Impaired mechanics?

[2ndGearRubber]

On the railroad industry, the random testing doesn't trap many these days. Alcohol at least where I was working is usually not the substance that shows up on random testing, it is usually a painkiller or "recreational mary-jane" but hot is hot and out of service you go. The only mandatory testing we have is when someone gets hurts, strikes a car or pedestrian, puts an engine or car on the ground or runs thru a switch or signal.

I worked with a bunch of pre-85 guys that were about my age who had great stories from the days of 5 man train crews, including the junior guy on the job who had to get the 2 cases of beer and an 8-ball before they departed the terminal for the trip they were taking. A gentleman by the name of Ricky Gates put an end to all of that when a light engine move ran a signal and crashed into an Amtrak train.

I won't mention the cities but rumor has it that there are a few rail cars that were being kicked (a switching move that speeds things up) and went off the end of the rails into the harbors of a few cities...no computer tracking of rail cars in those days, all paper.

I think a lot of people don't realize that drug testing is mostly just pot testing. And to catch active addicts of other drugs.

You can snort coke all night on Friday and piss clean Monday. Most things are out of your system in 72 hours. THC is not water soluable IIRC which is the reason for this, you cannot break it down an flush it out effectively via urine. It stays trapped in fat cells and is removed over a much longer time which is why it will show up for 2-4 weeks.

 

[Paycheck]

I think that Canada has it right. They stop 10 hours before their shift…

They are not allowed during their shift.

Even the military in Canada is allowed… as long as they stop 10 hours before their shift.

I think airline pilots have similar rules.

No smoking within 8 hours of flight, no drinking within 50’ of an airplane. Or something like that.

 

[BarrelRoll]

You have to pass a breathalyzer before getting on the crew boat out to the mine. You can fail 4 or 5 times a year before they fire you. People have lost $100-150k a year jobs because they've failed it that many times. Half of our workforce goes through the guard shack 12 times a year.

 

[CS454]

I think a lot of people don't realize that drug testing is mostly just pot testing. And to catch active addicts of other drugs.

You can snort coke all night on Friday and piss clean Monday. Most things are out of your system in 72 hours. THC is not water soluable IIRC which is the reason for this, you cannot break it down an flush it out effectively via urine. It stays trapped in fat cells and is removed over a much longer time which is why it will show up for 2-4 weeks.

Company conniptions over weed use is stupid. Watched a manager lose their complete anthology of **** when someone mentioned grabbing pre-rolls for the weekend.

All the while, other coworker was covering his ears, hungover.

 

[ecotec]

Company conniptions over weed use is stupid. Watched a manager lose their complete anthology of **** when someone mentioned grabbing pre-rolls for the weekend.

All the while, other coworker was covering his ears, hungover.

I would like the labor shortage to get so bad that the manager would get laid off before a good worker 90% of the time.

If the lunatics are not running the asylum… the labor shortage is not bad enough.

 

[bwringer]

I think a lot of people don't realize that drug testing is mostly just pot testing. And to catch active addicts of other drugs.

You can snort coke all night on Friday and piss clean Monday. Most things are out of your system in 72 hours. THC is not water soluable IIRC which is the reason for this, you cannot break it down an flush it out effectively via urine. It stays trapped in fat cells and is removed over a much longer time which is why it will show up for 2-4 weeks.

Agreed on all counts. It's reefer madness, mostly.

And here's a hint... the ol' whiz quiz is not what you'd call by any stretch a 100% extremely reliable scientific test, and evidence/custody practices are usually ridiculously sloppy. It's more than a little terrifying that so many organizations will make life-changing pesonnel decisions without doing a second, more reliable test. Sure, many do have such processes, but many do not.

 

[bobg03]

You can snort coke all night on Friday and piss clean Monday. Most things are out of your system in 72 hours. THC is not water soluable IIRC which is the reason for this, you cannot break it down an flush it out effectively via urine. It stays trapped in fat cells and is removed over a much longer time which is why it will show up for 2-4 weeks.

The Class 1 railroads aren't bashful about taking a hair sample along with the pee test...especially if you hit a vehicle or person or put the train or any component of it, on the ground.
That gives them plenty of backtime to see if you've been bad.

 

[Milton Shaw]

I worked with a guy whose wife didn't know he was a drunk, till he came home sober one night.

 

[CGarage]

No smoking within 8 hours of flight, no drinking within 50’ of an airplane. Or something like that.

Since Canada was brought up…..

On a flight last year from Houston to Calgary, they wanted me to wear a face mask from Texas to Canada, since face masks were still a requirement in Canada.

I asked the flight attendant:

“Ma’am, since when did good ol’ Justin Trudeau control U.S. airspace”?

Enough said. I was mask free until we crossed the Canada line.

 

[LOW1]

An oral surgeon who gave me an implant for a tooth just started a two year prison sentence for using patients’ pain relievers. Addictions are devastating.

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

Widely known just one line of meth makes any idiot a skilled mechanic, electrician, carpenter, and engineer.

 

[tool_scrounge]

From the title I thought you were talking about mechanics with bad shoulders or back. I was shaking my head that in this case ”impaired” would describe every older mechanic I know.

 

[ZRX61]

It's not too bad among mechanics, other occupations are far worse. Roofers are renowned meth heads.

If you want to meet raging alkies, check out air traffic controllers. They're either working or absolutely hammered.

 

[NYBODYMAN]

Having worked in several body shops throughout the late 90's-mid 2000's, I can tell you I worked with all walks of life....Drunks, drug addicts, dead beat dads, felons, people with warrants, guys hiding from the cops for other reasons. The trades attract these types of people unfortunately. They generally work cheap and don't ask for much but they are a detriment to a working shop. It's sad because many of them are talented at their craft but life has caught up with them. since I was 18 years old when I started, I definitely came in hung over on more than one occasion but I never was an issue. I would say more of the guys I worked with were high on marijuana than being drunk.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

Having worked in several body shops throughout the late 90's-mid 2000's, I can tell you I worked with all walks of life....Drunks, drug addicts, dead beat dads, felons, people with warrants, guys hiding from the cops for other reasons. The trades attract these types of people unfortunately. They generally work cheap and don't ask for much but they are a detriment to a working shop. It's sad because many of them are talented at their craft but life has caught up with them. since I was 18 years old when I started, I definitely came in hung over on more than one occasion but I never was an issue. I would say more of the guys I worked with were high on marijuana than being drunk.

That's the side of this many don't consider.

Pot smoker gets hurt in the job? Sure ain't works comp claim. That means they'll drug test your and you're fired. Pot smoker can't pass the new hire test, or threat of a test. So wages stay low. Gives the business a ton of leverage.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Drinking and drugs used to be rampant where I worked. More than once you'd have a guy come in still stumbling from his all night bender, and we'd put him in the bed of one of the work trucks (out of sight, out of mind) until he got his head straight. There was always a baggie hidden on the trucks, and the ******** tweakers had a code - if they told you "the boss is calling you on the radio" it meant they had set up lines under a newspaper on the dash... I didn't know this (being a recovering methhead), and went to the truck and called my boss (who was at some conference in LA), HIS boss (old, ********, and a drinker) wanted to know WTF I was calling Neil when everyone knew he was in LA. The crew tweaker had a snitfit when I asked them WTF...

Then we got (over the protests of the Union and employees like that) random drug testing, and we had a real so and so as our "drug czar"... add to the above resident tweaker (who tried literally EVERY trick in the book to defraud the dope tests) and I learned more about drugs and the lengths people would go to to keep getting ripped on the job instead of just getting smart... (One that stands out sharply was the "Whizzinator Mark 3" which had a bag that was filled with their patented fake urine, stored where the sun don't shine, and a tube attached to "Mr. Johnson" to make it look like you were peeing, and had a pinch valve to control the flow. Intead of just not getting lit up at work)

What fun times... we DID get rid of a lot of the drug culture, and equipment stopped getting wrecked, but yeah, those were the wild days.

 

[CS454]

Having worked in several body shops throughout the late 90's-mid 2000's, I can tell you I worked with all walks of life....Drunks, drug addicts, dead beat dads, felons, people with warrants, guys hiding from the cops for other reasons. The trades attract these types of people unfortunately. They generally work cheap and don't ask for much but they are a detriment to a working shop. It's sad because many of them are talented at their craft but life has caught up with them. since I was 18 years old when I started, I definitely came in hung over on more than one occasion but I never was an issue. I would say more of the guys I worked with were high on marijuana than being drunk.

Trucking is like this. One place I worked cops showed up looking for a known alcoholic, turns out he had bought an RV from someone else on the floor on good faith. Guy was sleeping in a by the week rated motel up the road. Well, he never paid for said RV and left the guy a rusted out box full of cheap tools.

He had cut off his ankle monitor and went off grid.

 

[rancherbill]

I'd say they are above average. I know several alcoholics and they talk about the drinking culture in the profession.