The fact that drug tests are normalized for jobs is fucking insane
and no one irl even has the decency to agree with me because it's so fucking drilled into the culture that these fucking BuNsInNesSes have a Right to do this because it's a bSUsniEss. like oh yeah they have an office building so they definitely get to analyze my piss because they say they want to. sick fucking freaks.
preaching to the choir a bit on lemmy (or i would hope so at least) but still
As drug use is nomalizing, I can understand that companies normalize drug tests, too. Even as a normal person I prefer jobs that require a certain level of precision or which could be dangerous when mistakes are made to be performed by people who are neither drunk nor high.
That implies that drug use in general would severly negatively impact your work performance.
And thats simply not the case. John smoking a joint before dinner and partying on MDMA one Saturday in a month, will not make him a worse employee than Jim, who takes no illegalized drugs, but is consistently sleep deprived and over caffeinated.
Drug tests don't test for current intoxication. They test for drug consumption in the past few days, or in the case of weed, past few weeks. So even for heavy machinery or other typical cases where current intoxication is not acceptable, they test for the wrong thing. Finally it is extremely inconsistent. If you have a opiod prescription, you are allowed to drive cars, while the medication is working if the impairment isn't too strong . But it impairs you in the same way like recreational opiod use would. So the same impairment is perfectly acceptable in one case, and a reason for losing your licencse and possible criminal charges in the other.
They test for drug consumption in the past few days
Often because those are the most accessible/cheap tests. More accurate ones usually require blood analysis, which is far more convoluted, expensive, and does carry some health risks for the one subjected to them.
As for prescriptions, in many countries they do put a restriction on driving (or at least an advisory, combined with a potential DUI if you're caught driving while under the influence of said medication).
I don’t see how that follows. The point is a drug test is a personal invasion so there needs to be a good reason. Operating heavy machinery is a good reason. Where lives are at stake is a good reason. Where it can have an outsized financial or other impact may be a good reason.
However, for most people, I don’t see why it’s not just a matter of good job performance or not. Sure, companies may want to drug test everyone to keep them in line, but that’s not sufficient reason
Same. I was a cook in a casino restaurant (bear with me), and when I applied for the job the head chef asked me "can you pass a drug test?" I said "oh yeah, I don't do any dr-", he interrupts me to say "I didn't ask if you do any drugs, I asked if you can pass a drug test. Yes or no?"
Well, turns out 2 line cooks had heroin problems, the head chef, sous chef, and morning lead chef were functioning alcoholics, one general manager was coked out of his fucking mind 24/7 until the last few days before payday, the other was taking about 3x as much xanax as anyone should, and the wait staff smoked approximately as much as Snoop Dogg.
Needless to say, that place was the definition of a runaway clusterfuck. Much of their problems were caused by the rampant drug use amongst the employees that could have been prevented if they were a little more thorough with the drug tests, rather than literally giving me the pee cup to take home and bring back later.
They didn't care, we were often reminded that our job is not to make good food or even make profit on food sales, it was only to keep people in the casino. If customers leave to grab some food elsewhere they're unlikely to come back and gamble more, but if they eat in the casino they usually do gamble more.
It's a big part of the reason why casinos give out meal comps if people have just lost a lot of money, because that's when most tend to just go home. But give them free food, and they feel more content after a little break from the slots and a full belly, and they're much more likely to sit back down for "just a few more spins" on their way to the exit. So casinos exploit that to squeeze even more money out of problem gamblers, their biggest cash-cows. Disgusting tactics, truly despicable.
But anyway, some cooks were dedicated and made great food regardless, most of the head chef's and sous chef's responsibilities were dumped onto them for no extra pay. Too much pride and loyalty for their own good. But I'd say like half of the kitchen staff on any given day were either nodding off high as shit in the smoking area (or even behind the line, open kitchen btw), buying drugs or selling stolen meat in the parking lot, jacking off in the bathroom, or shooting up/passed the fuck out on the dirty mattress that someone had dragged into an empty shipping container out back.
That said, it was the "high-end" restaurant in the casino.