Pre-Employment Nicotine Screening

Nicotine Testing ~ A Pre-Employment Condition

Candidates who are selected to fill positions are sometimes required to pass a Nicotine test as part of their pre-employment screening process.

What industries are implementing this?  Healthcare, Airlines, and more.  Evidently,  with the airlines, you have to be Nicotine Free for six months!

Let us know your thoughts on this!

Written by an Ex-Smoker.

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The Employment Situation ~ February

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — FEBRUARY 2012 Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.  Employment rose in professional and businesses services, health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and mining. Household Survey Data The number of unemployed persons, at 12.8 million, was essentially unchanged in February. The unemployment rate held at 8.3 percent, 0.8 percentage point below the August 2011 rate. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.7 percent), adult women (7.7 percent), teenagers (23.8 percent), whites (7.3 percent), blacks (14.1 percent), and Hispanics (10.7 percent) showed little or no change in February.  The jobless rate for Asians was 6.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 5.4 million in February. These individuals accounted for 42.6 percent of the unemployed. Both the labor force and employment rose in February. The civilian labor force participation rate, at 63.9 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 58.6 percent, edged up over the month. The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.1 million in February. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In February, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)  These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in February, about the same as a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)  Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.6 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in February had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Establishment Survey Data Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 in February. Private-sector employment grew by 233,000, with job gains in professional and business services, health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and mining. Professional and business services added 82,000 jobs in February. Just over half of the increase occurred in temporary help services (+45,000). Job gains also occurred in computer systems design (+10,000) and in management and technical consulting services (+7,000). Employment in professional and business services has grown by 1.4 million since a recent low point in September 2009. Health care and social assistance employment rose by 61,000 over the month. Within health care, ambulatory care services added 28,000 jobs, and hospital employment increased by 15,000. Over the past 12 months, health care employment has risen by 360,000. In February, social assistance employment edged up (+12,000). In February, employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 44,000, with nearly all of the increase in food services and drinking places (+41,000). Since a recent low in February 2010, food services has added 531,000 jobs. Manufacturing employment rose by 31,000 in February. All of the increase occurred in durable goods manufacturing, with job gains in fabricated metal products (+11,000), transportation equipment (+8,000), machinery (+5,000), and furniture and related products (+3,000). Durable goods manufacturing has added 444,000 jobs since a recent trough in January 2010. In February, mining added 7,000 jobs, with most of the gain in support activities for mining (+5,000). Since a recent low in October 2009, mining employment has increased by 180,000. Construction employment changed little in February, after 2 consecutive months of job gains. Over the month, employment fell by 14,000 in nonresidential specialty trade contractors. Overall, employment in retail trade changed little in February. A large job loss in general merchandise stores (-35,000) more than offset an increase in January (+23,000).  Employment in motor vehicle and parts dealers continued to trend up in February. Government employment was essentially unchanged in January and February. In 2011, government lost an average of 22,000 jobs per month. The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.5 hours in February. The manufacturing workweek edged up by 0.1 hour to 41.0 hours, and factory overtime was unchanged at 3.4 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged up by 0.1 hour to 33.8 hours. In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $23.31. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 1.9 percent. In February, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $19.64. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised from +203,000 to +223,000, and the change for January was revised from +243,000 to +284,000. ______________ The Employment Situation for March is scheduled to be released on Friday, April 6, 2012, at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).   Find jobs, blogs and resumes and employers:   www.absoluteknowitall.com Like us on www.facebook.com/AbsoluteKnowItAll

Setting Goals

The quote "The difference between a successful person and others is not the lack of strength or the lack of knowledge, but rather the lack of will." was a quote that inspired me throughout my first 10 years of my life. Setting goals for myself was and has always been my number one priority.  It was the key to success and great accomplishment. I was always told that without goals I wouldn’t be on the right track to success. As kids parents always asked us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” But when I was asked, I never knew how to respond. All I knew was that I wanted to be somebody and make a difference in the world by saving lives. At the age of seven was when I came upon the decision that I wanted to be a doctor. That’s when I started preparing myself for the unexpected, and started planning out what I was going to do throughout my high school years like what class’s where required, what colleges would be most beneficial to my desired career and the most important of all goals, my personal goal; take matters into my own hands and never, ever give up on something that I can’t stop believing in.

WRITTEN BY:  Sophmore High School Student

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DRUG TESTING 101

Drug Testing

Okay, in this day and age, drug testing is everywhere. Pre-employment, high-school, random, etc. How do you feel about this?

What about this: You decide to smoke some weed over the weekend, in the privacy of your own home. You stay at home, have a good time and maybe watch a late-night Friday movie. THEN… on Monday morning, you get hit with a surprise U.A. Which, no doubt, comes up positive for weed, and you fail the test. Then all hell breaks loose and you have to face the consequences. Is this fair? Isn’t what you do to your own body and what you put into it your own business, and nobody else’s?

Do you think this same logic should apply across the board? Let’s say for Meth users, or Heroin addicts?

And how about this: How long after getting high is it okay to go  to your job, and expect to be able to do your job proficiently and with 100% ability?

Let’s not just limit this agreement to drugs for a minute. Let’s take a look at the weekend drinker, or even the ‘alcoholic’. Let’s say he gets shitfaced on Sunday night, putting away a couple six-packs or some mixed drinks. Good chance that when he wakes up in the morning, if he’s not faced with a hangover, it’s probably safe to say he’s not firing on all cylinders and maybe a little slow or groggy. He might be in worse off shape then the pot smoker; however, if he’s given a drug test when he gets to work, he’s going to pass it. Is that fair?

Let’s say you’ve got a job that requires a high degree of attention and mentality. Say, maybe an Air Traffic Flight Controller, or the surgeon that’s at the E.R. who is going to be assigned to a loved one of yours for a delicate operation. Are you comfortable with the fact that he’s been high as a kite during the weekend, polluting his body with drugs? Hey, remember, it’s ‘his own body, and he’s not hurting anybody else”.

So, how long after using is it okay to go back to your job and resume your duties? If you’re the guy or girl who bags my food at the supermarket, or the person making my burger at Jack-In-The-Box, I’m really not to  concerned with your ability to do your job. However, if you’re the guy who I’m putting my life in his hands while he performs brain surgery on after being in a car accident, I gotta confess; I’m more than a little worried.

What are your thoughts on this?

One last thing to consider; let’s say you’re a pot smoker and maybe you haven’t used in a week or two. Then comes the call offering you the ideal job that you hadn’t planned on being called about. The one you’ve dreamed of getting, and probably won’t have offered to you again if you pass on it now. Now, considering that THC can stay in your system for 30 days and sometime longer, and one of the terms of being hired is that you pass a pre-employment drug test.  What are you going to do?

These are just a couple of things to consider when you take the stance that ‘what you put into your body isn’t anybody else’s business, and you’re not hurting anybody else”. The reality of it is, maybe you could be hurting somebody else, maybe not, but one thing’s for sure, you could be hurting yourself.

Written by:  Ronald J. Morse, Author & Motivational Speaker

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Inspiration from a Teenager ~

"Success comes to the person who does today what you were thinking about doing tomorrow."  In life if you want something you have to chase after it. You can’t just sit and hope to get something that you put no effort into getting.

Written:  Author M.B.M., Student and Motivator.

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YOU STINK!

Hey! – You stink!

I have a friend who’s been a long time job recruiter. Working at a company that placed numerous contract employees per week, one day her boss came in and asked everyone in the office: “Hey! Who placed ‘so-and-so’ at that job site?” She meekly raised her hand and said: “I did.”

“Well, call him up”, her boss said, “and tell him he stinks. His coworkers have been complaining about his body odor”.

Hopefully, you’ve never gotten a call like that, or had a co-worker mention their olfactory senses have been offended by you. But that might only mean you’ve been lucky enough to work with tolerant and polite co-workers. It can be a problem, especially in a closed environment, like an office pool, or cubical settings.

Here’s a couple of things to consider: Just because YOU don’t notice it, or realize it, you still could smell. If you’ve got any doubt, ask someone you’re close to and won’t be offended by if they tell you so. Do NOT try to cover the smell of body odor with perfume or cologne. The only thing worse than sitting close to somebody that smells like B.O. is sitting next to somebody with massive amounts of perfume on that’s trying to cover up that smell. One word here: Shower!

Another thing: more and more companies and workplaces are taking a zero-tolerance regarding colognes, perfumes and sprays. And for good reasons. One: some people are allergic to such things, and second, some people just don’t know the word, ‘moderation’.

One last thing: Cigarette smoke and smell. As a smoker myself, I try to respect those who I work with. I know how offensive it can be. I keep a small spray container of ‘Axe’ personal body spray either in my briefcase or in a desk drawer. When I go out to smoke, I take this with me and use it (moderately, of course) before returning to my desk. I don’t know the ‘female equivalent’ of this product, but I’m sure it exists. If your place of employment has a ‘no-scent’ policy, you can always consider ‘FeBreeze’ or an equivalent product. These seem to work quite well, and your co-workers will be eternally grateful. Even if they don’t say anything to you.    

Written by:  Ronald J. Morse, Writer, Motivational Speaker

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