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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!rcj
From: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Re: Drugs in America  --  GRRRRRR!!!!!!
Message-ID: <1023@burl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Feb-86 14:03:01 EST
Article-I.D.: burl.1023
Posted: Tue Feb 11 14:03:01 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Feb-86 07:55:56 EST
References: <401@ncr-sd.UUCP> <33100006@uiucuxc> <970@whuxl.UUCP>
Reply-To: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Burlington NC
Lines: 61
Summary: 

In article <970@whuxl.UUCP> stup@whuxl.UUCP (Raggedy-Ann @ Dollhouse) writes:
>    Employers DO like to know if employees are taking controlled
>Rx drugs because, yes, they can affect work performance. Pain killers
>such as codeine and Darvan can make one drowsy. Even antihistimines and
>cough suppressents can do that. Some bosses even want to know when one
>of his/her employees take aspirin! Some Rx drugs can and do affect
>one's personality. But, not to hire someone in these cases would be
>discrimination, I guess.
>-- 
*** FLAME ON ***
Perhaps they'd also like to know when you're on your period because that
can also affect your job performance.  Or maybe they want to know when
I have a fight with my girlfriend because that can affect my job performance.
Surely they'd want to know if I ate lots of spicy Mexican food at lunch;
particularly if it caused me to take Rolaids *gasp* _on_the_job_!!!

I am reminded of an excerpt from Townsend's great book,
_Further_Up_The_Organization_, in which he tells the story of working at
American Express in the late 50s and early 60s, and one of his top
investment counselors came to him with a request for one of the new
calculators, then about $600.  Townsend forwarded the request to
purchasing, who told him that it wasn't in his projected budget for that
fiscal year.  He informed them that he had made out the budget in October,
and that this was now March, and he needed the calculator.  They refused.
Townsend then whipped out his ever-ready resignation and asked the
purchasing weenie to sign it.  "I can't sign your resignation, I'm not
your boss!"  Townsend then said, "Sign it anyway; because when I walk into
the president's office and give him my resignation over this calculator
problem, and he asks me who wouldn't get it for me, I want to give him
your name."  Townsend's man got his calculator.

Townsend said that the point behind the story was that here the company
had a guy whom they trusted to invest literally tens of millions of
dollars on a day-to-day basis, yet they didn't want to buy him a $600
calculator that would have payed for itself in the first 3 minutes
of use.  Now, is anyone seriously going to advocate entrusting a new
employee with all the responsibility that is commensurate with his/her
new position, but lacking trust in them enough to demand drug tests?

I can see it now:  Dennis Ritchie (author of the C language and numerous
other goodies) decides to leave Bell Labs for a new company:

Personnel:  "I'm sorry, Mr. Ritchie, but we cannot hire you."
Dennis:     "But why?  Am I not qualified?  Am I asking too much money?"
Personnel:  "No, none of those are problems.  We found traces of
             antihistimines in your bloodstream."
Dennis (in tears): "It was a last binge to celebrate the new job here!
             It won't happen again, I swear!"
Personnel (closing folder and motioning to the security guard): "I'm sorry,
             Mr. Ritchie, we can't have your kind here at INC, Inc."

[The above in no way implies that Dennis Ritchie agrees with what I am
 saying, likes me, or even knows who I am.]

For those of you who missed INC, Inc. in the movie "Head Office", you
missed a good one.
-- 

The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291)
alias: Curtis Jackson	...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj
			...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!rcj