As a employee you do represent your company to some degree even if you are off duty. I would guess there are plenty of substances aside from weed that your boss for example would not like to see come up on a test if there was one.
What if you are involved in a lethal accident at your workplace, even tho you were not influenced at the time, it would not exactly look good for either you or the company if you tested positive for a set of drugs.
@ilte you bring up a good point, but let's assume someone isn't an idiot posting pictures of themselves smoking joints on social media and isn't doing any reputational harm to the company, having to take their pee to find that out seems to me to be invasive and extreme, assuming they aren't bringing any issues into the workplace.
With that in mind where do we draw the line. How about people who participate in extreme sports, they are more likely to die and leave a vacancy at the company. How about people who don't get 8 hours a sleep each night, they aren't going to perform their best. It's a slippery slope when we start granting permissions to employers to control you outside of your 9 to 5.
It is a hard line to draw, I don't see it being particularly useful spending times and resources enforcing frequent drug tests for the majorities of lines of work. As for work related accidents, be it major or minor, a drug test will most likely be enforced by the relevant authority. At least it is here in Norway.
And is the test positive the consequence will obviously differ from the one if it was negative. Both for the company and person.
I agree, if someone's work performance isn't up to par, if they are showing up late, if they are bringing issues into the workplace I think then maybe what they do out of work becomes fair play but assuming someone's work performance is good what they do in their own time shouldn't be their employers busienss at least IMHO
"The article talks about how many companies are quietly getting rid of drug testing altogether, or at the very least eliminating Marijuana from the drugs they test for."
This makes a lot of sense considering the legality of recreational marijuana in 9 states and medical marijuana in an additional 20. It would be difficult for companies to justify these additional testing costs with so many legal possibilities for them to have ingested marijuana.
Yeah I think were going to see that trend continue as well. I know near me Michigan has medical marijuana but has a ballet measure in November for full legalization
Yeah oddly enough I think weed while it can make people a bit absentminded, overall I think it makes people more careful, more paranoid, more emphathetic, etc, where as I find that alcohol is more likely to change someone's behavior, make someone aggressive, make someoen make poor choices, etc.
Yea it should be just testing to see if you are actually going to work impaired. It would have effected weed smokers the most too because aren't most stimulants and stuff out of your system within 24 or 48 hours?
Very good point, its funny that the "worst" or "more harmful" drugs stay in your system less than 24 hours while weed can stay up to 6 weeks depending on your body fat
This brings up kind of an interesting debate. So Alcohol is legal everywhere, and Marijuana is legal recreationally in many states and as a medicine in other states. Let's say you were an employer. Do you think its right to be able to subject your employees to your values if they are engaging in a legal activity? Not saying your right or wrong its just an interesting question. Also, how far can we take that. If we allow you to not hire alcohol drinkers, what if you only want to hire vegas or vegetarians is that okay?
As a employee you do represent your company to some degree even if you are off duty. I would guess there are plenty of substances aside from weed that your boss for example would not like to see come up on a test if there was one.
What if you are involved in a lethal accident at your workplace, even tho you were not influenced at the time, it would not exactly look good for either you or the company if you tested positive for a set of drugs.
@ilte you bring up a good point, but let's assume someone isn't an idiot posting pictures of themselves smoking joints on social media and isn't doing any reputational harm to the company, having to take their pee to find that out seems to me to be invasive and extreme, assuming they aren't bringing any issues into the workplace.
With that in mind where do we draw the line. How about people who participate in extreme sports, they are more likely to die and leave a vacancy at the company. How about people who don't get 8 hours a sleep each night, they aren't going to perform their best. It's a slippery slope when we start granting permissions to employers to control you outside of your 9 to 5.
It is a hard line to draw, I don't see it being particularly useful spending times and resources enforcing frequent drug tests for the majorities of lines of work. As for work related accidents, be it major or minor, a drug test will most likely be enforced by the relevant authority. At least it is here in Norway.
And is the test positive the consequence will obviously differ from the one if it was negative. Both for the company and person.
I agree, if someone's work performance isn't up to par, if they are showing up late, if they are bringing issues into the workplace I think then maybe what they do out of work becomes fair play but assuming someone's work performance is good what they do in their own time shouldn't be their employers busienss at least IMHO
This makes a lot of sense considering the legality of recreational marijuana in 9 states and medical marijuana in an additional 20. It would be difficult for companies to justify these additional testing costs with so many legal possibilities for them to have ingested marijuana.
Yeah I think were going to see that trend continue as well. I know near me Michigan has medical marijuana but has a ballet measure in November for full legalization
Yeah, I believe it should be legalized.
Its probably been 15 years since I smoked joint and got stoned. Never was really my thing.
But overall it does a hell of a lot LESS damage than alcohol does on our Society. So why should it NOT be legalized ??
Yeah oddly enough I think weed while it can make people a bit absentminded, overall I think it makes people more careful, more paranoid, more emphathetic, etc, where as I find that alcohol is more likely to change someone's behavior, make someone aggressive, make someoen make poor choices, etc.
Yea it should be just testing to see if you are actually going to work impaired. It would have effected weed smokers the most too because aren't most stimulants and stuff out of your system within 24 or 48 hours?
Very good point, its funny that the "worst" or "more harmful" drugs stay in your system less than 24 hours while weed can stay up to 6 weeks depending on your body fat
Drugs are harmful, companies must hire quality in health and professionally, @rulesforrebels.
@lauram , should we extend that to alcohol and tobacco us as well? Does it matter if marijuana is legal like alcohol?
I think so. both alcohol and marijuana harm the brain.
This brings up kind of an interesting debate. So Alcohol is legal everywhere, and Marijuana is legal recreationally in many states and as a medicine in other states. Let's say you were an employer. Do you think its right to be able to subject your employees to your values if they are engaging in a legal activity? Not saying your right or wrong its just an interesting question. Also, how far can we take that. If we allow you to not hire alcohol drinkers, what if you only want to hire vegas or vegetarians is that okay?