[speaker001:] go ahead um I haven't given this a a lot of thought I'm uh I'd that's a whole pleased with the practice practice that is they I uh I don't you would favor invasions of privacy on the other hand I'd say arguable that that that uh people who's jobs are critical to to public safety should have to meet special standards uh I haven't given this matter enough thought
[speaker002:] do you work for TI
[speaker001:] no uh uh I'm in the Washington area I work for NIST
[speaker002:] oh oh okay oh all right well see we have the testing already here we've had it for oh about five years it used to just be for new employees
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and now it's for all employees they uh randomly select employee numbers and uh the day that they select you is when you have to go and and be tested so we're familiar with it
[speaker001:] and now and how do people feel about it
[speaker002:] uh we have a lot of um people upset about it at the beginning some not all but what was happening at TI is that they found certain parts of the company there was a lot of drug abuse um mainly the areas where where they were doing a lot of um manufacturing type things and what they ended up doing is um kind of like doing a little bit of an undercover agent to watch what was happening and we had people using on the premises and actually selling and dealing you know on the premises
[speaker001:] well okay that's that's a very different issue
[speaker002:] well yeah it it was you know combination of of uh both activities and uh and using too so they developed this uh drug policy so that uh to eliminate there's some parts of the company that we do uh government contracts and I think some of those require the drug testing but now TI thought well we'll just do it for all employees that um not just because of safety issues but because we want a totally drug free safe environment for all people to work in and that we shouldn't have um people on drugs within our you know offices and such I haven't personally ever been tested but I don't have a problem with it
[speaker001:] and um does the testing cover alcohol as well as illegal drugs
[speaker002:] no but one thing that to to me was um going on stretching it a little too far was that they also check um if you're taking somebody else's prescription drug you know it happens a lot of times like some member of the family gets the flu or whatever and you know then they give it to everybody else in the family and don't always go back to the you know doctor and get another prescription
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] well according to what they do at TI if you take a prescription drug it has to be in your name it you know it can't be in your spouse's name so they will look I mean the testing will look for I guess any kind of drugs and you have to tell them what you're taking a prescription for
[speaker001:] so they ask you to declare beforehand what prescription drugs you are taking
[speaker002:] right yes yes when you get tested you're supposed to tell them you know everything that that might be there and then if they ever um question you or something you may have to show proof that you do have a prescription in your name
[speaker001:] okay well well I mean it's I would guess that in fact they don't test for for they don't routinely test for very many prescription drugs but that I but they don't tell you in advance uh so
[speaker002:] well what they were be testing for are the ones that would have like you know barbiturates or codeine things like that in them
[speaker001:] the ones that would constitute controlled substances or something anyway
[speaker002:] right right I guess that's what is they wouldn't be looking for penicillin and antibiotics antibiotics and stuff they'd be looking for the yeah controlled things barbiturates amphetamines
[speaker001:] so what they're asking you to tell them is all the prescription drugs you're taking which are controlled substances
[speaker002:] right right you pretty much you know put down what you remember even if it is was just Contact or something like that but afterwards uh maybe if you had a controlled substance well you you probably put down you know you had Drixoral or Contact if you would remember that you did it
[speaker001:] is Contact a what okay is Contact a
[speaker002:] no I'm just saying you probably probably put down on the sheet anything you have taken but if they had a controlled substance maybe they would ask you then to show that you had that prescription in your name
[speaker001:] substance okay okay
[speaker002:] I know I had one contract employee through manpower was not a TI person but was it contract person and they test them too even if you are not a real uh TIer if you are a contract employee here they test you too
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] and he had taken some kind of um oh you know uh just he had some kind of flu or something he got a real bad migraine and he took his mother's