Nicotine Test as Job Requirement

[tttppp]

In the town I live in the eating establishments in town don't permit smoking.........All around town new restaurants are springing up outside city limits that do permit smoking.

The ones in town are shutting their doors one-by-one....

I guess I would be about the only one going to the non-smoking restaurants. Do these smoking restaurants allow their employees to smoke while handling the food or customers?

[tttppp]

No. And as I said. Even though I smoked on the job didn't mean I did stupid stuff.
There is no problem with no smoking areas,, and that having designated smoking areas is a good idea for employers. However smoking off the job and on my own time is an issue.

Companies should have the right to choose whatever they want, however if I was running a company, smoking, drinking, or whatever should be done on employees own time, not on company time.

[tttppp]

It's not discrimination when it's based on productivity. When a smoker out-performs 4 non-smokers, then you fire the four non-smokers. $$$$$ makes right.

Of course its based on productivity. As I stated before, one of my best employees was a smoker and I tried to get him promoted. But that was solely based on his performance.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a company choosing only to hire non-smokers. If non-smokers are statistically better performing, the odds of getting a good employee are better with non-smokers.

[Anti Federalist]

This is never the reason. It's almost always the insurance lobby. Seatbelts, air bags, helmet laws, smoking bans, anti-gun laws..etc. If some insurance company actuary says changing a certain behavior will save them 0.000002% in claims paid the lobbyists go to work. What's even more $#@!ed up is a most of the time we end up paying for all these new regulations in the form of higher prices on goods and services forced to comply.

Trust me, there are very few laws or regulations passed for our "own good", even if some do happen to improve our quality of life, most likely that was not their intent.

And there is the bottom line.

Truth.

/thread

[Anti Federalist]

You are living the nightmare this will become for everybody.

You will no longer be able to make a living or survive without complete, total and absolute compliance with any and all edicts and lifestyle demands that the government/corporate complex decides to place on you.

Step out of line just once, for any of what are now millions of reasons, and that's it, you're databased and blackballed forever.

I know people that have had a 40 year career end because some local town clerk finally got around to entering an arrest record from 1976 resulting from a barroom fight, into the "cloud".

Oh, and of course, you'll be subjected to 24/7 surveillance to ensure compliance, including within your home.

Well, I guess it just depends on the job.

I have background checks that are keeping me unemployed,, (and I don't know why)

It is another intrusion in my private life.

I suppose it just depends on what your personal dignity is worth. $$$?

[tod evans]

I guess I would be about the only one going to the non-smoking restaurants. Do these smoking restaurants allow their employees to smoke while handling the food or customers?

I've never seen an employee smoking while handling the food, and I've never seen an employee "handle a customer".

[Cabal]

Technically, employers have the right to require any sort of testing they want of their employees so long as it is all voluntary.

That being said, I don't think testing for nicotine (or even drugs for that matters) is all that productive. Not only does that reduce the asset pool which a temp agency might be able to employ (and thus broaden their clientele base, and make money off of); it also increases their losses to their bottom line.

[specsaregood]

I've never seen an employee smoking while handling the food, and I've never seen an employee "handle a customer".

Having worked in the food service industry, I can say with certainty that there is a lot of stuff that employees have done while handling the food that you have never seen.

[kcchiefs6465]

You are living the nightmare this will become for everybody.

Oh, and of course, you'll be subjected to 24/7 surveillance to ensure compliance, including within your home.

That is more of what I was getting at. I understand that employers should have the right to ask specific, relevant questions that pertain to the job but this is an invasion of privacy to say the least. I also understand that it is my choice/right, not to work/be associated with said company.. I just see the signs too clearly.. first a minor encroachment.. many people stand idly by because it doesn't necessarily affect them.. at the moment. What happens when every job has the requirement of a nicotine test? Maybe next it will be a blood pressure test.. for insurance purposes. I wonder if everyone will be so complacent then.

[driller80545]

the anti smoking Nazis are still wallowing in their self righteousness.

[tttppp]

I've never seen an employee smoking while handling the food, and I've never seen an employee "handle a customer".

My guess is that people wouldn't be rushing to these restaurants if employees were smoking while handling the food.

[tttppp]

Having worked in the food service industry, I can say with certainty that there is a lot of stuff that employees have done while handling the food that you have never seen.

Do you have any stories you'd like to share?

[pcosmar]

Do you have any stories you'd like to share?

The only time I can think you would get a cigarette butt in the food is if you piss off the wait staff.
But I have had places to smoke while I was cooking. Usually nearby,, But I don't flick my ashes in the food.

[Anti Federalist]

I wonder if everyone will be so complacent then.

Sure they will.

Docile, compliant, complacency and dull witted apathy are hallmarks of the American populace in the brave new world of 2012.

[otherone]

Sure they will.