Is this true? Walmart Labs was sounding pretty good to me after reading the rest of this thread, but I would never work for a company that does drug testing. If anyone has the true story here I'd be interested to hear it.
I would gladly work at one. I have worked around people who did drugs with all the claims of how they were responsible. I will never subject myself to that again.
I did the piss test prior to my current employment and haven't in nearly twenty years since then. About the only chance it will happen is if you give clear signals your messed up.
Plus many industries are required by law to test. Considering the breadth of WalMart operations its likely they cross one of those laws and to avoid discrimination they test everyone.
Walmart do say on their hiring page that they require a drug test unless prohibited by state law[1]. I would assume it applies to their subsidiaries as well. It seems rather unnecessary. I can sort of understand it for jobs that require security clearance or where there's a risk factor (a friend of mine had to do one when he took a tech job at a bank). I don't quite see Walmart fitting into that category though.
I can confirm it was a request made when I was contacted regarding a position. I lost all interest at that point.
It's not about drugs (though that really shouldn't be a concern). It's about respect, privacy, and power relations.
There are companies which have mandated drug-testing policies by regulation (mostly involving transportation or pharmaceuticals). It's still a major chilling factor so far as I'm concerned.
> but I would never work for a company that does drug testing.
I wouldn't drug test employees, but I can understand why some companies might be compelled to do so. I have friends who smoke pot recreationally, and they're fine. I have also had friends/coworkers who became genuinely addicted to drugs, and very consistently they ended up as ticking time bombs for their employers. Things didn't end poorly, they ended disastrously. I know that's not always the case, and that it doesn't justify drug screening everyone, and that it's an unpopular opinion here. But I've seen enough that I know why some employers think it's worth it.
But you can use existing workplace protocols to deal with the drug users who are bad employees while also ignoring the drug users who are good employees.
I can also confirm that WalmartLabs does do drug tests after accepting the offer and before orientation. The fine print says they can also drug test you at any time after starting employment, however, I have yet to see this happen in practice after three years.
The problem with drugs tests is the test itself. Drug tests are very effective at finding thc metabolites (30+ days in some accounts) but rather bad at finding those for heroin, cocaine, ecstasy etc (1 - 4 days). So in reality its less of a 'drug test' and more of a pot test.
Glad they've got their priorities sorted out.