Drug Use & Unemployment
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Whenever you apply for a job, there is usually a place on the application that asks you whether or not you’ve ever tested positive for drug use. Now, if you answer “yes,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t get the job. Usually, you’ll have a chance to explain yourself. However, drug use is taken very seriously when it comes to employment. Substance abuse can have a significant impact on a person’s ability to perform or do their job correctly. This can be a big deal, especially if the type of work that you do affects other people directly. For example, if you had to take a flight somewhere, would you feel comforted knowing that the pilot was high on drugs? Likewise, if you had to use public transportation, how comfortable would you feel getting into a taxi cab or a bus while the driver was consuming hard liquor?
It’s a Liability
For a lot of employers, hiring someone who used to be a drug user has it’s risks and consequences. Many employers are afraid that the person will begin to use drugs again, which could negatively affect business production. Not only this, but if the type of work that the employee does for the employers company is something like construction or operating heavy equipment, there is always the chance that they could get hurt because they are using drugs. Another issue that concerns employers is that employees who are addicted to drugs may go to extremes to keep their drug habit going. They may begin stealing items from the workplace to sell on the street so that they can get money to support their drug habits. This is part of the reason that certain workplaces have random drug screening in place.
For more information on drug and alcohol relapse prevention, contact Mark Houston today!
[...] Drug use and unemployment is a problem that hasn’t quite gone away yet. When employers are going through the screening process of hiring employees, it is of the utmost importance (especially depending on the type and line of work) that they screen all of their employees for drugs both before they are hired and sometimes periodically after they are hired. This is done for several reasons. First and foremost, employees who are working at jobs where there is a lot of heavy lifting involved or where they are required to operate heavy machinery may be putting other people’s lives at risk if they are high on drugs or alcohol. It is not only a liability for them, but it is a bigger liability for the employer who hired them. [...]
[...] Drug use and unemployment has consistently been a problem over the last decade or so. There is no doubt that drug use is a problem wherever you go. It impairs one’s ability to think clearly and rationally; therefore, it can cause a lot of problems- some of which can be serious. If you are an employer, then drug screening is probably fairly important to you. This is more so depending on the type of industry that you are in. For instance, if you are in the construction business and are looking to hire someone to operate some piece of heavy machinery such as a crane, then you want to make sure that the person you hire is going to be sound and fit for the job. Could you imagine what the consequences would be like if the person operating a crane was on drugs and was high or on LSD and hallucinating? The one thing that you could be guaranteed is that the consequences could, indeed, be grave. [...]