "penalize" you $500 if you refused the drug screening.
We "joked" that next year, he'll probably have to pay for the screening in order to keep his job.
[Looks at watch] Yep. Just about time to retire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @02:00PM
They would have tested for anything that was federally illegal and had a cheap urine test. So the well known hard drugs plus marijuana. Can't just refuse to hire people with pharmaceuticals in their urine, they could have been prescribed it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @04:41PM
yes, most companies in the US are vile whores who just want to kiss up to the government whenever they can. they do the same thing with criminal background checks.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday May 09 2018, @02:17AM
I was pretty astounded as well when I worked in the US for awhile. I live in a country that does zero drug screening (well, unless you're a professional athlete or something). I both have no idea what drug-testing of employees is supposed to do (does it make you a better retail sales assistant if you've been drug-screened?), and can't tell the difference between drug-screened US employees and our non-drug-screened ones. Probably because, unless you're up to your eyeballs on drugs while on the job, there's no difference whatsoever.