Is workplace control of drugs more important than protecting employee privacy?

With the amount of different occupations that are available to potential workers in the workforce, it is hard to create a set of standard rules and regulations that all firms must obey by. Some organizations strive to provide excellent customer service and support towards their products. Whereas, other organizations set their highest priority at maintaining the highest level of public safety and awareness. The spectrum of different scenarios and mission statements for companies are almost endless with various intentions at stake. When workers are tested for drugs this adds a complex variable into the situation, which also leads to an ethical dilemma. Measuring an employee's performance is often a hard thing to do, when efficiency isn't measured with tangible numbers. Managing the quandary between employees rights to privacy and the employers entitlement to wellbeing, forms a grey area in which moral principles are difficult to resolve.

When dealing with an ethical dilemma such as drugs in the workplace, employers must first consider the laws and legality of the situation.

Master Sgt. Urbano Sosa demonstrates the job of an...

Hashish Presumptive Drug Test

Pre–employment drug testing

The meaner in which employers base their guidelines off of must abide with federal and state laws. In 1988 the federal government passed the Federal Drug Free Workplace Act, which states "...all federal grant recipients and many contractors maintain a drug-free workplace". If the organization is funded in any ways by the federal government than it is necessary that they ensure that employees are not under the influence of drugs while in their line of work. Additionally, work places whether federal or private should not solicit or allow the use of drugs on company property or they could be charged as an accomplice. Furthermore, the legality of discussing whether drugs are ethical or not in the workplace must use the laws as a foundation when setting their policies.

The laws created...