Colorado businessman blames 'stoned' workers for move to SC

[aGameOfThrones]

When workers at his Colorado business went to pot, Mark Brawner said it was enough for him to roll out of the Rockies and head for South Carolina.

Brawner, who ran Little Spider Creations out of an old Denver warehouse for years until this month, told KUSA-TV Thursday he moved because pot was hurting his company. He said employees started to come to work stoned after the state legalized the drug for recreational use in 2012.

“The main reason we pulled out was because of marijuana,” Brawner said. “Marijuana got into our industry. Half the sculptors will come in high. As soon as we’d catch it, they’d be let go. We went through 25 sculptors. Only five of (our sculptors) either were quality or would show up unimpaired.”

But Brawner told FoxNews.com Friday his comments got “twisted out of proportion,” although he did not deny relocating to the Myrtle Beach area, where smoking pot is still illegal.

“They had an agenda. They got what they wanted and not what they heard,” he said.

A call to KUSA news director Christy Moreno was not immediately returned.

Little Spider has built Halloween-like props for Six Flags amusement parks, the Dollywood Theme Park in Tennessee, and other haunted house entertainment venues.

The company's a new home is a spacious facility in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. The local Chamber of Commerce lured Brawner to move with a $25,000 grant. In exchange Brawner pledged to create 35 jobs and to make a $2.65 million investment in his business. In Colorado, Little Spider employed 47 sculptors, artists and animators.

The Myrtle Beach Sun News reported that back in Colorado, Brawner had been dealing with a “nasty” local government regulator and too many stoned workers. Those problems made his wife’s entreaties to move more appealing.

Now Brawner would like to take back remarks he made to KUSA like this one:

“A painter doesn’t do production as quick as we want. If you build a house you can build a house to the plans. When we’re asking you to sculpt a giant dinosaur, and it has to have personality and stuff, when you’re high you can’t see it. Your whole body says its good enough, when it’s not. The quality suffers.”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/24...firm-to-south/

[thoughtomator]

doubt you could find 25 non-pot-smoking sculptors across the entire US

[AuH20]

Not cool when people take their hobbies to work.

[Scrapmo]

Because people on drugs have never produced good works of art or music.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Maybe Brawner's employees should switch to alcohol:

Drinking On The Job? Please Do, Say These Employers

April 17, 2012
By ALAN FARNHAM via Good Morning America


Drinking on the job? Some employers say they're fine with that. In fact, some will even buy the booze, on the theory that a little tippling makes for a happier employee—and maybe, too, as a new study suggests, a more creative one.

*

Though a variety of companies today serve alcohol to employees, it's still ad agencies who hold highest the gin-soaked torch. The ranks of liquor-serving firms have recently included J. Walter Thompson, BBDO, TBWA/Chiat/Day, Grey, and Mindshare.

*

Plus, a drink or two has been known to aid the creative process. "Say there's a group of employees standing around chatting," says Bloom of the Trolleys. "They're just having fun, having a couple of beers together. It's a social occasion. They may not set out to solve a problem. But somebody comes up with an idea, and somebody else builds on that." Result: Problem solved.


http://abcnews.go.com/Business/drink...ry?id=16150294

[Scrapmo]

Hemingway, Faulkner, Joyce, Fitzgerald all wrote sloshed.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Half the sculptors will come in high. As soon as we’d catch it, they’d be let go. We went through 25 sculptors. Only five of (our sculptors) either were quality or would show up unimpaired.”

So he's blaming dope when he just acknowledged that some of his workers were just low quality. The guy actually sounds like a piss poor manager looking for an excuse.

Same thing with drug testing. Most people are not high on the job. Instead of outsourcing management functions to drug testing labs, these incompetent managers should learn how to manage. If you're too socially deformed to interact with your own staff, then maybe management isn't for you.

[Sola_Fide]

I wouldn't be able to exist as a business if I drug tested my employees. As long as it doesn't affect my profits or reviews, I don't care.

[dannno]

Not cool when people take their hobbies to work.

Ya all those coffee aficionados at my work piss me off.

Or were you talking about making spider sculptures? lol..

How about you judge your employees on PERFORMANCE rather than what you think about cannabis?

A Colorado business group told the station Little Spider’s departure is the first they heard of a company leaving the state because of legalized marijuana.

From http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post5853019

[puppetmaster]

I don't have a problem with any of this. It is what can happen in a free society

[specsaregood]

/.

[Sola_Fide]

I don't have a problem with any of this. It is what can happen in a free society

True. As an employer myself, I want the control to be able to manage this kind of occurrence as I see fit. As of now, I don't drug test my employees and see no need to.

[dannno]

True. As an employer myself, I want the control to be able to manage this kind of occurrence as I see fit. As of now, I don't drug test my employees and see no need to.

If I had a business making spider sculptures, I would drug test all of the applicants and the one with the highest THC % automatically wins teh job.

[AuH20]

Ya all those coffee aficionados at my work piss me off.

Or were you talking about making spider sculptures? lol..

How about you judge your employees on PERFORMANCE rather than what you think about cannabis?



From http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post5853019

Did you read what he stated? Sounds like they could have used a stimulant like Cocaine. LOL

“A painter doesn’t do production as quick as we want. If you build a house you can build a house to the plans. When we’re asking you to sculpt a giant dinosaur, and it has to have personality and stuff, when you’re high you can’t see it. Your whole body says its good enough, when it’s not. The quality suffers.”

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

True. As an employer myself, I want the control to be able to manage this kind of occurrence as I see fit. As of now, I don't drug test my employees and see no need to.

You said you work for a chain. That means you're not an "employer." It's also not up to you to drug test the employees.

But keep sending me unsolicited neg reps with retarded comments. Keep embellishing your second shift job behind the check-in desk.

You're so much cooler online.

[puppetmaster]

If I had a business making spider sculptures, I would drug test all of the applicants and the one with the highest THC % automatically wins teh job.

and I don't have a problem with that either.....I am so easy.

[luctor-et-emergo]

Damn, that businessman should smoke a joint and chill out. Just fire the ones that show up too late or don't do their work correctly.

[tod evans]

Damn, that businessman should smoke a joint and chill out. Just fire the ones that show up too late or don't do their work correctly.

Mr. Businessman wants 'em to go faster, here's a quote from the article;

A painter doesn’t do production as quick as we want

[pcosmar]

I got news for this guy, his employees were stoned before it was legal as well.

I suspect so.

[osan]

doubt you could find 25 non-pot-smoking sculptors across the entire US

The question is not whether you smoke dope, but if you come to work impaired. I'd fire your ass in well under a second if I found you came stoned to the job for which I'm paying you. Unless I've hired you to be stoned, I don't want you stoned at MY business doing the work for which you are getting paid.

I wonder whether a contractual stipulation of employment would fly where the employee agrees to pay the sum of $25K if he tests positive for drugs or alcohol on the job. I don't know if tests other than for alcohol can determine levels of saturation, but if so... Employee puts up his home as collateral, or something else of sufficient value. After all, coming to work stoned after a promise not to could be construed as fraud... ir would they claim they didn't know they were high?

If you're on the up-and-up, you confine your stonery to the weekends and other such times where you are able to arrive at work without being toasted. This is really not a difficult thing to do if you are a responsible and trustworthy adult in command of himself. I would think that such people would have no trouble to such agreements because they know they will not be violating the terms and conditions of their employment. Anyone else... I say "screw'em". If you cannot be trusted to the door to keep your word on so simple and clear a requirement that you not come to work wasted, then you deserve every bad turn that comes your way, including your employer's foreclosure on the lien he holds on your property. Sometimes, stupid really is as stupid does.

[osan]

Maybe Brawner's employees should switch to alcohol:

In college I worked at an architectural cabinet shop building carcasses for numbingly expensive custom furnishings.

With the exception of myself and the owner, everyone in the shop drank all day long, albeit very lightly, probably nursing 2-3 beers over 8 hours.

One day, one of the guys decided he was going to quit drinking. That morning, he ran the veneer blade on the table saw up the middle of his right index finger to the second knuckle. It was so clean, the doctor simply splinted and taped everything together. In six months and with a little physical therapy, he was back on the job, beer in hand.

In case you are not familiar, a veneer blade is meant for cutting thin wood veneers, is about 6-8" in diameter, has several hundreds of carbide teeth, and cuts a kerf not more than 1/32" wide. It was almost like running a razor through his finger. There was almost zero loss of actual flesh and bone.

[Slave Mentality]

Too much ignorance about weed in here. That is all.

[juleswin]

I wonder how many people here who are not already weed users will go to pot if it was legalized tomorrow? My guess is that it would be lower than the number of people who already smoke cigarettes which is less than 20%.

Its more likely that his workers were already weed users before this and he didn't know it.

[osan]

So he's blaming dope when he just acknowledged that some of his workers were just low quality. The guy actually sounds like a piss poor manager looking for an excuse.

Same thing with drug testing. Most people are not high on the job. Instead of outsourcing management functions to drug testing labs, these incompetent managers should learn how to manage. If you're too socially deformed to interact with your own staff, then maybe management isn't for you.

For a liberty-espousing sort, you surely have had something of a brain fart here.

The owner is free to demand nobody come to work high and I fully support his position, if for no other reason than the liability exposure it presents.

Imagine his stoned employee, while operating some potentially dangerous equipment, kills or maims another employee or even a customer. If the insurance company gets wind that he knowingly allowed an impaired worked to set foot on the premises, much less operate dangerous equipment, the business will not be long for the world. On top of that, it is not inconceivable that the local prosecutor would become involved.

Forgive me, but you might benefit from a broader and more circumspect view of things in the world. It's not always about the personal feelings either you hold or that held in this case by the employer. In a world where everyone is in everyone else's business, one cannot always afford to let his employees show up in whatever condition they may happen. I would add that such employees show nothing but contemptuous disregard for their fellows, which is typical of the self-absorbed drug user, believing they are entitled to show up to their jobs in no condition to do right and proper work.

That all aside, the employer is well within his right not to want stoned employees wandering about. It is his opinion that such people produce sub-par work and his is the only one that counts. You may not agree - even I might not. Too bad. His house; his rules.

Freedom cuts all ways, even when we do not like the result.

[Working Poor]

Not to worry there are plenty of stoners in Myrtle Beach.

[juleswin]

For a liberty-espousing sort, you surely have had something of a brain fart here.

The owner is free to demand nobody come to work high and I fully support his position, if for no other reason than the liability exposure it presents.

Freedom cuts all ways, even when we do not like the result.

I think you are the one having a brain fart. No where in his post did he suggest that the business owner doesn't have the right to pack up and leave or even fire everybody for no good reason. He is just saying that he disagrees with his decision which he has every right to do in a free society.

Again, like you said, freedom cuts all ways. Do something people think is wrong and said people will come out to ridicule you on the internet. I know some people would prefer they shut up because they agree with the businessman's decision but sadly, "freedom cuts all ways"

[phill4paul]

I've known many who do work stoned and many who don't. Some excellent workers. Some not worth a damn and causing others to take up their slack. I respect an employers right to call the shots regarding recreational drug use at work. Alcohol, cigarettes and M.J. This, however, sounds like propaganda to me. The owner himself seems to verify...

But Brawner told FoxNews.com Friday his comments got “twisted out of proportion,” although he did not deny relocating to the Myrtle Beach area, where smoking pot is still illegal.

“They had an agenda. They got what they wanted and not what they heard,” he said.

Boogity-boogity.

Things that really influenced his move...

25,000 grant
Looks like many of his clients are east coast based.

dealing with a “nasty” local government regulator

[NoOneButPaul]

Total nonsense.

1st... I just moved to Denver two months ago and I've never seen a place with more booming economic activity. In Boulder almost every single business has a help wanted sign out front it's crazy. Legal weed has driven hundreds of thousands of new workers into the state and has been an economic boom.

Yes, there's a lot of people showing up high to work, but most employers don't seem to care as long as they work hard. I for one can't work high but many I know do it with no issues.

He's free to move his business wherever he wants but he's naive if he thinks his sculptors weren't high before 2012 and he's naive to think his sculptors will be any good sober :P and based on all of the new construction and low unemployment rates in the state I think it's safe to say this guy is the absolute exception.

[Kotin]

The question is not whether you smoke dope, but if you come to work impaired. I'd fire your ass in well under a second if I found you came stoned to the job for which I'm paying you. Unless I've hired you to be stoned, I don't want you stoned at MY business doing the work for which you are getting paid.

I wonder whether a contractual stipulation of employment would fly where the employee agrees to pay the sum of $25K if he tests positive for drugs or alcohol on the job. I don't know if tests other than for alcohol can determine levels of saturation, but if so... Employee puts up his home as collateral, or something else of sufficient value. After all, coming to work stoned after a promise not to could be construed as fraud... ir would they claim they didn't know they were high?

If you're on the up-and-up, you confine your stonery to the weekends and other such times where you are able to arrive at work without being toasted. This is really not a difficult thing to do if you are a responsible and trustworthy adult in command of himself. I would think that such people would have no trouble to such agreements because they know they will not be violating the terms and conditions of their employment. Anyone else... I say "screw'em". If you cannot be trusted to the door to keep your word on so simple and clear a requirement that you not come to work wasted, then you deserve every bad turn that comes your way, including your employer's foreclosure on the lien he holds on your property. Sometimes, stupid really is as stupid does.

I would just add that some people smoke so often that they have high tolerances and do not get "stoned" at all but merely loosen up a little..

[TheCount]

But keep sending me unsolicited neg reps with retarded comments.

Hilarious irony is hilarious.