# I took a breathalyzer and got fired even though I clinically passed (legal question) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406 "2015-03-19T18:28:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/61 "2015-03-20T16:55:36Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Countries with better labor laws aren’t any more tolerant of intoxicated workers in potentially dangerous manufacturing environments. Having a BAC of 0.02 is very, very far from intoxicated. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/62 "2015-03-20T17:00:57Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Any reason as long as it’s not because they are part of a protected class. I don’t think buzzed or hungover is a protected class in any state. Maybe Louisiana and possibly Las Vegas ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/63 "2015-03-20T17:02:07Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Worse yet, I seriously doubt you will be able to collect unemployment. By all means, make the attempt, but don’t be surprised if “any alcohol at all in system” is sufficient reason to deny you the UI. > > Find a new job. THIS is why he was tested. No unemployment for you. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/64 "2015-03-20T17:02:38Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Maybe Louisiana and possibly Las Vegas Protected classes are typically minorities. I think the sober people are the protected class there. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/65 "2015-03-20T17:08:59Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > Having a BAC of 0.02 is very, very far from intoxicated. But you can still be impaired. One 12 oz beer (5%) will put me at .02 and I can feel the effects. I would be unsafe driving or working machinery. Not so much standard situations but my reflexes are noticeably slowed and I would have a poor response to an emergency. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/66 "2015-03-20T17:11:49Z")
I really mean no offense, since I don’t know the OP at all. BUT, I suspect an employee in good standing with the powers that be would not have been taken to task quite so quickly. For that matter, I have always had the sort of relationship with my coworkers where they would’ve told ME “you stink, dude. Go home sick before the boss finds out” I suspect that the rapid progression of events tells a tale in itself. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/67 "2015-03-20T17:17:57Z")
If I lost my job every time I came in to work hungover . . . ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/68 "2015-03-20T17:17:58Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I’d recommend firing anyone who came in “hungover”. It’s bad all around and no good can come of it. At the next job, call in sick when you are hungover. > [@MrSquishy](#): > > Holy shit! This is the dumbest thing I’ve read here so far today. Agreed. > [@](#): > > If you still have .019 after several hours sleep, you are an alcoholic and you are going to be a problem down the road for any employer. This, on the other hand, is probably not unreasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/69 "2015-03-20T17:20:26Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > But you can still be impaired. > One 12 oz beer (5%) will put me at .02 and I can feel the effects. I would be unsafe driving or working machinery. Not so much standard situations but my reflexes are noticeably slowed and I would have a poor response to an emergency. I, on the other hand, am like Dr. Johnny Fever: my performance improves! ---
**Author:** ![Drummond\_Bays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@Drummond\_Bays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drummond_Bays)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/70 "2015-03-20T17:52:33Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Why would anyone come into work “smelling like a brewery”? Is it that hard to take a shower, change your clothes, and swirl some mouthwash around in your mouth? If one has imbibed enough all that will serve to do is make the smell of alcohol stand out more against all the artificial, perfume-y scents. We tend to “sweat” it out of our pores, especially the next day. You could add “eating a huge meal, going for a long run, and downing 3 cups of coffee” to the start of that list and still not have a chance. Anecdotal, I know, but here goes… I’ve had times where I hadn’t had a drink for a full day or two, and my wife has asked me “have you had anything to drink today?” My father smells faintly of beer even without drinking for a couple days. He drinks 3 beers and two glasses of wine most every day. “You are what you eat” and all that jazz. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/71 "2015-03-20T18:00:11Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > But you can still be impaired. > One 12 oz beer (5%) will put me at .02 and I can feel the effects. I would be unsafe driving or working machinery. Not so much standard situations but my reflexes are noticeably slowed and I would have a poor response to an emergency. LOL and I can do a demerol with a strawberry daquerie back and pass a sobriety test [the whole pointy finger nose and the alphabet backwards ones. With the physical disabilities I haven’t been able to do the walk a straight line since about 1980.] Some people have a lot of alcohol tolerance, others are lightweights. mrAru is totally hammered to the point of dozing on 3 5% beers. I can do 3 shots of vodka and respond as sober. \ everybody is different. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/72 "2015-03-20T18:30:41Z")
My WAG… The OP is a screw-up on the job. He has had ‘issues’ before, either with attitude, tardiness, absenteeism, poor work, or some combination. His firing is not based solely on this incident. Why would I think that? Well, if he were a valued employee and this happened out of the blue, he would have been instructed to go home and take a personal day. Turnover costs are bad for business. Lost work, the trouble of searching for a replacement, then training… nobody wants to do this. I would venture to say this was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/73 "2015-03-20T19:37:54Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > Having a BAC of 0.02 is very, very far from intoxicated. That depends. There’s a lot more to impairment than blood-alcohol level. Everyone reacts differently to intoxicants and one guy with a 0.02 may show no impairment while another may be dangerous. It is reasonable for an employer to have a zero-tolerance impairment policy for people who work with or near large equipment, vehicles, or other dangerous items. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/74 "2015-03-20T19:43:04Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > That depends. There’s a lot more to impairment than blood-alcohol level. Everyone reacts differently to intoxicants and one guy with a 0.02 may show no impairment while another may be dangerous. It is reasonable for an employer to have a zero-tolerance impairment policy for people who work with or near large equipment, vehicles, or other dangerous items. The OP doesn’t, though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/75 "2015-03-20T20:07:16Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I agree somewhat. 1) he doesn’t seem to realize he was out of line, 2) the employer didn’t cut him any slack, which makes me wonder if there are ongoing issues, and 3) assuming he stopped drinking at 2:00 a.m., he must have had a pretty high BAC. > > However, as posted above, I wouldn’t conclude he is an alcoholic just from what we know. We can’t convict him of driving over the DUI limit by the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. So no criminal conviction here. But alcohol interfered with his ability to hold a job. He needs help. I urge the OP to stop drinking and go to a meeting of AA. No drinks that have ethanol. Wine counts as booze. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/76 "2015-03-20T20:11:10Z")
This thread makes me suspect that my plan to turn krausen into men’s aftershave is a futile effort! ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/77 "2015-03-20T20:25:22Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I agree somewhat. 1) he doesn’t seem to realize he was out of line, But, he had a _reason_ to celebrate. We all seem to be overlooking that! [ah, for a good rolleyes smiley right now.] > [@aruvqan](#): > > LOL and I can do a demerol with a strawberry daquerie back and pass a sobriety test [the whole pointy finger nose and the alphabet backwards ones. With the physical disabilities I haven’t been able to do the walk a straight line since about 1980.] I can tolerate narcotics really well. I can drive on the highway on lots of codeine, but 1/2 glass of wine, and I’m loopy. I can still touch my finger to my nose with my eyes closed, though. I can do that totally smashed. I’m not even sure why that’s a drunk test. > [@](#): > > mrAru is totally hammered to the point of dozing on 3 5% beers. I can do 3 shots of vodka and respond as sober. \ everybody is different. Yup. Which is why employers who have to worry about problems caused by impaired workers usually have a .000 policy. There’s no way to know who can run an obstacle course after six shots of vodka, and who starts putting on lampshades after one Woodchuck. When I was a supervisor, I oversaw people who worked with a vulnerable population, people with all kinds of disabilities, some physical, some developmental, some people in fragile health. A lot of times the staff had to transport people, and quite a lot of the time, they had to pass meds; they also sometimes give injections, did tube feedings, and did other things with equipment, did therapy stretches with people, you get the idea. We had a stone cold sober policy. For me, every six weeks, I carried an emergency pager which meant that I might have to go an fill in for a staff person who got injured on the job, or was a no-call, no-show, or I might have to drive in to help with an emergency with a client. As a result, when I was on the pager, I was 0 alcohol, all week. That was no problem for me, as I’m not much of a drinker, and I go whole weeks (months, actually) without drinking anyway, but once in a while, we’d have someone come in to interview for a position like mine, who would balk at carrying the pager when they found out they couldn’t drink for a week. They wouldn’t get offered the job if they were obviously startled by that requirement, but I get the feeling they’d turn it down anyway. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/78 "2015-03-20T20:26:51Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > But alcohol interfered with his ability to hold a job. He needs help. I urge the OP to stop drinking and go to a meeting of AA. Unless he’s an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/79 "2015-03-20T20:41:08Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Unless he’s an atheist. Or not an alcoholic. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406/80 "2015-03-20T21:02:24Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > But alcohol interfered with his ability to hold a job. He needs help. I urge the OP to stop drinking and go to a meeting of AA. No drinks that have ethanol. Wine counts as booze. I find it bizarre how many people feel they can diagnose alcoholism based on a post of one incident without further information. While I, too, suspect there is more to this than the OP has told us it is presumptuous to make a medical diagnosis over the internet based on little we _actually know_. We _don’t know_ if he’s a “screw-up” on the job or if the company was looking for an excuse to reduce headcount. We don’t know if this is the first and only incident or one of many. He could be a raging alcoholic with a dozen DUI’s -OR- he could be someone with very little experience of alcohol (they do exist) and thus have little or no notion of his limits and how it affects him. Barring new information, “urging” someone to declare themselves an alcoholic and go to AA is out of line in my point of view. The only thing I feel I can recommend for this person is apply for UI (even if he’s unlikely to get it) and get a new job. I also hope he thinks about what else has been said in this thread but without more facts that’s all I feel I can do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-breathalyzer-and-got-fired-even-though-i-clinically-passed-legal-question/715406.md?page=5)