Yesterday, the checkout line at my favorite Lowe\u2019s Home Improvement store was so long that I watched an obviously frustrated man walk away from a shopping cart that easily contained what would have been a $250 purchase. The people in front of me and behind me were steamed, too. \u201cThe problem isn\u2019t just here in the garden center,\u201d one woman said. \u201cThe whole store is understaffed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was right \u2014 but I wasn\u2019t going to give up my spot in that line to wander inside the main store building to find a manager to address the situation. So, I held my ground, whipped out my mobile phone and called Lowe\u2019s toll-free, customer-service number (thanks, Lowe\u2019s, for posting that right over the register) to relay the problem \u2014 and what I\u2019d just witnessed in terms of lost business.<\/p>\n
What I ultimately learned from that conversation is that Lowe\u2019s corporate executives should have a hard discussion with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and economic-development offices in the cities where their stores operate in this state. Why? Because Lowe\u2019s doesn\u2019t want to hire people who can\u2019t pass drug tests \u2014 and here in Cannabis, er, Colorful Colorado, the company is greeted with too many job applicants who test positive for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.<\/p>\n
Wonder of wonders, Lowe\u2019s doesn\u2019t want people acutely or sub-acutely under the influence of marijuana operating forklifts, using circular saws, cutting ceramic tiles, driving company trucks \u2014 or cleaning its toilets. And no, the company isn\u2019t interested in lowering its hiring standards, either, said Amy, the friendly and always-approachable manager at my favorite Lowe\u2019s store.<\/p>\n
Within minutes of the customer-service center alerting her of my call, Amy was on the line with me to apologize. I assured her that I wasn\u2019t at all angry. Instead, my call was motivated by a love of the place. It was by working for Lowe\u2019s that my younger brother picked up a lot of the skills that eventually helped him open his own residential remodeling company. I have dear friends who work for Lowe\u2019s. All my son wanted to do for his 4th birthday was invite a dozen of his best buddies to Lowe\u2019s to build wooden race cars during one of the company\u2019s Saturday build-it workshops for kids. It\u2019s a longstanding joke in my family that we should own shares of the company given how many times my father visits his favorite Lowe\u2019s store every week. Dr. T, who serves in the U.S. Army, really appreciates Lowe\u2019s stated appreciation \u2014 and discounts \u2014 for those in the armed services.<\/p>\n
So, call me crazy, but I\u2019m actually protective of the company and its brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to find the best people to hire, and it\u2019s really hard these days,\u201d Amy the manager told me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do you think it\u2019s so difficult?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause hardly anybody passes a drug test,\u201d she quickly replied. \u201cIt\u2019s a real problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I probed a little more, I learned that marijuana use is the chief reason for the applicants\u2019 failed test results \u2014 and by a long shot.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Lowe\u2019s is painfully aware that marijuana isn\u2019t like alcohol in all sorts of ways vital to workforce readiness. Maybe its executive ranks know how tough it is to pinpoint a marijuana user\u2019s level of impairment. Maybe the company is also versed in studies the world over showing the risk of a traffic accident significantly increases when a person has even 1 ng\/ml THC in his or her system.<\/p>\n
However, one thing is certain: Lowe\u2019s isn\u2019t the only Colorado employer struggling to find drug-free workers to fill decent jobs. Conspire!, a drug-testing company based in Colorado Springs, reports that THC-positive, workplace drug tests it has administered in that city have increased 30 percent since the start of 2013.<\/p>\n
So, I get it: Lowe\u2019s, which stands by the slogan \u201cNever stop improving,\u201d faces a dilemma \u2014 and one that IS affecting its shoppers. I\u2019m willing to wait a little longer in line because I like the company so much \u2014 but I suspect I\u2019m an exception, not the rule.<\/p>\n
And as a longstanding and loyal customer, I certainly don\u2019t want Lowe\u2019s to lower its hiring standards \u2014 or even feel pressured to do so.<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0\u00a0 dthurstone.com\u00a0 14th May 2014<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, the checkout line at my favorite Lowe\u2019s Home Improvement store was so long that I watched an obviously frustrated man walk away from a shopping cart that easily contained what would have been a $250 purchase. The people in front of me and behind me were steamed, too. \u201cThe problem isn\u2019t just here in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,90,14,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effects-of-drugs","category-global-drug-legalisation-efforts","category-social-affairs","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}