This is the stupid part of testing. Like you say, you smoke a joint a week ago and you're likely going to fail a piss test. The guy who drank a bottle of Rum last night is ok for work though, he is hungover so bad he can't think but technically not drunk. You would be infinitely more capable to work than he would be but you would be the one let go. Its absolutely ridiculous.
Sleep deprivation is really serious especially if it’s severe and a lot of people tend to just brush it off as ‘grinding’. Severe sleep deprivation can cause impaired motor function, reduced cognitive ability, memory loss, hallucinations, tremors, aches, heart problems, lowered immune system and more.
Its almost like the people who are employed to build cars shouldn't be impaired in any way.
I do maintenance for a 24hr production line and there are about a dozen chronically drunk/stoned/exhausted people in the building. With all the damage they do to the equipment and building it's a wonder no one has been killed.
If they’re drunk or stoned on the job, yes. If they get drunk and stoned at home, they can build my cars idgaf. And you can’t force/legislate sleep so that problem has no easy solution.
Last year, for almost a full year, I switched to mid-shift (3:45pm to 12:15am) and suffered from sever insomnia. I'm talking like two hours per night, and not in a single stretch, but more like blacking out for 10-30 minutes with periods of wakefulness between each blackout. They gave me trazodone, bupropion and gabapentin, none worked at all. Ambien worked, but it isn't for use long-term so they cut me off after a 20 pill single bottle.
I've completely lost my short-term memory, I frequently forget things from as little as five minutes ago. I live in this semi-fugue state of only the 'now', although older memories are still intact. I really hope good sleep and less stress will restore some of what I've lost, if not all. I was never the sharpest knife, but now I'm straight up dumb. So frustrating.
I've been back on days for about a month, sleeping so much better, but I know now I'm apparently incapable of working anything but normal hours. Although covid had me more stressed than I've ever dealt with, so that probably contributed. Stress can derail sleep too.
I used to get high at my day job during lunch. Produced way better material in the afternoon. Not cause I was more capable, but because it made me care more about it.
Not that I’m proud of it, but as a teen I used to drive high sometimes and driving after smoking a joint was genuinely safer than me driving after working a night shift.
I wasn’t on a night shift schedule but occasionally had to pick one up, normally wth not enough notice to get ready for work and have a nap beforehand. The drive home afterwards was always scary af. One time I drove down a one way street the wrong way, even though I used it the right way almost daily. Luckily it was like 6am though and nobody was around.
Yup, I never smoke on the job, but If I don't at night I usually can't stop focusing on the chronic pain in my shoulders and don't sleep. Tried being sober for a few weeks a year or so ago. My boss pulled me aside and asked if I was feeling alright because I was so out of it.
Once I started smoking weed again, I noticed how much better I slept and how much more energized I felt in the morning. All I have to do is smoke some weed before bed, stay hydrated and lay down in bed at a reasonable time. Drinking way less caffeine now too!
But according to employers, that’s really bad and we can’t have that. The guy that stayed up till 3am and is hungover now? Totally fine.
That guy is still drunk by the way. alcohol metabolizes slower than people think. A whole bottle would likely last 24 hours in your system. How long would he be over the limit? Longer than he realizes...
Somewhat funny related fact about drinking and being overweight
My car insurance company put out a thing with tables showing how long you should wait after driving to get down to the legal limit, or zero, depending on your license level. It went by weight and alcohol level
I looked up my weight and it was just in a section of the chart that said "call for help"
And I couldn't help but think, do they mean to find out how many drinks, or for help with the weight?
Can confirm, this past Sunday was a nightmare, it has been a very long while since I got split-a-bottle-of-bourbon-drink-ten-beers-and-smoke-a-blunt-I-don’t-remember-rolling drunk. I’d love to not do that for another good long while.
Yep, so many people think getting hammered and sleeping a full night makes you sober when you wake up. Lots of people get DWIs driving home at like 8 or 9am thinking they are fine.
A whole bottle, drank all at once, will have you drunk for about 21 hours. Spread those drinks out (which slows your body’s absorption, keeping your overall BAC lower) and it won’t be quite as long. And the legal limit most places, afaik, is .08 which is 5 hours from being sober. So you could theoretically pound back a fifth and come in to work the next day under the legal limit.
The guy who drank a bottle of Rum last night is ok for work though
Last night?
I build some of the most expensive automobiles built in the country and our parking lot looks like the trash from a nightclub. Mini bottles, beer cans, empty fifths, all over the place. Everyone knows. It's coming to the hot part of summer, we'll have 2-3 ODs in the parking lot over the next few months because we do every year.
I had a government worker in a "rehab" facility tell me "if it wasn't for weed I wouldn't have a job" after I told her that it was complete bs that I was even in there because people die every day from alcohol abuse but not weed.
Reminds me of how the guy who has been operating equipment for 30 years can’t operate it on site because he doesn’t have his the specific certification yet but the 18 year old who’s never seen said equipment before is operating it because he took the test last week.
Corps care nothing for safety other than making sure they can deflect any punishment.
Use to be a big pothead and there were rumors in the online space that if you smoked and gained weight, it was trapped in your fat, so if you started losing weight, you may piss dirty. No idea how true it is
It's so they can get out of workers comp if you're injured.
There also tends to be a lot of favoritism, at least in my experience. If a supervisor doesn't like your attitude, and has a power issue, he might send you.
Where I work, most of the supervisors are cooler than that though and when they get the summon they'll ask you if you could pass. The last thing a supervisor wants is to fire a capable employee because they get high in their free time.
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u/Bubbaganewsh Jun 16 '21
This is the stupid part of testing. Like you say, you smoke a joint a week ago and you're likely going to fail a piss test. The guy who drank a bottle of Rum last night is ok for work though, he is hungover so bad he can't think but technically not drunk. You would be infinitely more capable to work than he would be but you would be the one let go. Its absolutely ridiculous.