fire or not to fire

[swampduc]

xanax is a medication used to treat anxiety disorders.

Do you have health insurance for your employees?

If he had a health card his prescriptions would be $10 a refill and he would be buying his meds from the street.


Eating them like candy is a relative term; he could be taking them as he needs them.

If someone's taking xanax frequently, then it's not the best drug to treat their anxiety. There are much better choices  that don't have the high dependence potential. Knowingly allowing him to operate a vehicle or heavy equipment is not a good idea.
I'd say a UA is the way to go. If you want to give him advance warning, I guess that'd be ok. It'll probably take a week or more to get xanax out of his system, especially if he's taking a lot.

[DucLeone]

the xanax is what i/we know of
how about other med he takes and i don't know,like painkiller and other shit he gets his hands on.
our small town is full of med dealers so it's fairly easy for him to obtain cheap.

this be his second run with me, about 3yrs ago he got pulled over in his car not on my clock and they foud a roach in his car(of course he claimed it wasn't his), they took his licence for a year and was on probation and everything was great.
and now we are back to square 1

i think a will have a talk to my insurance agent in the morning and see about a letter about testing,
get the other 3 drivers as well into the testing so he wont be singeled out and turn on me for discrimination(not that he could afford a lawyer ) but you never know.

[CapnCrunch]

it's finals time around most colleges... could be he's jacking a little something to stay awake and study. give it till after new years and see if he levels off

[R2]

Would you fire him if he came to you and told you he was using drugs? What's your company policy dealing with that?
I've worked several places where if you tell them you have a drug problem they won't fire you, but you have to get treatment. Once they tell you to go in for a test, its too late.

The reason I ask is because I was thinking maybe you could have an end of the year safety meeting "for insurance purposes" with all the employees and go over things like driving safety, harassment, and your drug policy. Then if drug testing came up at the beginning of the new year it might not seem so odd, and you would have given him/them a chance to come clean first.

You should definitely talk to the insurance company about legality of testing only a few people. The companies I've worked for have either had random drug tests for everyone in the company (any day of the year) or if you got injured, had an accident or were promoted you had to get tested. A friends employer had the entire staff go in one day. I haven't heard of just a few employees going in or of just one group (drivers only) getting tested.

[pintsizejesus]

My brother used to have a problem with Xanex.  I could tell if he had been taking Xanax because it was like he became retarded, he would be slow, tired, and had no reflexes and slurred his speech.  If this guy is taking Xanex and driving I would be pretty scared and if he hurt someone and he is taking Xanex without a prescription you'd be boned.  If it's prescibed by a doctor then I guess you would need to determine if he is a risk at your work to other people.  Also since he is 27 he will either have to check into rehab himself or have it court ordered so you can't do much there but talk to him.  Also at my work when I signed on I basically gave away my rights ha, they can test me at anytime if I'm correct so you may want to check into that.  Also this is off my experiences only so if I'm wrong about something please correct me and my brother was an extreme case with Xanex but if this guy gets to that point than you will most likely know what it is.

[lauramonster]

Great idea on the end of the year talk.  Maybe you could talk to them about the new policies for 2009, give them each a policy, and they sign it.  Hopefully he'll turn around and clean up his act.  Drug testing could be done if you see no change in his behavior.  a drugged employee is a going to get in an accident ( vehicle, or injuring himself or others by not paying attention while around your shop).  Why should you take the risk.

Be a good employer/friend.  State the policy and give him a chance.  Then follow up with the tests.

best of luck!

[Desmostro]

Delivering food... 7 years?  hmmm. Career?

Firing him might be better for him than you. Who you going to get next? Another one like him, but an unknown maybe?

For some reason this quote from the 'tour de france' comes to mind. "Great riders don't come to the tour, the tour makes greats riders"
Without knowing your business, is there more responsibility you can give him? Make him step up to the plate. Give him something more important to do like he's actually moving up in the world. He's your investment. If there is something there, it might make sense. Put a carrot in front of him. 

2 things make people miserable IMHO:
1) Never being able to get what you want/ not moving powerlessness.
2) Getting everything you ever wanted and plateauing.

Its all about the chase. Choose some problems for him. He'll forget the other ones hopefully.

[Holden]

Just link him to this thread. Problem solved.

[Porsche Monkey]

Great idea on the end of the year talk.  Maybe you could talk to them about the new policies for 2009, give them each a policy, and they sign it.  Hopefully he'll turn around and clean up his act.  Drug testing could be done if you see no change in his behavior.  a drugged employee is a going to get in an accident ( vehicle, or injuring himself or others by not paying attention while around your shop).  Why should you take the risk.

Be a good employer/friend.  State the policy and give him a chance.  Then follow up with the tests.

best of luck!

+eleventy billion

[sbrguy]

he's a huge liability for you driving around in your (or your company) truck.  And this thread shows you know or should know about the problem.   you have to do something asap before he does something stupid while in his capacity of employee and drags you and everything you've worked for down with I'm.

that is what insurance is for, that is why you pay it. 

you have to keep the insurance companies in business, only by filing claims are insurance companies kept honest.

[sbrguy]

Delivering food... 7 years?  hmmm. Career?

Firing him might be better for him than you. Who you going to get next? Another one like him, but an unknown maybe?

For some reason this quote from the 'tour de france' comes to mind. "Great riders don't come to the tour, the tour makes greats riders"
Without knowing your business, is there more responsibility you can give him? Make him step up to the plate. Give him something more important to do like he's actually moving up in the world. He's your investment. If there is something there, it might make sense. Put a carrot in front of him. 

2 things make people miserable IMHO:
1) Never being able to get what you want/ not moving powerlessness.
2) Getting everything you ever wanted and plateauing.

Its all about the chase. Choose some problems for him. He'll forget the other ones hopefully.

is that quote from the tour organizers? if so its a bit biased, of course the toru will say the great riders are mde there and not the otehr way around, what are they supposed to say? if the good riders dont' come the tour is no good? of course not.

i say fire the guy on suspicion without any hard proof at all.

that way if the guy is smart he might, hire an attorney who can prove he hasn't been doing any illegal drugs, has been taking dr required medication and can sue to for unlawful dismissal and with any luck will own your business and your house by the end of next year.

or you can give him a job you know he can't do, you will then have a "legitimate reason" to fire him,  then fire him based on incompetance and be done with it.  simple as that.  the good thing is that you can have a clear concience bc you fired him for not doing his job, he won't  have a drug incident on his record/resume but instead will just tell everyone how much of an a$$hole boss you are.  But that doesnt' really amount to anything, nobody likes their boss after they are fired, so in the end its a wash.

see simple solution to a problem.

[cyrus buelton]

Wouldn't you need a pretty specialized drug test to detect Alprazolam?

[swampduc]

Wouldn't you need a pretty specialized drug test to detect Alprazolam?

Nope, standard benzodiazepine screen would get anything in that class: Xanax, Ativan, Valium, etc.
It's a routine part of a drug panel.

[Oldfisti]

or you can give him a job you know he can't do, you will then have a "legitimate reason" to fire him,  then fire him based on incompetance and be done with it.  simple as that.  the good thing is that you can have a clear concience bc you fired him for not doing his job, he won't  have a drug incident on his record/resume but instead will just tell everyone how much of an a$$hole boss you are.  But that doesnt' really amount to anything, nobody likes their boss after they are fired, so in the end its a wash.

see simple solution to a problem.

If I were to purposely set one of my employees up for failure, then fire them for incompetence I sure as hell would not have a clear concience! That's very deceptive and a pregnant dog move IMO. In almost 20 years of business honesty and tact have been my best ally. The few unfortunate times I had to let people go they knew exactly why and had a chance to get their shit together long before it came down to it. No surprises/hard feelings by that point.

[Langanobob]

Another vote for arranging a drug test.  I'm not sure of the exact rules but from my experience at places I've worked, you are told to take the drug test, but if you voluntarily admit first before taking the test that  you have a problem, the company arranges for rehab.   If you take the test and it comes out positive, you're outa there.  I think the places I've worked at with such a policy also have it in writing up front so everyone knows where they stand.

Also, if he's abusing  his company vehicle privilege, then that policy also needs to be in writing and he needs to be formally told what the rules are.  Not fun, but all part of being the boss.

In my experience the drug test system works.  I don't even like drugs but occasionally at friend's parties, I have the opportunity but knowing that I might face a surprise drug test at work keeps me away from it.

I have mixed feelings about having a heart to heart talk with him.  If he's playing with a full deck and sincere, then fine.  If not, it seems to just make things worse.

This is a difficult situation, but if the guy really does have a problem, you aren't doing him any good either by allowing him to continue.  Seems like we have to hit bottom before making fundamental changes in our lives, and some make them, and some don't no matter how much trouble it causes them or how many rehab programs they go to.