Drug Testing In The Workplace Essay

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This paper will discuss not only the rights of the employee in the workplace, but also the company’s obligation to ensure a safe working environment. An employee has the right to privacy in the workplace. However, these rights are fewer at work than in their personal life. There is debate on what is moral, ethical, and legal in regards to monitoring the actions of an employee in the workplace by the employer. Is the use of a polygraph or drug test morally justified by the employer or is it a violating reach in the privacy of an employee? In the past, employers could ask a prospective or current employee to do a polygraph test, or lie detector test, to measure the person’s truthfulness in his statements. The polygraph measures responses of the person by tracking functions of the body such as perspiration, respiration, pulse, and blood pressure. Employers would ask extremely sensitive questions about family finances, …show more content…

It can be argued that drug testing is a waste of money and that not all users are abusers. Just as alcohol can be used responsibly, so can marijuana. The issue seems to be that the employer is familiar with alcohol, but the use of marijuana is an alien subject. Most employers don’t care if you drink alcohol on the weekend, the problem is if the employee is drinking on the job which puts themselves and others at risk. Therefore, if an employee is smoking or ingesting marijuana on the weekend, on their own private time, and not on company time, why should they be subjected to an invasion of their privacy. The problem with marijuana use is that the time it stays in the person’s system varies anywhere from ten to ninety days and it depends on how much, how often, and how long a person has been smoking. However, other factors must be assessed before concluding regarding drug

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