Comstock's magazine 1217 - December 2017 | Page 30

n EVIL HR LADY
DILEMMA OF THE MONTH
Drug Testing New Hires
by Suzanne Lucas
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN CHASE
W
e drug test new hires at my company.
When a potential employee’s test comes
back positive it's easy enough to rescind
the offer, but we had a candidate have a test returned
"negative but diluted" and we rescinded the offer.
The candidate had already given two weeks' notice
at his current company and they won't take him
back. Did we do the right thing?
A
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comstocksmag.com | December 201 7
NO, YOU DIDN’T.
Sorry to be blunt. I’m not a huge fan
of drug testing for jobs that don’t involve
safety issues — like driving a vehicle or
working with chemicals. I don’t know
what this job is, though, and I also know
that drug testing is extremely common,
so that’s not the source of my complaint.
I am going to complain about withdraw-
ing an of fer because of a “negative but
diluted” sample.
There are two reasons a diluted
sample happens: One is that the per-
son knows he has drugs in his system so
he drinks and drinks and drinks in the
hopes he can wash it all out. The other is
that the person is afraid he won’t be able
to pee on command so he drinks and
drinks and drinks. The result is the same
— a very watered down pee sample.
It’s certainly possible to be a drug
user and pass on a negative-diluted
sample, so you are right to be cautious,
but you don’t want to lose a great candi-
date who was well-hydrated because of
such a test.