Posted on 05/19/2017 7:26:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Workers at McLane drive forklifts and load hefty boxes into trucks. The grocery supplier, which runs a warehouse in Colorado, needs people who will stay alert but prospective hires keep failing drug screens.
Some weeks this year, 90 percent of applicants would test positive for something, ruling them out for the job, said Laura Stephens, a human resources manager for the company in Denver.
The states unemployment rate is already low 3 percent, compared to 4.7 percent for the entire nation. Failed drug tests, which are rising locally and nationally, further drain the pool of eligible job candidates.
Finding people to fill jobs, Stephens said, is really challenging.
Job applicants are testing positive for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine and heroin at the highest rate in 12 years, according to a new report from Quest Diagnostics, a clinical lab that follows national employment trends. An analysis of about 10 million workplace drug screens from across the country in 2016 found positive results from urine samples increased from 4 percent in 2015 to 4.2 percent in 2016.
The most significant increase was in positive tests for marijuana, said Barry Sample, the scientist who wrote the report. Positive tests for the drug reached 2 percent last year, compared with 1.6 percent in 2012.
Although state laws have relaxed over the past four years, employers havent eased up on testing for pot, even where its legal.
California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada moved last year to legalize recreational marijuana, joining Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, permit medical marijuana.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If you seek a higher quality drug free employee then PAY MORE. You get what you pay for.
Here is a big part of the problem.
The warehouse was a great education for me. I learned more about race working at the warehouse than I would have learned reading books for 10 years. Even a stint in the diverse United States Navy did not prepare me for what I experienced. While our military may be filled with non-whites who are not qualified to serve and are semi-literate nuisances, they generally mean well. At the warehouse, however, I met every type of personality from the Mexican and black inner-city.
At first I noticed small things, such as the unwillingness of the blacks and Mexicans to pay attention to detail. My job was to check orders to make sure they were accurately pulledthat the right parts went to the right customers. The pullers were mostly Mexicans, and they routinely made mistakes. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes, but Mexicans could never admit they made one. Whenever one would pull an incorrect number of parts or the wrong part, or no parts at all, I would spend five minutes trying to explain the mistake so they could go pull the order correctly. By the end of my time at the warehouse, I started getting the parts myself; it was quicker and less aggravating.
Mexicans did not care about company property. They routinely drove forklifts into walls and into the metal racks holding auto parts. This happened at least once a month, and it was always the same people, yet they continued to operate the forklifts.
Whenever we had our 15-minute breaks (30 minutes in Mexican time), I noticed that Mexicans sometimes sat on breakable parts, such as gaskets. Explaining to one of them that you should treat something with respect even if it didnt belong to you was like talking to a brick wall. Their attitude was that it wasnt theirs so why should they care if they break it. If something breaks, oh well, the white people in charge have a lot of money and can fix it.
Maybe they were just too high to operate forklifts or care about breaking things. My colleagues routinely did drugs, mostly marijuana. One employee who smoked dope regularly was fired when he failed a urine test. The other browns and blacks were outraged and could not comprehend this. I tried to explain that there are consequences when you violate company policy. The other employees blew me off. This incident taught me that many people dont understandor dont carethat breaking rules can have negative consequences.””
People in CO are failing drug tests?? Mmmmm...
I usually hire extra drivers during the summer but not this year, every single person walking in the door this last month gave all the signs of using drugs.
And yet the social media local weed supporters get up on their soapboxes claiming weed smokers never hurt anyone.
Thats true because i refuse to hire one to drive my heavy equipment.
Gee, sounds like a tough problem.
Some jobs can’t be done if people are high on drugs.
I know we’ve seen a number of states legalize recreational marijuana use. But, people need to be responsible, if you will, in drug use. They can’t be getting high and still get certain jobs.
Or look at another way, your voluntary action such as drug use, can have real world consequences for your life.
Then they should hire the cocaine and meth users...
...for a bad back
...and of course they'll need pain pills for that
Just in case anyone was wondering why a habitual drug user would apply for these jobs operating equipment.
we don't need no strappin' hard working thoughtful workforce....
I can only imagine the numbers if the tests included alcohol and prescription drugs. But nobody likes to talk about those categories.
The left wants more people to be unemployable! They are guaranteed to vote dem.
Why they push pot and claim that substance abuse is a disease.
Fumy how stories about the difficulty finding ‘good’ employees never discusses the wages being offered.
I visit a warehouse for work frequently. Every Monday morning, 12 new hires show up for drug screening. If they get 3 that pass, it’s a lucky week.
This is a relatively well paying job (starting @$15.50) and a lot of these guys have families to support. But, somehow, smoking dope is more important than caring for their families.
It makes me wonder if marijuana really isn’t addictive.
We’ve had several at our corporation that are on STD damn near the week they start.
If they pay more they’ll get better workers. This is the hateful Washington Post attempting to push for illegals... remember the source. The Washington Post would push slave labor if they thought they could get away with it.
that is why my son is a prize employee. He makes more than any driver in this company.
Never uses drugs, rarely drinks and only at home.
Some companies were routinely sending him in for their drug testing, twice a month. and only him. He thought he was being targeted ( he is black)
But it was because he was the only reliable drug test passer.
?
MISTAKE
noun
noun: mistake; plural noun: mistakes
1. an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong. "coming here was a mistake"
informalslip-up, boo-boo, blooper, boner, goof, flub
go wrong, err, make an error, blunder, miscalculate; informalslip up, make a boo-boo, drop the ball, goof (up)
verb
1. be wrong about
The positives for pot failing the “stupid test” is understandable, since it’s supposed to be pretty slow to leave the body, but I’ve wondered if the leniency towards pot while refusing to adjust testing to reflect metabolic rate is a subversive way to create justification for importing foreign workers.
“But it was because he was the only reliable drug test passer.”
I managed a shop with 25 guys. The same 5 of us who could pass the drug test were the only ones ever “randomly picked”.
I see you are not here to add to the discussion. Stick with the thread subject mr. Prog.
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