How hungry would you have to be to pee in a cup.

Work that out later.

I have no desire to work around people who are stoned at work. The problem is that most employers do nothing after the point of hire to screen the on-the-job drug use of their employees so the pre-hire screenings are pretty useless and easy to get around.

Will this employer's drug screening also include alcohol and prescription drug abuses?

Considering I have never used illicit drugs (weed or otherwise) I'd sign up without hesitation. Now if the prospective employer (or even my present day employer) asked for a urine test and then tried to make me pay for the damn thing, then I'd complain.

Heck if they are paying for the test... go ahead ... take some blood and/or some hair as well. I have nothing to hide.

Has this been an issue for you? In my profession, I have never seen anyone "stoned" at work. I assume that this is generally true with professionals. I have occasionally seen people get too drunk at work functions, but that is another issue.

I never liked this line of reasoning. I value my privacy whether I need it or not. I don't let cops search my house either, even though they wouldn't find anything interesting.

Part of the issue is just the principle of valuing my rights.

Part of the issue is my relationship with my employer. The best employers treat their employees with respect and trust. It's only fair. I have never asked my employers to take drug tests for me before I decided to work for them. Even in this economy it is a two way street, they need people to decide that they want to work there.

If they are going to disrespect my privacy before we have even started a working relationship, what does that say about what working for them is going to be like?

Maybe it has been my environments, but I've never dealt with stoners at work.

Given my work situations, I'd have probably been outraged and acting out on that.

This is all sad to me. I was the one who used to ask people to pee in a cup for routine urinalysis. I was also the one for a few months at a general lab, dealt with the guys who needed to give a semen sample. As in, I handed them the cup and said some words.

Oh, and after that, it was me with the microscope, etc.

That wasn't my favorite year.

Yes, at more than one employer over the years.

I did it for years... How smart do you have to be to pass a urine test... No study required; and open book...

Here is my thought... In my trade, ironwork, on the job accidents account for much of the cost without putting a cent in anyone's pocket, and idiots and barcodes and stone heads are responsible for much of it... I loved the jobs which tested because there people were usually required to use safety equipment, and since I did, and others often did not, it sort of leveled the playing field for me... Ultimately, it came down to supporting my family, and I figured I could burn one later, but now that I can, I would rather keep what is left of my tattered lungs for running... I know it is a bugger that employers want so much of the hand they hire to show up for work... My family life suffered because my bosses always expected 100% and I tried to give it to them...

We all want to escape reality... There is something about reality that makes everyone want to run and hide or find some sort of protection from it, some guaze of impossibility to make it seem unreal, and us, real... The problem is, that when we escape reality it never gets one bit better while we are away... The rich guy only makes it worse seeking his escape in wealth... The middle man only spreads more misery seeking his escape in sex... And the poor only drive the stake of torture deeper into their hearts with every drink or smoke they take.., We all need a vacation from it; but the ideal thing is to deal with it, and make reality more human friendly, and we are far from that...

Is the support of your family essential to your self respect??? Go pee in a cup, and take the first step in changing your world... Now you realize you are a slave, and a prisoner, and your challenge, if you choose to accept, will be to keep your humanity and self respect, to resist THEM, and not make the world worse for humanity because you are treated inhumanely...

You have to realize that there is little left of the traditional employer/ employee relationship... We used to have rights... We used to make our agreements person to person... We used to know, and care about each other... Now it is this wage for that work; no promise that it will be there tomorrow... No more guarantee of health, or safety, or sanity than the law allows... It is week to week, punch your card, put in your time, make up your mind to deal with your own insecurity... The man owes you nothing, but he pays your for something that in the end is worth nothing at all... Its your life... Beats chasing game all over the geography without any hope of a meal at the end of it... But not by much

I very willingly took a drug test when I applied at my present job. I don't see why it is a problem.

Your perspective employer is almost certainly pulling your credit score and maybe doing a background search on you. The might be reading your Facebook entries as well. If they decide to hire you, they will probably ask you do to a pre-employment physical where the doctor will get a lot more personal that asking for your urine. A urine test seems like small potatoes compared to that. This is probably just the hurdle they have to leap to keep their liability and health costs down. I wouldn't sweat it if they are paying.

stop being a dick and take the test. BFD

much ado about nothing.

In the 80's, I worked for a Wall St. firm focused on technology and sales (I'll call them S&M). S&M hired mostly people in their 20's who were comfortable with the new age of computers and networking. These young people also seemed prone to using various illegal drugs. S&M joked that drug addicts made good salespeople because they had a habit to support, but the company did screen for problems. I was told it was their insurance company who required S&M do yearly, spontaneous testing. In my time there I probably had a 1/2 dozen tests. If you're not using drugs it's not a big deal, and it did weed out (no pun intended because they didn't fire for pot use from my observation) a number of coke heads who were first offered treatment, and if that failed, they were let go. It's just something both employers and employees have been forced to confront because of a few troubled souls. I personally only draw the line at "casting couch" type interviews - that performance requirement would have me starving on the street first. Peeing a cup? Go for it.

LOL

But wouldn't "being a dick" imply that I was giving a urine sample?

i've got nothing to hide

Nothin' gets by you Slick.

I completely understand your dilemma and your feelings of privacy and liberty being invaded. We too faced a backlash of "if you've got nothing to hide then why are you hiding?" when we balked at my husband having to be fingerprinted before chaperoning our daughter's orchestra trip to Europe. I wrote about it here.

It does come down to how much you want this job. I've peed in a cup before and didn't think of it as an invasion of privacy, but I understand that you do. We each have our own limit of what we feel is invasive -- even when there's nothing to hide. In your case, it's peeing in a cup. In mine, it was providing fingerprints.

If there are interesting jobs available in your field that don't require a drug test then that's your obvious choice. Is there are boring jobs in your field that don't require a drug test and interesting jobs that do then you've got a decision to make. If the only jobs you can find require testing (and after being unemployed for a few months I can see how that may be the case), then you're at the point where you'll have to decide between compromising a personal standard of liberty and paying the bills.

I wouldn't let the police search my house or car either, unless they had a warrant of course, but that's really beside the point, isn't it? The police aren't offering me a job -- just being nosy and pushy. If I wanted the job, I'd jump through the hoops.

But I get with you it's the principal. There's principalities in the whole thing.

i would pee on the policeman talking my fingerprints while he searched my house if it meant getting a job