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Employers Struggle To Find Workers Who Can Pass A Drug Test
HughPickens.com writes: Jackie Calmes writes in the NYT that all over the country, employers say they see a disturbing downside of tighter labor markets as they try to rebuild from the worst recession since the Depression: the struggle to find workers who can pass a pre-employment drug test. The hurdle partly stems from the growing ubiquity of drug testing, at corporations with big human resources departments, in industries like trucking where testing is mandated by federal law for safety reasons, and increasingly at smaller companies. But data suggests employers' difficulties also reflect an increase in the use of drugs, especially marijuana -- employers' main gripe -- and also heroin and other opioid drugs much in the news. Data on the scope of the problem is sketchy because figures on job applicants who test positive for drugs miss the many people who simply skip tests they cannot pass. But Quest Diagnostics, which has compiled employer-testing data since 1988, documented a 10% increase in one year in the percentage of American workers who tested positive for illicit drugs -- up to 4.7 percent in 2014 from 4.3 percent in 2013.
With the software industry already plagued by a shortage of skilled workers, especially female programmers, some software companies think now would be the wrong time to institute drug testing for new employees, a move that would further limit the available talent pool. "The acceptability of at least marijuana has shifted dramatically over the last 20 years," says Carl Erickson. "If the standard limits those that have used marijuana in the last week, you're surely going to be limiting your pool of applicants." Erickson's decision not to drug test stems from a low risk of workplace injury for his workers combined with an unwillingness to pry into the personal lives of his employees. "My perspective on this is if they want to share their recreational habits with me, that's their prerogative, but I'm sure as hell not going to put them in a position to have to do it."
With the software industry already plagued by a shortage of skilled workers, especially female programmers, some software companies think now would be the wrong time to institute drug testing for new employees, a move that would further limit the available talent pool. "The acceptability of at least marijuana has shifted dramatically over the last 20 years," says Carl Erickson. "If the standard limits those that have used marijuana in the last week, you're surely going to be limiting your pool of applicants." Erickson's decision not to drug test stems from a low risk of workplace injury for his workers combined with an unwillingness to pry into the personal lives of his employees. "My perspective on this is if they want to share their recreational habits with me, that's their prerogative, but I'm sure as hell not going to put them in a position to have to do it."
Exactly. Why would anyone with an IQ above sea level ***submit*** to an invasive bodily fluids test?
Yes, they must be taking the piss ... oh wait!
If they want my piss, they can have it, but it won't be in a bottle when I give it to them.
Employers struggle to find robots who solely live to serve.
Smoking pot sounds better than working for you.
especially female programmers
what the fuck
I'm pretty sure you have to be on some sort of stuff to willingly code in Python to begin with.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
That said, I make $500,000.000/year.
$500,000 is a lot of money. Even without the three decimals...
-- Make America hate again!
I wriote withj myu penioisd, yuo imsensitivre clopd!!!
-- Make America hate again!
ruby is on rails.
never do rails.
not. even. once.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
"when I applied for a taxi driver's license in the 80's I had to pee in a bottle."
That wasn't a drug test, they just wanted to be sure you could sit at a taxi stand for long periods.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Yes, clearly they're trying to promote dysentery among the masses.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Maybe he programs gas pump displays?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Not on the rug though. It ties the whole room together.