I see I’ve been beaten to the punch. Wonderful Boss-Man could request a random drug screen of offender (how is this illegal there? that doesn’t make sense to me for liability insurance issues). Is there any odd behavior AT WORK that could be drug related? Does he drive a company vehicle?
Is there any direct liability to the Boss/Company other than disappointment and shame?
Bad dilemma. I had such a relationship with my prior boss though that if things ever ended up with ME feeling bad or offended by someone else’s behavior or things I’d heard I’d tell him. I believe in talking out my feelings.
Amongst other things, people doubt how random the screenings are.
Kam, the guy is an idiot, but I’d be cautious. As for publicity, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. After all, it’s out of work. And crims work in all sorts of places. I don’t think it would be really big news or damaging to the business. And that’s posting as someone whose workplace was surveilled and raided by the Federal Police fairly recently. It’s so far caused amazing few ripples.
We ask ourselves how Random Drug Testing could possibly be legal in the US.
Basically, it says to me “We don’t trust you, and think you might be some kind of Dope Fiend”. (Disclaimer: I’ve never tried or partaken of any illegal drug in my life)
Your Employer doesn’t own you, and what you do in your own time is none of their bloody business, as long as it doesn’t affect your ability to do your job.
It’s not so much a liability insurance thing (although you can bet that if they introduce random drug testing, the lawsuits will fly thick and fast) as a civil liberties one- innocent until proven guilty, and demanding random drug tests presumes guilt… after all, they wouldn’t need to be testing people if they weren’t taking drugs, right?
For what it’s worth, some of us in the U.S. wonder the same thing. What the fuck happened to dignity and self-respect. The idea that an employer can make me go piss in a cup “just because” drives me up the wall and I’ve repeated let the powers that be know that any time it’s come up. Fortunately, the company where I work now only tests for cause, therefore there’s no cause for me to piss in a cup.
Do you have any type of managerial responsibility in the company? If so, your employer probably expects you to bring forward this type of issue. How would you react if your boss comes to you later (after the excrement-ventilator intersection) and asks if you knew anything? Flat out deny you knew? IF the boss finds out you lied about knowing, you’ll lose a lot of his respect and possibly your job.
I would recommend starting with DA. Tell him what you heard, see what he has to say. Tell DA you will set up a meeting with you two and the boss to address the problematic rumors. Then do it. Really, this puts the ball in DAs court to clean up his act and/or disappear.
If you have no managerial authority (you are “just” a burger flipper or whatever) the boss may be more forgiving if you fail to take this on. Still, the approach above should work if you want to put the issue to rest.
Do you believe this person’s activities could negatively affect the company you work for? If yes, then turn his ass in. Part of the “live and let live” philosophy is that the other person is not putting your career at risk. I care a whole lot more about my family’s financial security than the drug-dealing coworker who may cost me my job.
It’s not really AFAIK. However, it is not** IL**legal. In other words, with the exception of firing someone for their race, religion, etc, an Employer can fire just about anyone (contracts & tenure aside) for just about any reason. If they come by and say “here, pee in the bottle”, you can say “No, thank you” (contracts and certain law enforcement and other jobs aside). They then can fire you. They can fire you becuase it’s Tuesday, for that matter. On the other hand, an employee can resign for just about any reason, too. In many states, they can’t really “fire” you at will, but if they don’t have cause they can just “lay you off” which means you get Unemployment. You’re still gone.
In most companies where they do have random drug testing, you sign a contract allowing it. If you don’t agree to random drug testing, then you have every right not to sign that contract, whereupon the Employer has every right not to hire you.
Getting back to the OP, this is one of the few times where an Anon note to the Boss may be the best way to go.
From context, I can gather what “dob” means, but what do the letters stand for?
As for the OP question, I’d say unless you have unrefutable evidence (and not just what people are saying or even what the dumb-arse is disclosing), you shouldn’t say anything.
“Dob” is Aussie playground slang. And I agree with calm kiwi that kambuckta’s boss should be “less shielded from gossip”. I still reckon kambuckta should tell her boss there is talk going around about this guy. If things blow up and the boss is in the dark, it won’t be good. To quote the OP:
Well, if kambuckta hasn’t witnessed this herself, she should get the witnesses to front up to the boss with her.
A lot of workplaces do have clauses in their contacts that your private life has to be squeaky-clean of anything illegal, because eventually it does impact on the job and business.
Time, perhaps, for the hearsayers to put up, or shut up.
This is an excellent point, which I overlooked. Although if they are very junior staff, they may not be up to it. Still, an excellent chance for you to show that one can’t just run off at the mouth.
re: DrDeth’s post, yes, the US has both at-will employment and random drug testing. There isn’t any particular legal relationship between the two concepts, though, other than being examples of the US having fewer employee protections than some other countries. It would be legally feasible to have one without the other.
Thanks for your responses everyone, and the split in ‘what to do’ opnions here reflect my own mental sashaying, I’ve got to say. In other words, I’m still undecided.
FTR, I am semi-senior in the workplace rankings, and I believe there would be an expectation (from management) to report what I see/hear going on at work. It would be much more difficult for the junior staff to do so. At the moment, they’re just laughing their heads off about how dumb Mr DA would have to be to do something so *stupid. *
Also FTR, there have been times at work when Mr DA has come in obviously under the influence of something, as well as many unexplained absences. I don’t know if he has had to answer to anyone more senior about these events, and if he has, what the repercussions have been. He’s still got a job there, anyway.
We’re still trying to work out what possessed my ancestors to cross 12,000 miles of ocean in a sailing ship to live in New Zealand, which, at the time, was quite literally, about as far from the rest of the world as you could get.
Indeed, it seems the first members of our family arrived in New Zealand when it was still considered a good idea to carry a large-bore firearm lest you be accosted by errant Maori whilst going about your day to day business.
I wonder what they would have made of some of their descendants, two centuries later, moving to Australia?
Oh, and “Dob” isn’t an Acronym- it’s Aussie/Kiwi slang, and, loosely translated, means “To inform the Authorities of illegal or unethical activities”. It’s almost a synoym for “Nark”, which is English in origin (a “Nark” originally being a police informer).
Dobbing someone in basically means telling the authorities that so and so is doing something naughty- be it selling drugs at work, claiming Centrelink (Social Welfare) benefits they’re not entitled to, or plagiarising school/university papers.
It’s not considered “Australian” to dob in or nark on people, though, unless they’re doing something REALLY bad…
In my case it was some enterprising merchants who heard about the gold rush and figured that selling shovels and picks might be a profitable venture. There was also my maternal grandfather who was sent here as an unaccompanied minor (aged 12) to make his life in the new land, alone. Damn that must have been hard. I can’t imagine too many twelve year olds nowadays coping with that sort of life.
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Nowadays, at least in Australia, a Nark/c is a euphemism for a member of the Drug Squad (ala a Narcotics Policeperson), generally called out alarmingly when they are about to bust you, or used disparagingly (like: fucking narcs got me) when you have BEEN busted. A Dobber is somebody who *reports * you to the Narcs.
But you are right in that dobbing is seen as very poor form and quite un-Australian. It’s an unwritten code of course, but ‘dobbers’ are labelled and ostracised from the very earliest years of childhood. Dobbers also tend to get their noses punched in behind the shelter-sheds at recess, which makes them rather reluctant to continue their tattle-tale activities in the future. It’s quite a remarkable transformation for many of them.
I am STILL waiting, patiently, to give Jeff Shelton his just-desserts for dobbing me in to Mrs Whittaker for taking the reed from his clarinet prior to the school concert in 1971. I’ll get him eventually…bastard. He’ll cross my path one day, and it’ll be curtains for him, I swear.
I also don’t know whether you should “dob” or not.
But if you should choose to say something, you really don’t have to worry that it’s just hearsay or that you haven’t witnessed it yourself. Because you should simply report what you DO know–that people are saying that DA is dealing drugs in public.
As in “Hi boss. I just wanted to let you know about a rumor that’s been going around. All the junior woodchucks are going on and on about how DA is dealing drugs in public. I have no idea if it’s true, but I thought you’d like a heads-up.”
The boss can then choose to act on that information or not.
Assuming you’re saying they saw him doing that, then they have a duty to report him to the police right there and then next time it happens. If you’re a senior figure you could remind them of that when they mention it (I assume that’s how you know about this in the first place).
As you have not seen this there’s no good to come from you doing anything - if you mention it to management without substantiation then you’re the one in trouble. Should you see him do it, go ahead and ring Crimestoppers at that time, but not before.
In other words, I’m still undecided.
