Good point on the legal drugs still potentially posing a safety issue. We do find out when an employee has had a positive result, as well as the MRO’s determination. We then request, if needed, a Fitness Assessment from the person’s prescribing physician. The assessment includes a copy of the job description.

We had to do this recently as the person would be in direct contact with patients and doing simple medical procedures.

Our drug tests are the same way. The MRO will confirm any positive results as being for legally prescribed medications (just had this happen recently, in fact).

Where it gets stickier is if there is a positive alcohol test as alcoholism is protected under the ADA. Haven’t had to deal with this one yet, thank goodness!

The candidate shouldn’t give notice until all contingencies on the job offer were removed. And the employer should make certain the candidate knows about any contingencies, and shouldn’t insist on a start date that doesn’t allow reasonable notice *after* all contingencies are removed. There are a lot of ways for this process to fail on both ends (or even in the middle – the lab could screw up, catch it, and correct their report, too).

(And we don’t know all the details on the letter writer’s situation, so it’s impossible to even guess precisely where the failure(s) occurred.)

Exactly: a previous employer pressured me to give notice when I accepted their offer. I told them I wouldn’t give notice until *all* contingencies were removed. They weren’t happy, but corporations have vastly more money and power than individuals, so I have little sympathy for such managerial abuse. If they’d forced the issue, it would have been a clear sign I shouldn’t work for them. I like my employer “desperate and dateless” not demanding.

Yes, this is what I was trying to explain below. And our tests certainly don’t test for EVERY possible drug out there, but it does test for both prescription and illegal drugs. And while we don’t test current employees frequently enough to catch if they’re using either type while working, we do encourage them to report prescription drug use (or exhaustion) that can affect their safety on the job, and we don’t penalize them. They get paid for their normal shift, but are given tasks that are safe to do while in their condition, further away from the dangerous machinery. Same as someone recovering from an injury, whether workers comp or on personal time. One person who normally works on some of our most dangerous machinery had a doctor’s note and worked in the office helping me catch up on filing for a few days. Our millwright lets us know when he’s had to take muscle relaxers and needs to work primarily in a supervisory capacity and not hands-on for a day or two. It’s not perfect. If people don’t self-report, we would have no way of knowing, but we hope that by handling it well, we encourage our employees to be honest, for their own safety as well as that of their co-workers.

With most, if not all, drug testing services, if your result comes up positive, they first reach out to the candidate to ask if there’s a legitimate reason and to offer a re-test, before notifying the employer. If the candidate has a valid prescription that can cause false positives, or ate a poppyseed bagel or whatever, they either clear them or offer a re-test, depending, and notify the employer that it was negative. This takes time, of course, so the employer often knows that SOMETHING happened when they get the results after 72 hours instead of 24, but they’re never actually told that it was first a positive and then cleared, they’re just told it was negative. Now if it’s due to prescription medication that can still cause safety issues, I believe they report it to the employer. Not sure how that disclosure goes, since I haven’t experienced it. I have had the process take forever, but then it turns out that the employee never answered their inquiries, so they did report it as a positive after all. But the employee had a chance to provide mitigating information…

We do drug testing at my company. It’s completely warranted, as employees work around machinery all day long, some of it very dangerous (saw mill type environment–we have safety guards where we can, but sometimes there just has to be an open saw blade for actual sawing, you know?). I’m laughing hysterically at the idea that someone would back out at the threat of a drug test, whether urine or hair. We warn all applicants that we drug test. They go merrily off to the clinic, then proceed to flunk the test. Some even beg for a second chance, but of course the clinic is even more on guard for trickery then, and many fail the second test, too. Swearing all the while that they’ll pass.

I think re-testing a dilute sample ONCE is fair, for the people whose urine is diluted for the valid reasons you point out. However, there’s no reason it can’t be another urine test, just asking them not to drink so much the next time. Having them test again at the exact same lab also lets the lab know to be extra diligent with their trickery precautions, too. But if they fail again, or fail the first time due to an actual positive result, we don’t typically give second chances. They can re-apply when enough time has passed and get drug tested again like any new applicant.

We did have one applicant who so badly wanted to get clean and re-test that we let him, at his own expense. He kept in touch with us every week, buying dollar store drug tests (I did not know that was a thing, but it is!) and keeping us posted with how long he thought it would be until he would test clean with the professional tests. He guessed a bit prematurely, and ended up having to pay out of his own pocket TWICE, but we figured with that much effort, he probably wasn’t faking it and truly was letting the TCH run its course out of his system legitimately, and accepted him back once his results were clear. And he was a good employee for a few months, until he quit. (We don’t pay well enough to not have ridiculous turnover, unfortunately.)

And let’s say I took a prescription ranitidine (Zantac) a day or so before for my acid reflux. FYI–I don’t take this medication regularly, only if I need it at night. It’s easy for me to forget I took it.

Imagine this happened, and it yields a false positive dilute result for amphetamines (it can). If the company retests, or I remember that I took the ranitidine and tell them that’s what it was and can produce the prescription bottle, perhaps I can salvage the situation.

If they tell me I can take a follicle test at my own expense, I would have to withdraw my candidacy, not because I do drugs (I don’t), but because I cannot afford to pay for a hair follicle test. I’m unemployed. I don’t have money for this sort of thing.

Would a company then take on the expense for that? I doubt it. It would throw a viable candidate to the curb thanks to overly rigid policies. This would make me feel I’d dodged a bullet. I might even leave a review somewhere or tell people I know, “Hey, you might rethink applying there if you’re on ANY prescription medication.”

Do you need to drug test for an admin position? Maaaaaaaybe if it’s in accounting. A receptionist? Nah. There are other ways to screen for potential performance issues.

There was no reason for him to need to be sober to pee in a cup or have blood drawn. Alcohol is legal, as is being a little tipsy. He showed excellent judgment in knowing he wasn’t in a state to drive.