Body odor can also be caused by trimethylaminuria, an inherited genetic condition.

It all depends on context. If you tell him “I need you to take a drug test next Tuesday at 8 am” and he’s too drunk to drive himself that may indicate a problem. If, however, he had a Friday off, and had a couple of beers with lunch, then got the call saying he needed to take the wiz quiz at 2, that’s hardly evidence that he’s got a problem–people have beers with lunch all the time, and if he didn’t know he was going to be called you certainly can’t judge him for not having that information!

That’s not a hypothetical, by the way. In my field we do random drug screening, sometimes scheduled, sometimes not. If you schedule a drug test on a day that would otherwise be a day off, you don’t get to complain about them drinking. Plus if alcohol is the worst we find we’re thrilled. Laborers and equipment operators are like chefs: all we ask is that they show up sober, not beat up their coworkers, and only have served a little jail time.

Goober – I would say good call on your part.

Agreed.

We didn’t find it unreasonable that he didn’t realize that was included. It’s not illegal to have a few beers, or even be drunk, after all, and he wasn’t working.

Plus, he tested positive, but not by much. IIRC, not even enough to be considered legally drunk.

I’m glad the applicant had someone drive him to the drug test center after “he’d had a few beers.” But, I would also seriously wonder whether someone who decided to have a few beers before coming in for a drug test had a substance abuse problem, much less the judgement to perform at a management level. Seems like a potential red flag to me. I would probably have requested a follow-up drug test and not hired the person if it, too, came up positive (for alcohol or any other substance not medically-prescribed).

On the hygiene one, yeah, a lot of people don’t have good hygiene but also it might be due to a health condition (including clinical depression) or something going on at home. That’s a delicate conversation and definitely needs to be a private one.