How prevalent are drug in the auto business and what are you doing about it?

We have had our share of drug addicted employees over the last year. Many were productive salespeople and kept their problems from being our problems, except when they didn’t. That is when we reviewed our policy, fine tuned it and began testing all new hires, anyone suspected of drug use and anyone involved in any kind of accident or mishap.

It is my observation that our industry either attracts people with addictive personalities or drives more people to use illicit drugs. Might it be the rejection of 8 out of 10 prospects, the long hours, or the tough customers? The drug of choice seems to range from percocet or oxycodone to cocaine. With many of the users it has been difficult to detect the use until a pattern of tardiness, anxiety, impatience, borrowing from fellow employees, or similar develops.

In a couple of instances the individual has made their way around the store borrowing nominal sums of money from fellow employees using various excuses. None suspecting the true reason or that others have been duped as well.I have heard from a close competitor that one of their employees went as far as visiting customers homes asking for cash, telling various fictional stories.

Our policy is to try to work with the effected individual as long as they acknowledge their problem and seek treatment. The company we contract with for testing offers counseling and assistance. If the employee continues to deny drug use in spite of test evidence we are forced to part ways and leave them to their own devices.

I am interested in whether other dealers see this as a problem, and if so what policies and procedures are working and if we as an industry should be doing anything about the problem. Our experience indicates preventing the infiltration of users through pre-employment testing to be the best protection, however I know many large and small stores that either don’t care or don’t know a problem exists in their establishment. Do dealers need education on how to identify affected individuals. Do they need to be warned of the damage this does to their healthy employees and their customers?

4 members like this

Comment

You need to be a member of DealerELITE.net to add comments!

Join DealerELITE.net

Comment by Kathryn Carlson on December 20, 2011 at 1:18pm: Pre-employment testing is a great defensive strategy to reduce substance abuse in the workplace but it is only one tool of several. Every dealership should have written policies regarding pre-employment, random and for cause substance abuse testing in place and make sure that when there is a problem it is addressed immediately. I prefer substance abuse testing rather than drug testing when describing the program since alcohol abuse is even more prevelent than drug abuse in the workplace.

With the availalbity of testing services at a relatively inexpensive cost there is no excuse to to test. I once had to testify in a case where the client did not run a background check or drug test on the new employee, put them behind the wheel of a company car where the employee promptly wrecked the car and injured a pedestrian. The settlement of the case was over 1 millon dollar- the cost of the background check/drug test would have been around $50.

Adam raises important issues on substance abuse in the workplace and the employer's responsiblity. There are some great resources availalbe at http://www.dol.gov/workingpartners/ to help employer have a drug and alcohol free workplace or contact me for free sample policies on substance abuse testing and employee assistance programs.

Comment by Stan Sher on December 20, 2011 at 1:06pm: This is an excellent post. I am looking forward to seeing how other people respond.