We have offices in New York and New Jersey. Marijuana sales are now legal in New Jersey, so do I have to hire people who smoke weed in NJ too? Can I have different drug testing policies in different locations?
Let me be blunt here. You don’t have to hire anyone that you don’t want to. You just can’t refuse to hire someone for a protected reason. Employment laws vary state-to-state, so yes, you are required to have policies that comply with local laws. That said, in New York and New Jersey you are not allowed to test for cannabis, either pre-employment or with current employees. You may not take any adverse employment action for use of cannabis outside of work. However, you may take action for use on the job, or impairment on the job. How are employers supposed to know if job performance is impaired because of cannabis? Unless you have video of them rolling a joint and firing up on the job, good luck. Can you refuse to hire someone because they walk into the interview reeking of cannabis? Good luck. I went for a walk in Central Park to take in some fresh air, hard enough to find in NYC and now impossible from the cannabis stench. Thank you, legislators.
I applied for a job and was asked to answer a bunch of questions via webcam — not to an interviewer, but just to be recorded. So I was basically talking to myself. How lazy are human resources people getting that they can’t even show up for a short interview?
You know, it’s so easy taking shots at HR. Anyone who complains about woke work culture mockingly says “oooh, we’re going to report you to HR.” Every talk show host makes fun of HR. TV shows and films mock HR. My mom mocks HR! You try sitting listening to boring candidates drone on and on, embellishing things they say they have done for jobs they can’t do. (Wow — that felt sooo good.) The reality is that these online job boards have made the volume of applicants crushing. So either we need to hire even more HR people (gasp!) or we add a screening process at the beginning of the process to see who comes close to meriting a meeting. With . . . HR.
Gregory Giangrande has over 25 years of experience as a chief human resources executive. Hear Greg Weds. at 9:35 a.m. on iHeartRadio 710 WOR with Len Berman and Michael Riedel. E-mail: [email protected]. Follow: GoToGreg.com and on Twitter: @GregGiangrande