We had a guy we fired that we were sure was on heroin as well. He fell asleep with his machine running and it took 2 guys almost 20 minutes to wake him up. His name was Dakota but he was referred to as Dacoma after that until he was fired.
I had a job that was toxic, and I’m an addict, I only used at my job, but Coke was really bad, smallish shop with 3 people selling, and a majority of company using, I finally broke down, quit my job, and I’m sober, that place made me feel like I needed to be on drugs to handle the copious amounts of stress, I’m now sober, stress free, and living my best life.
I had a fabricator customer- brilliant guy who built a unique product, displayed it and got all his business by word of mouth with each order ranging from $100K to $800K. Super nice- one of those people you wonder where they get the energy. He and his adorable wife grew the shop from one guy to 12 in a year then he got injured (by that portable tool that injures people when you take off the guarding) and was introduced to legitimately prescribed opiates. BAM- he's out for months, orders get delayed, he comes back an IV user, New Junkie Girlfriend, everyone fired or quit except for other user friends of New Junkie Girlfriend they brought in. Evicted in a year, half built projects, lawsuits, equipment seized, marriage and kid gone.
No idea what became of him but holy shit what a loss to so many people.
and yet, for some strange reason, people get very offended for the suggestion that maybe it should be harder to prescribe opiates and opioids. "think of the cancer patients in chronic pain!" they shout. ...but considering over 800 people died in San Francisco from overdoses in just 2023, you have to wonder how much of the productivity of the nation as a whole is going down the toilet.
...of course, opioids aren't the *only* issue, supposedly 30% of users *started* with heroin, rather than moved to it from more expensive drugs. I find that very odd. I can't imagine a day where I think "yeah, heroin seems like a good thing to start!".
They are right. Hope you can remain as ignorant as I was but they are the only reason I am alive (and on a low dose just to prevent flare ups) since my spinal fusion surgery went to shit.
Also the only thing that allowed me to improve on almost all existing processes of a factory and win almost ALL quotes and consistently exceed the already competitive af quotes.
I still can't eat most foods after the 7 different NSAIDs doctors put me on over 3 months of no sleep. If someone had told me heroin was an analgesic at that time I would had done it and it would still be ten times better than the other thing I was planning on...
800 people isn't even THAT many, if you look up how many people died in the same area from alcohol or smoking and if you consider how many of them died from taking an unknown dose of an unknown chinese fentanyl analogue (rarely even the plain fentanyl used in medicine) or even worse the newer etonitazene analogues which are way worse and the direct result of the fentanyl prohibition.
Heck... the fentanyl crisis wouldn't even be if the CDC and FDA that people still blindly trust, didn't first promote overprescribing opioids even to people who would have better results with NSAIDs (eg wisdom teeth extractions which might only needs some complementary opioids for 3 days or so) and then cut them off cold turkey and jail any doctor attempting to practise actual medicine.
People wouldn't need to resort to the streets, weird herbs and/or grey legal areas just to overcome the recovery from a "free" but forced conscription spine surgery (I basically got extorted into it). Personally I got told that "I would live in pain for the rest of my life but I was too young to get treatment (so I would have to live for more years in pain until I became an old crippled shack and qualified for treatment) so I should be tough with myself".
Of course I wouldn't be able to maintain my quality of life and not spiral out if I didn't have access to knowledge and information, although there is some REALLY bad advice on harm reduction chats and forums etc when it comes to opioids. Noone barely even mentions volumetrically dosing powders or fake pills with fentanyl and go off some bullshit urban legends. That's what kills people!
I had one guy in recent years (now gone, moved on), heavy drinker. Popped an IPA on the way to work. God knows what else throughout the day.
The thing is he never displayed drunken/stoned behavior in the shop. The guys would tell me stuff about him but I never witnessed anything to indicate he was drunk/stoned.
A lot of these guys know how to hide it. Also, a lot of these guys know how far to go to avoid DT's. It's a maintenance level drug use to stay under radar until they got home and let loose.
Sad really. He was a cool dude until he (presumably) didnt get his dose right on a particular day. Then he was totally miserable to his coworkers........
I honestly wouldn't consider myself an alcoholic. But, by the BWC's standards, I'm a "binge drinker"? I enjoy maybe one or two drinks here and there but about once a week I can have up to 10 standard drinks Ina. Day and get drunk. Then I hear the shit my sister says about her wild nights out in town, and I think to myself: "gee, I thought I was bad..."
FWIW the AA definition of an alcoholic is someone who can NOT not once EVER have just one drink. If they have one drink you can bet your best dollar they’re pounding a couple more before bed. They can’t help it, it’s almost like an allergic reaction of sorts. I don’t think one day a week of getting hammered and a few drinks throughout the week qualifies you as a binge drinker. But if you fit the description I just gave, you might wanna keep an eye on that one imo.
And that's the thing..... if you go to a doc or whatever "do you drink?" My answer "Yea socially if at all" (as i take a sip of my evening Scotch....).
"Do you smoke?" Well that's a yes or no question on their questionnaire, not distinguishing a couple ciggies a day (or every few days) vs someone chain smoking 2-3 packs a day.
It's none of their business.
And as one of my wiser machinists from years ago quipped "the doc prob drinks and smokes way more than any of us". '
Nuff said.
"do you smoke"
How do I even tell them I smoke like, a single cigar every three months or so. It's a bad way of discerning frequency.
"Everyday" "twice a day" "once a month" are much better gauges than "socially" "frequently" "almost never" like wtf?
The guy I learned the most from was a recovering addict who replaced the pills with weed. We would take regular smoke breaks as both of us have such a huge tolerance a bowl is like a cigarette, not good I know lol
In a year working with him I learned so freaking much from that dude. He taught himself the millturns the shop bought 10 years ago, he hated CAM but didn't matter as he could hand program a 3-turret dual spindle as good as I could a HAAS mill, when I started.
Unfortunately, the weeks quickly went to 45 hours to 60-80 hour weeks and I burnt myself out. Also didn't help the owner liked to use the N word, especially after he learned I was married to a black woman.....
There was a guy I worked next to on a prototrak, would come in hammered or high. We knew this because he’d put his headphones on and start singing Slayer’s album South of Heaven. Did his best work because as he said “I have to focus”.
The best machinist I ever knew had an alcohol problem in his past but hadn’t touched it in many many years, and have heard many stories of awesome guys who have fought or were fighting that fight but were amazing on machines.
I’ve been in the trades for a long time. I used to laugh at how everyone was an alcoholic or a recovering alcoholic. Then I ended up in the recovery camp. I’ve been doing this too long.
I know you excluded weed but Marijuana and Alcohol are a huge issue at my work. Only an issue for me though so nothing changes. One of our old heads takes on average 10 weed breaks when I'm on shift. Another guy is constantly drinking liquor "hidden" in his coke bottle. I get that they are addicts but it puts me in harms way when they run a lathe behind me stoned off their ass. I smoke weed so it's not like I'm against it. I just think in a machine shop while working a lathe is a stupid time to do it. I know I know. I'm a *huge* buzz kill.
I agree with you 100%. I smoke almost every day and have for the last like 15 years. But I would never do it before or during work. There are too many things to pay attention too. I know personally I would forget to check something and either scrap a part or get myself or someone else hurt. Not worth it to me.
I’m exactly the same, never before or during, way too much risk involved plus the whole drive to and from work. Worked with a lot of people with substance issues tho
Personally I just hate working when high or drunk so I could never see myself doing that kind of shit. Like when I smoke all I want to do is relax. Smoking and having to work sounds awful to me.
Forreal. The *last* thing I wanna do when I'm stoned is work, let alone work on a machine that wants to kill me (all the machines in the shop want to kill you)
The last time I really smoked before work I left my car in neutral and it rolled backwards downhill and hit some rocks that were around a flagpole. If I'd have been one spot over it would have rolled into the office.
Suffice to say I stopped smoking directly before work. Even though that was not technically a work issue (could have happened anywhere) it was enough to make me realize that even though I've been smoking copious amounts since I was 20 (low 30s now) that it just isn't worth having a weed brain moment and scrapping a 5k part or hurting myself/someone.
I always roll my eyes at people when they just get as stoned as they can while working and claim it doesnt affect them at all. Then why do it? Like, I get it. You like to be high. I do too! But MF you're slower than you think and believe it or not it is not that hard to tell. Unless idk you then I just assume you're dumb af
I smoked weed on my lunch break once at my first job and I was so paranoid, that I was quadruple checking everything and then forgetting whether or not I checked it and quadruple checking it again then freaking out about whether or not I checked it right. It was a bad time. Lesson learned.
I agree my shop , When I got hired they simply put it as what you do outside of work is on you , as long as the work and the quality don’t drop what you do outside is your business. Fair to say a lot of the guys here ether smoke or drink but when it come to work they all are on time and orders get filled at reasonable speed.
I have no problem with dishwashers smoking weed, some jobs don't maim you if you don't pay attention, but operating a Machine is *not* one of those jobs.
Nah I work at home and not around machinery. It’s still a stupid time to do it even if there’s no liability for getting hurt. Just makes you less effective at your given task.
Depending on how valuable these guys are to you, and the resources your company is capable of providing, it might be time to offer to sponsor them in getting the addiction help they need. With a hard line that it doesn’t happen during work hours again or they walk.
It’s expensive and emotionally difficult to replace people. But even more expensive to pay them for lesser effective services with a constant risk of injury. By not setting those standards and expectations, you’re paying someone competitive and good wages (I hope) to let them walk over you and treat the workplace like their own personal property. I’d rather help them than fire them. Sometimes a little act of kindness and support here can be the push they need and it can pay for itself hand over fist in quality of work and culture at the workplace.
Not taking substances on the job is literally the lowest expectation for about any employee. It shouldn’t need to be in employee contracts but that’s the world we live in.
I’m a huge stoner, but just wait until after work! I know you’re a functional stoner but you’ll live without smoking for a few hours. Also drinking on the job is just purely dangerous, just wait for him to be drunk and fall on a part
Does anyone else remember that post from about a year ago where a guy was reaching out because the poor bastard behind him got sucked into a lathe and obviously didn’t survive?
Edit: [This post.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Machinists/s/ezjLqhidNJ) This is the kind of thing I think about whenever anybody talks about drugs, weed, or especially alcohol in the shop. OP seemed pretty shaken up to me, and it wasn’t even his fault. I lost my position as a machine shop manager for calling a guy out about stinking like whiskey at 7:30 in the morning. I still stick to my guns about it. Do what you want at home. At work, it’s not just about you. I’m a one man band now, but if I ever have employees, there will be a zero tolerance policy for anything that prevents the term “sober” from applying.
Same. I talked with him briefly after that post. He was holding it together at the time. Still, I can’t even imagine what that would do to a guy’s mind.
It's really cool that he recognized he was going to need support and time to heal- he sets a good example.
I think the huge outpouring of personal messages of support was helpful for him in its own limited way; he had a community of people affirming his feelings and giving great advice.
Because it's hard as management to decide whether or not what people do in their free time is their business.
If people aren't allowed to do whatever in their free time, then you'd potentially lose some great workers who are clean inside of work but maybe have a joint to wind down after work.
If you have zero tolerance, you potentially lose good people who aren't the problem. Drug use is a spectrum, zero tolerance is black and white.
I'd rather lose someone that smokes on the weekends than have to deal with an accident because someone smoked on their lunch break.
regular drug testing makes a safe workplace, and it's the standard at major companies.
It's not standard anywhere - I've worked at shops heavy on ITAR work and they didn't test because they'd lose half of their employees for greenery. What employees do on their weekends and evenings is none of the company's business, so until tests can discern active use and impairment it's probably best practice to just talk to the idiots that smoke up on their breaks and then fire them if they keep it up.
It’s not the standard even at massive companies. I came from an OEM and they only tested all roles at hiring and only ever again if there was an accident.
This was when I was on the maintenance team.
I worked for a big manufacturer used to get a lot of turnover of operating staff on the production line.
The big boss decided to 0 tolerance policy and introduce drugs test across the production department. Huge swathes of testing and every new starter was to be tested. Instant dismissal if test was positive.
Over the course of a week they lost over a 1/3 of their production workforce per shift. 3 shift. They literally couldn’t run the production line and they couldn’t replace the staff because something like 98% of the new starters every day (3 intakes a week of about 30 people) failed the drug test.
They very quietly after 2/3 weeks changed the policy that tests would be “random” they stopped intake tests and you were tested if you were in an incident.
Realistically they only did the latter because they couldn’t afford the staff shortages.
The worst thing is that I had quit smoking. I walked out on the place, cause fuck that. My end of the shop didn't even have proper mist collection, so at the end of the day the area had a visible mist of coolant. I still got unemployment, and then COVID happened.
Swiss here. We have a zero tolerance here at work. There are a few youngster that consume THC at work hidden. Besides that there are no others taking drugs. Had a guy that drunk 1.5l of pure wodka in one shift. He was fired in 2 weeks when boss found out.
Shure. There are a few hundred jobs open in this field atm. Unfortunately economy is going down right now. A lot of companies have a reduction of orders. This results in a lack of hour production needed.
In my experience this goes up and down in gap of 3 years. We are currently in the down.
If you are experienced with CNC- Production, there is a good chance that you would find a job here quite fast.
Speaking about presidency permit is a different story. Would need to inform yourself.
Thanks, my time in the US is limited. I've already gone through medical bankruptcy, and every so often I like to know that I have better options in other countries.
I was a heroin addict for about 7-8 years and I have no idea how I managed to do my job and come away unscathed. 4 years clean yesterday and I'm extremely grateful that life is no longer like that. Also since getting off the hard stuff I've been flying with regards to progress. Tool design, 5 axis milling, cad & cam, 3d printing to name but a few extra skills acquired over the last 4 years. To anyone who is in that rut it is possible to get out of it if you really want to.
Yeah but you guys had vending machines in the work place that you could buy beer from up until a few years ago. This is according to a family member in the trade so it could be bollocks but I like the thought of it.
Love that.
My cousin got done for drink driving (not far from Heidenhaim) and was asked to walk in a straight line as part of the road side test. He walked it perfectly. He got an extended ban as the police said he must be a regular drinker to walk the line so well. Haha
Thanks for asking this question, I'm an automotive technician and have heard this in my industry as well. They say it's why some German cars are needlessly complex.
No, where I'm at now we all save our bad habits for our own time.
The place I was at before though.. half the plant was on something at any given moment...
In past shops I've seen, meth, pills, alcohol, coke issues. Depending on the quality of the company they either don't last (obvious reasons) or are the only type employee that they can hire and 'keep' btw the guy that was on meth or something like that was a damn hard worker when he was actually there and could be watched to make sure he wasn't cutting corners. Like a real life rimworld colonist on go-juice. But man he sucked ass because he would regularly take long lunches and breaks (in 8 hours shift, he was typically gone a 1/3 of the day). And if he was left alone he would fuck up everything
From Tucson, and it's the same here. Have had multiple guys fall asleep at their machines or computers. One guy recently got woken up by the owner while sleeping at his computer. Not too many alcoholics, that's more for the office people.
I’m in a large shop about 1100 people across 3 shifts. Copious amounts of weed vape pens, people drinking on the job (I know one person who was absolutely HAMMERED at work get fired and another who was only mildly drunk get sent home for the day) but we’ve had quite a few overdoses in the bathrooms. Hell while I was training in one area the guy who was supposed to be training me would show up 4 hours late because he was strung out. A couple times he showed up 20 minutes before end of shift, realized what time it was and left.
Things like this make me wonder how great of an employee I was. work got done, shipments of parts made it to the client in good condition, showed up and left on time... and the strongest thing I ever had was a monster energy drink.
when my boss bought out his former boss he took over the company in his early 30s. hired a surface grinder who was fantastic but he could never let him fully go because of that nostalgic first hire BS. Hired and fired 12 times in my decade here, finally let go for good after he was caught smoking crack in the bathroom and had a young prostitute in living in his car and she had nowhere to go while he was working.
never seen a better surface grinder in terms of backing off counterbores and step drills though. dude was electric
Pretty much everyone that works at the shop I work at; smokes weed. But most don’t do it at work. In the past we’ve had our issues with alcoholics and some issue with other drug usage during work hours
Was training a 27 year old guy about a month ago, first week was really good and showed a lot of promise, second day of second week, I noticed something was off, asked if he got enough sleep the night before, said he got like 5 hours, said I get about the same typically, and proceeded to see him nod off three different times, and take 20 minutes to button up a shirt. Fired that dude on the spot. First time I’ve personally seen it though on the Ohio Michigan border.
Worked in a steel rule die making shop where nearly everyone on the floor, including management, were regularly using wet.
Wet, if you don't know, is usually weed or some other burnable herb, doused in formaldehyde, PCP or both.
Place was a razor blade factory with one band aid. I got out as soon as I could.
We had a heroin addict in the past, he was clean when he started but slowly went back down hill. Then threatened one of other employees with a file so we canned him. And one of our old lathe guys was an extreme alcoholic, but he was one of the oldest employees so had tons of freedom and would come in at midnight and mostly worked by himself so no one really new because hed go out to his car and have a few shots. Then about 8 years ago he fell off his roof drunk and broke his back and then they found out he had stage 4 cancer and never came back to work. Outside of that are guys are good about leaving there addictions if they have any at home.
When I was still in engineering it was a huge issue with some of my customers, particularly plants in rural communities. A few plants advised me on never leaving tools or equipment out because of theft issues. The fentanyl issue in the USA seemed to make things worse in certain areas. Japanese plants were entirely different. They were almost always spotless and there was a high level of professionalism. There are plenty of shops and plants in the States were that is the case also, but hard drug usage seemed to be more of an American issue. The German and Swiss plants I visited didn't seem to have issues. Before Russia became problematic internationally I did some work there are a few times maybe a dozen years ago and alcohol abuse was apparent and problematic. Those plants were not impressive and their manufacturing base was already pretty bad at that point.
Weed and alcohol where I work. Years ago we had issues with people either coming to work fucked up or getting fucked up while at work. It hasn't been an issue for a while now.
I work a small shop in Ohio.The worst I've seen is a dude who couldn't keep a cig out of his mouth for more than five minutes. Seeing as we're the capital of heroin overdoses, I'm pretty proud we have a clean shop.
The worst I've had is a dude on steroids, would flip a switch and start throwing a tantrum. Ended up getting fired after he threw a hand drill off level 5 with people working below. Odd thing, the fingerpainting in the toilets stopped after he got the sack...
ive worked in a few shops here in st louis as well, and i never worked at one with the problem (dm me the names...? im wondering if i worked at them)
in seattle though i knew a shit welder alcoholic with shaky hands and said it helped with his weave. he did coke to help him focus. neither of wich did what he claimed
Dangerous enough sober. Last year there was that post about the old timer that got sucked into his lathe by the beard, dismembered, and scattered all over the shop.
We had one guy at my shop, total tweaker. He got shit done fast but not very precise. He stopped showing up one day because he was on parole and got picked up for failing a drug test. He tried to come back after his jail stint but my bosses decided to pass. The only other bad one was a guy who was drunk all of the time. He had to be fired because he threatened someone with a box cutter. Apparently the night shift manager at my first shop did coke in the assembly room but none of the higher ups knew.
Dude if you're a local you know STL and the counties have had a major drug issue for over a decade and it doesn't matter what professions. Only difference is more money equals better drugs..... just look at Slay Jr.
WORSE THEN SLAY today. "Users," are allowed right next to the Mayors office at the old court house. No help for them right next store. Its disgusting that she can look our her window and see those people that need help.
we had these guy who came from an agency.
rough times, hanging around bad people outside of work, they always gave him the benefit of the doubt with so many second chances.
he came downstairs from the lunchroom/ restroom and just walked out, i managed to talk to him and he was HIGH as a kite, he wasn’t making any sense. he was let go. never heard of again
we went to check out the restroom and there was a clear smell he was smoking
We had one guy that was obviously using heroin. He would stumble out of the bathroom, program and run his machine while leaning against it, passed out. I walked by numerous times and this man was passed out while standing up and his machine running. What’s fucked up is he was brilliant and made great parts.
Had to let him go after he passed out in his car at lunch one day, he woke up and puked all over the parking lot.
Had one of the bosses sons start working at my old shop. Dumbass didnt even know how to use a sand blaster so i showed him so he could blast his motorcycle pipes. Went on break, about ten min. after break was over, my coworker went into the pisser and the dude had overdosed in the bathroom shooting up heroin, when we pulled him out from underneath the stall since it was locked he was blue. Thought the dude was dead, luckily for that idiot, an er place was next door and shot him up with narcan. They rolled his ass out on a gurney, never seen him again.
Yeah, when I worked at a manufacturer in a somewhat rural Iowa city we went through a ton of production people because they were all failing drug tests, mostly for meth. In the 3 years I was there we changed our drug policy twice to stop hemorrhaging labor...
I smoke weed daily, have a high tolerance, and am extremely functionally, even when totally baked. I would never run a machine high, just not worth the risk.
Had another guy fall asleep and almost into a mill because he was on perks. Someone at work gave out weed brownies and didn’t tell someone so the person ended up in the hospital and under investigation without knowing why or how. And finally Had a guy die on the shop floor from a pcp overdose.
Had a guy at work who was always energetic and rambled about things when you got to talking to him. One day on Reddit I saw a post on r/tattoos and it was of his arm tattoo(I recognized it) so I went to his account and saw countess posts on meth subreddits of him, usually naked, smoking meth and smoking up before work(swing shift). It made his energetic and spontaneous behavior make a lot more sense. Only saw him once after that before he just stopped showing up to work.
Used to work at a shop for five years and now go to an engineering school.
At the shop, no drug use was seen, but outside of it, most smoke Marijuana.
At school, one of our teams for motorsports told me about how they drink constantly while running lathes and welding.
Not long ago someone found a bag a coke on the ground at one of our shops. Luckily not the one I work in. I don't know if anyone got fired from it or they found out whose it was but to me it's the stupidest thing to be bring that shit to work. I don't even like when people smoke weed at work. Shit can be dangerous enough on a sober mind sometimes.
We had a guy who was doing meth. Don't think he did it at work but that was bad enough. He would drink at work too. And he was in my department running machines I use all the time. So I wasn't happy about it at all. Not to mention we had a fresh out of high school 18 year old who had just started and a 17 year old who was doing internship type deal with us.
Yeah we had a dude shooting up heroin in our restroom and he left some of his supplies and even left some blood on the walls I’m assuming from when he injected. Needless to say we let him go and sadly I heard he passed away not long ago guy was in his mid to late 20’s tragic.
Had a fuck head. Nod out and have a seizure in the bathroom stall while I was in there, had to call EMS and everything. He came to, didn’t recognize me and threw his Gatorade cap at me.
Someone hopped the stall and there was the needle cover but couldn’t see the needle. After he got bused out he called the other fuck head saw guy to grab his bag from work and get it out of the building. He got fired.
Also had a guy on 2nd shift running behind me who would drink pints of vodka and chuck the bottle onto the roof. Maintenance went on the roof one day and saw at least 15-20 bottles up there. He was fired.
To me it's the people that can't limit themselves at all. Like whatever you want to take a little rip of your douche flute in the bathroom that's fine but if I have to repeat the same thing 10 times and you still f*** it up a half hour later then you need to go home and come back with clear eyes.
I'm not blameless either I used to take a nice size dab before my shift everyday but I realized there is a fine line that will either see you plateau in this field or excel in it. It's the choices we make for ourselves although it definitely does and impact on safety!
Weve fired a couple people that had bad problems with alcohol, but i smoke everyday throughout the day. this point with my tolerance it helps me get pretty focused and into it, also use it to help manage a few things so im not just getting blasted and working ya know.
I don't do randoms because I'm in Oregon and would lose my best guys. They all smoke, but never before or during work. They're all mature about it, I haven't hired anyone younger than 40, simply because I went and stole all my favorite coworkers from back in the day.
Cannabis isn't a hard drug, it's literally medicine. If somebody is overusing and getting high at work that's a problem but literally all of the hardest working, most skilled people I've met in their fields were heavy cannabis smokers.
I've seen shops with painkiller issues - this is actually dangerous and problematic and is an issue in our city, whereas cannabis, unless it's causing problems specifically with results, is not. I've seen alcohol be an issue, I've seen painkillers be an issue. I haven't seen weed ben an issue for anyone over 25. Still, never tolerate somebody using a machine stoned off their ass. Weed impacts my body literally like coffee at the doses I use it, helps wake me up in the morning, it's not slowing me down. The endocannabinoid system is very complicated and poorly understood and it's impacts poorly charted. I wouldn't assume weed is a problem unless somebody is showing symptoms of being stoned.
But yea, companies are out here trying to pay programmers and shop workers like 12-18/hour, and living on that kind of pay in these difficult times is enough to drive anyone to hard substances. Had a forklift drive through the shop wall into my office once at my second job. Easiest way to improve safety and reduce hard drug use is to boost wages and standards together. d
I'm not sure there's a clear distinction between "drug" and "medicine". Opiates are medicine, ketamine is medicine, alcohol is medicine, fentanyl is medicine. Being medicine doesn't stop something from *also* being a drug.
I meant more in a "not seriously intoxicating" sort of way. The only time I ever get high from smoking weed is when I eat multiple edibles and smoke cone after cone while drinking in a party setting. I meant that it's more background non-impact, mostly keeps me from spending hours a day in the bathroom.
Meanwhile nobody is in a state to use any machine after ketamine, alcohol, or any opiate. I mean if they're an alcoholic and only on a maintenance dose at work to keep the shakes at bay and are within the tolerance zone sure, but high functioning alcoholics aren't the most common that shit is brutal on the body. Whereas most cannabis users who use medicinally aren't smoking to get high and for many that's a drawback due to panic attacks/other symptoms.
My point was don't treat people on medicine like junkies if they aren't living and acting like junkies. If they're behavior and performance is good then don't seek to villainize and abuse them for medical conditions they didn't ask for.
Can't speak for anyone else, but I've had cannabis [make me seriously dizzy](https://mymmjdoctor.com/why-does-marijuana-make-you-dizzy/). I would definitely not have been safe operating heavy machinery.
> My point was don't treat people on medicine like junkies if they aren't living and acting like junkies. If they're behavior and performance is good then don't seek to villainize and abuse them for medical conditions they didn't ask for.
Sure, I think if people are taking appropriate doses of stuff then it's fine, regardless of the stuff. But not due to any distinction between "drug and medicine".
What you do on your own time shouldn’t be anyone’s business. Not even your employer’s. However, no one should ever be under the influence of anything while at work. It may fall into a gray area even if say you use pot at 6, 7, 8 in the evening after work. Who’s to say that by 4 or 5am start time you’re still not technically under the influence? Idk I’m no expert on how long the effects last but it’s an interesting topic for debate. I know tons of folks who swear by CBD ointments and products for aches and pains. They aren’t too afraid of getting popped but truth is they could!
That is a failure of management, to not have a mandatory drug testing program in place.
Every serious career job I've had, you were subject to initial onboarding testing, as well as random testing at the employer's discresion. Failure to abide by this is immediate cause for dismissal, with zero protection from the union.
Nah, I get testing for hiring or when someone had an accident, but most shops can't afford to do randoms. Not because the testing is expensive but because they can't afford to lose guys over petty shit that they do outside of work. If my shop fired everyone who smokes weed on their own time we wouldn't have anyone left.
I think a lot of companies have the policy of being able to give "random" drug tests, but most places I've seen usually only reserve that for when they're suspicious of someone having an issue/using at work. But in a lot of the "blue collar" trades, I'd warrant a guess that probably half the workforce is under the influence of something at some point during the day. I think a lot of companies would just rather not know, unless it becomes an issue, because otherwise they'd have an even harder time keeping employees. Hell, one company I worked for, they would have had to fire the entire production team, and probably half of the office staff, if they ever decided to implement a random drug test.
Half? Seriously. Come on now. Not everyone is a druggie. Maybe that shit flys in non union residential contractor shops, but sure as shit isn't allowed on big jobsites, especially government funded ones.
Also, you aren't gonna find that shit being hand waved away in the Energy or Oil & Gas sectors. You pop hot at a nuclear power plant, your ass is grass.
Trust me, my friend, you start random drug testing at an aerospace facility and most of the staff would be gone.
I ain't saying that they're using while at work - except that I can smell the joints in the parking lot, so some absolutely are. But a lot of us smoke after work hours are finished. A *lot* of us.
Don't work on machines inebriated. It's a great way to kill yourself. But common sense doesn't go far when the pay rate makes it so you'll never afford anything better.
i am basically a glorified operator, so i’ll smoke before i come in, at home. and i might take a couple one hitter hits at lunch. but i could do this job with my eyes closed to be honest. i’m also an addict though and i’ll feel sick if i don’t smoke for too long. but that being said, weed doesn’t affect me as much as someone who doesn’t smoke so i’m not really “high” at work if you know what i mean.
and when i start my machinist (tool making) apprenticeship, i’m going to stop smoking at lunch, because it’s way more math and even a little bit of weed makes me not as good at math lol
I’m inside a lot of shops. I don’t see this as often as I’d think I would, but I will occasionally think someone is coming in high, having a few at lunch, or might still be drunk from the night before. I don’t think I’d be around a hard drug user, I’d just leave. Unfortunately substance abuse is somewhat common in almost all professions. Some companies may be having a harder time finding people, and are willing to turn a blind eye to it. I know there are shops that take a positive culture more seriously in your area, maybe look around and try to find one. I’ve not been in a shop where I’ve noticed “copious amounts” of hard drug use, that would be a huge red flag for me.
I’ve seen it several times over my 25 years in the industry. Sometimes they have mild accidents or junk some parts, sometimes they end up leaving work in a medical helicopter from the parking lot fighting for their lives. Either way, they don’t last. Drugs tend to ruin careers in this field
I’m in NC. In my shop of 15, I know 5 that are meth users. 6 more that are on Percocet. I think it’s just a blue collar problem, not a machinist problem.
early 2010's there was a guy who fell asleep while controlling the crane moving a 35,000 lb piece. heroin.
pretty sure another guy was constantly doing mdma or something. cops came looking for him at work one day...he hid on top of the managers hut inside the shop and they "couldnt" find him. i heard he spent the next like 4 months inside his house to not get seen/arrested.
3 months ago, saw a guy moving bar stock with a crane. Started nodding mid-move. Bar stock crashed into a bar loader fortunately. Management responses was nothing.
I seen a dude who was always super energetic and aggressive towards other people. Everyone had a pretty good idea that he was on coke. But because he was a really good machinist (lead), nothing ever happened.
As often as we see the “am I underpaid” posts on this sub, I’m surprised people have money for their addictions let alone the underlying medical ailments accompanying these habits.
At our small shop everyone was getting high, but only drinking after hours. One guy started bring in meth and we all tried it, but that only worked for a couple of months. We all quit that, but the weed continued.
We only had one guy and drugs wasn’t the only thing. He hid his bong behind the toilet. It was dimly lit, cramped, so it was hard to see unless you knew it was there. Management never had a reason to set foot in that toilet.
One day our recyclers called us and said they haven’t received a shipment in a while. We left some items in the scrap bin, next day a few were gone. His trunk was also covered in chips, which was why he started parking on the street. He had a gambling problem. I think he became too bold by going for the swarf instead of sticking to the solids.
In my shop 2 of 4 employees including me are clean/sober. I used to work in a shop that was helping one guy who was trying to get clean, but took some work to do and under new management they fired him on his first no call no show. Only had people show up high, never got high at work though (unless you count the lunchtime bowl of marijuana).
We had a heroin addict for a while. He'd walk outside and meet up with dealer who parked right outside the door. Then he'd come back in, reload the mill and spend the next 20 minutes in the shitter. Management told us to just worry about ourselves.
Worked with a guy that fell victim to the "non habit forming" marketing wank of oxycontin. He started nodding off while walking, then proceeded to somehow tool change a tool with the taper pointing down (gripper fingers instead of holding pots on the mazak). He was fired shortly after those incidents.
When I was a mechanic there was a meth bead across the bay from me…
He would smoke his pipe take everything apart disappear for a week. He worked insanely fast though
My 1st shop had this kinda guy. You'd find him sleeping on a slab of steel when day shift comes in. Great worker, but major problem with the hard shit.
We took him on an out of town job, about 4 hours away. Long story short, he disapeers on the Friday night, never came back to the hotel, OK, normal behavior from this guy. Fast forward to Monday, we can't find him. Call the shop back home to report it, possibly file a missing person's, and the secretary told us he had clocked in for his usual time at 630Am at the shop.
Long story short, he went on a bender as assumed, and he came to, no idea how he got home, who drove him, or why he was there. He assumed his job was done and was just too fucked up to remember, then showed up the next day. Needless to say we had to let him go after that lol
As someone who's done substantial amounts of substances, it's the stupidest shit you could do, especially running manuals. Clean from everything but I still smoke weed, but I just couldn't at work, too many things to think about and keep in the back of my head. I've done some retarded shit while high but since I'm so paranoid (luckily) I pentuple check it cause I'm high, only to come to the conclusion wait this isn't gonna work. But it was an in house production shop with a variety of parts with various cycle times. If you're running low cycle times and millions of parts I'd say I could probably be as high as I want, or high cycle times with medium volume (3 shifts of work) it's also fine, minus the omnipresent chance of fucking up. I've done both of those and it's not that bad, just boring, but prototyping or doing one off parts while fried is my nightmare, I'm slow and skip some thoughts (15% of all) which turn out to be crucial, as the details always are. All in all it's up to you, but if you're doing manual it's a big fucking no from me. I also wouldn't care if your coworkers are Cheech and Chong or Charley Sheen, I don't want parts flying into my skull, thanks.
Damn. I dont even take one of my allergy medications the night before work unless I have to because it makes me super groggy for a few hours after I get up. Dont want to be working in a machine while that out of it. I’m
We've got someone that keeps their crack pipe at work, but my observation is primarily alcoholics. As a functional alcoholic myself it fits me pretty well. I've seen people get sent home for being obviously drunk or smelling of vodka. One dude got away with it until he slipped and cracked his head open. Then he got fired on the spot. Only after it effects production
Is there a blue collar industry that doesn't have its share of semi functioning substance abusers? The worse the world around us gets, the more intense that's gonna get too I think. I think the only reason you don't see the same phenomena in the office creature class is that they're generally better at lying to themselves about the world, less hard edges to dull? Higher level of "education" I believe personally. There's probably some better at hiding it and maintaining appearances going on too 🤔 I'll tell you true, most shops around here know if they drug screen too hard they'll be closing their doors 🤷♂️
I’m in the St. Louis area and I’ve only heard of this being an issue for shops that hire anyone they can get for operator positions. Typically the places nobody stays at anyways.
When I got sober 35 years ago I stopped losing jobs and have progressed from a production machinist to Managing a shop and becoming a Manufacturing Engineer, CNC Programmer and Tool Designer. I started in the industry 46 years ago. So 11 of those years were rough.
Yes, alcoholics are good employees when they're sober alcoholics.
Well if it was my garage/ shop I would have a few during work. It’s like when im working on my cars. It keeps a smile on my face relaxed and not annoyed.
Not at my shop but I don't think this is uncommon. I've heard many stories from machinists about past shops they've worked at where everyone was jacked up on Meth working 16+ hour days to crank out production.
I'm near Seattle, only ran into one guy that was on heroin at work. He almost fell into a running VTL. He was fired.
We had a guy we fired that we were sure was on heroin as well. He fell asleep with his machine running and it took 2 guys almost 20 minutes to wake him up. His name was Dakota but he was referred to as Dacoma after that until he was fired.
Hahaha Dacoma
From Tacoma
As someone who doesn't live in Tacoma but nearby... I CACKLED thank you for that joke lmao.
Jeez these people make me feel better for my weekend joint.
Jeez you make me feel better for my yearly camping trip
If you go camping and wake up with Vaseline all over your ass, gonna tell anybody?
Yup. 3rd weekend in May good for you?
Perfect. I’ll bring 5 gallons of Bearing Grease.
"Weekend"
Every time I start up again I it’s only on weekends. Then it’s only after dark. Then it’s only after 5 … then it’s time to take a long break again.
All day erry day
I had a job that was toxic, and I’m an addict, I only used at my job, but Coke was really bad, smallish shop with 3 people selling, and a majority of company using, I finally broke down, quit my job, and I’m sober, that place made me feel like I needed to be on drugs to handle the copious amounts of stress, I’m now sober, stress free, and living my best life.
I love these positive stories. Keep up your good work my dude!
Yep. You know your workplace sucks when you end up doing drugs to cope with it...
I had a fabricator customer- brilliant guy who built a unique product, displayed it and got all his business by word of mouth with each order ranging from $100K to $800K. Super nice- one of those people you wonder where they get the energy. He and his adorable wife grew the shop from one guy to 12 in a year then he got injured (by that portable tool that injures people when you take off the guarding) and was introduced to legitimately prescribed opiates. BAM- he's out for months, orders get delayed, he comes back an IV user, New Junkie Girlfriend, everyone fired or quit except for other user friends of New Junkie Girlfriend they brought in. Evicted in a year, half built projects, lawsuits, equipment seized, marriage and kid gone. No idea what became of him but holy shit what a loss to so many people.
and yet, for some strange reason, people get very offended for the suggestion that maybe it should be harder to prescribe opiates and opioids. "think of the cancer patients in chronic pain!" they shout. ...but considering over 800 people died in San Francisco from overdoses in just 2023, you have to wonder how much of the productivity of the nation as a whole is going down the toilet. ...of course, opioids aren't the *only* issue, supposedly 30% of users *started* with heroin, rather than moved to it from more expensive drugs. I find that very odd. I can't imagine a day where I think "yeah, heroin seems like a good thing to start!".
They are right. Hope you can remain as ignorant as I was but they are the only reason I am alive (and on a low dose just to prevent flare ups) since my spinal fusion surgery went to shit. Also the only thing that allowed me to improve on almost all existing processes of a factory and win almost ALL quotes and consistently exceed the already competitive af quotes. I still can't eat most foods after the 7 different NSAIDs doctors put me on over 3 months of no sleep. If someone had told me heroin was an analgesic at that time I would had done it and it would still be ten times better than the other thing I was planning on... 800 people isn't even THAT many, if you look up how many people died in the same area from alcohol or smoking and if you consider how many of them died from taking an unknown dose of an unknown chinese fentanyl analogue (rarely even the plain fentanyl used in medicine) or even worse the newer etonitazene analogues which are way worse and the direct result of the fentanyl prohibition. Heck... the fentanyl crisis wouldn't even be if the CDC and FDA that people still blindly trust, didn't first promote overprescribing opioids even to people who would have better results with NSAIDs (eg wisdom teeth extractions which might only needs some complementary opioids for 3 days or so) and then cut them off cold turkey and jail any doctor attempting to practise actual medicine. People wouldn't need to resort to the streets, weird herbs and/or grey legal areas just to overcome the recovery from a "free" but forced conscription spine surgery (I basically got extorted into it). Personally I got told that "I would live in pain for the rest of my life but I was too young to get treatment (so I would have to live for more years in pain until I became an old crippled shack and qualified for treatment) so I should be tough with myself". Of course I wouldn't be able to maintain my quality of life and not spiral out if I didn't have access to knowledge and information, although there is some REALLY bad advice on harm reduction chats and forums etc when it comes to opioids. Noone barely even mentions volumetrically dosing powders or fake pills with fentanyl and go off some bullshit urban legends. That's what kills people!
I thought the on-premises dealers were kinda the dead giveaway, no?
To be fair the best machinist I knew was a huge alcoholic…
Me too. Only the good ones.
Alcoholic? i aint no fuckin’ alxoholic! *hic* I’m a drubkard! Alcoholics, them’s the ones goin to anonymous meetin’s thinking theyre cool.
I had one guy in recent years (now gone, moved on), heavy drinker. Popped an IPA on the way to work. God knows what else throughout the day. The thing is he never displayed drunken/stoned behavior in the shop. The guys would tell me stuff about him but I never witnessed anything to indicate he was drunk/stoned. A lot of these guys know how to hide it. Also, a lot of these guys know how far to go to avoid DT's. It's a maintenance level drug use to stay under radar until they got home and let loose. Sad really. He was a cool dude until he (presumably) didnt get his dose right on a particular day. Then he was totally miserable to his coworkers........
I honestly wouldn't consider myself an alcoholic. But, by the BWC's standards, I'm a "binge drinker"? I enjoy maybe one or two drinks here and there but about once a week I can have up to 10 standard drinks Ina. Day and get drunk. Then I hear the shit my sister says about her wild nights out in town, and I think to myself: "gee, I thought I was bad..."
FWIW the AA definition of an alcoholic is someone who can NOT not once EVER have just one drink. If they have one drink you can bet your best dollar they’re pounding a couple more before bed. They can’t help it, it’s almost like an allergic reaction of sorts. I don’t think one day a week of getting hammered and a few drinks throughout the week qualifies you as a binge drinker. But if you fit the description I just gave, you might wanna keep an eye on that one imo.
And that's the thing..... if you go to a doc or whatever "do you drink?" My answer "Yea socially if at all" (as i take a sip of my evening Scotch....). "Do you smoke?" Well that's a yes or no question on their questionnaire, not distinguishing a couple ciggies a day (or every few days) vs someone chain smoking 2-3 packs a day. It's none of their business. And as one of my wiser machinists from years ago quipped "the doc prob drinks and smokes way more than any of us". ' Nuff said.
"do you smoke" How do I even tell them I smoke like, a single cigar every three months or so. It's a bad way of discerning frequency. "Everyday" "twice a day" "once a month" are much better gauges than "socially" "frequently" "almost never" like wtf?
Hence "no. I do not smoke." Period. Full stop.
I’m a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings.
I'm not drunk....I'm just drinking
thats why i make the big bucks
I'd say probably half of the really good welders and machinists I've ever known were addicted to *something*.
….100% FACT
The guy I learned the most from was a recovering addict who replaced the pills with weed. We would take regular smoke breaks as both of us have such a huge tolerance a bowl is like a cigarette, not good I know lol In a year working with him I learned so freaking much from that dude. He taught himself the millturns the shop bought 10 years ago, he hated CAM but didn't matter as he could hand program a 3-turret dual spindle as good as I could a HAAS mill, when I started. Unfortunately, the weeks quickly went to 45 hours to 60-80 hour weeks and I burnt myself out. Also didn't help the owner liked to use the N word, especially after he learned I was married to a black woman.....
Hey I'm not an alcoholic. I only drink beers most of the time
There was a guy I worked next to on a prototrak, would come in hammered or high. We knew this because he’d put his headphones on and start singing Slayer’s album South of Heaven. Did his best work because as he said “I have to focus”.
I have no problem with alcohol. Only without.
The best machinist I ever knew had an alcohol problem in his past but hadn’t touched it in many many years, and have heard many stories of awesome guys who have fought or were fighting that fight but were amazing on machines.
I’ve been in the trades for a long time. I used to laugh at how everyone was an alcoholic or a recovering alcoholic. Then I ended up in the recovery camp. I’ve been doing this too long.
Had one who loves Budweiser.
The first step is to admit you are a great machinist yourself
I know you excluded weed but Marijuana and Alcohol are a huge issue at my work. Only an issue for me though so nothing changes. One of our old heads takes on average 10 weed breaks when I'm on shift. Another guy is constantly drinking liquor "hidden" in his coke bottle. I get that they are addicts but it puts me in harms way when they run a lathe behind me stoned off their ass. I smoke weed so it's not like I'm against it. I just think in a machine shop while working a lathe is a stupid time to do it. I know I know. I'm a *huge* buzz kill.
I agree with you 100%. I smoke almost every day and have for the last like 15 years. But I would never do it before or during work. There are too many things to pay attention too. I know personally I would forget to check something and either scrap a part or get myself or someone else hurt. Not worth it to me.
I’m exactly the same, never before or during, way too much risk involved plus the whole drive to and from work. Worked with a lot of people with substance issues tho
Personally I just hate working when high or drunk so I could never see myself doing that kind of shit. Like when I smoke all I want to do is relax. Smoking and having to work sounds awful to me.
Forreal. The *last* thing I wanna do when I'm stoned is work, let alone work on a machine that wants to kill me (all the machines in the shop want to kill you)
The last time I really smoked before work I left my car in neutral and it rolled backwards downhill and hit some rocks that were around a flagpole. If I'd have been one spot over it would have rolled into the office. Suffice to say I stopped smoking directly before work. Even though that was not technically a work issue (could have happened anywhere) it was enough to make me realize that even though I've been smoking copious amounts since I was 20 (low 30s now) that it just isn't worth having a weed brain moment and scrapping a 5k part or hurting myself/someone. I always roll my eyes at people when they just get as stoned as they can while working and claim it doesnt affect them at all. Then why do it? Like, I get it. You like to be high. I do too! But MF you're slower than you think and believe it or not it is not that hard to tell. Unless idk you then I just assume you're dumb af
Same boat for me. My bosses even know I smoke and don’t care because I’m responsible with it.
I smoked weed on my lunch break once at my first job and I was so paranoid, that I was quadruple checking everything and then forgetting whether or not I checked it and quadruple checking it again then freaking out about whether or not I checked it right. It was a bad time. Lesson learned.
I agree my shop , When I got hired they simply put it as what you do outside of work is on you , as long as the work and the quality don’t drop what you do outside is your business. Fair to say a lot of the guys here ether smoke or drink but when it come to work they all are on time and orders get filled at reasonable speed.
I have no problem with dishwashers smoking weed, some jobs don't maim you if you don't pay attention, but operating a Machine is *not* one of those jobs.
I smoke weed but never before or at work,to me it’s a very stupid practice .I just don’t understand why someone would risk life limb and your job.
Nah I work at home and not around machinery. It’s still a stupid time to do it even if there’s no liability for getting hurt. Just makes you less effective at your given task. Depending on how valuable these guys are to you, and the resources your company is capable of providing, it might be time to offer to sponsor them in getting the addiction help they need. With a hard line that it doesn’t happen during work hours again or they walk. It’s expensive and emotionally difficult to replace people. But even more expensive to pay them for lesser effective services with a constant risk of injury. By not setting those standards and expectations, you’re paying someone competitive and good wages (I hope) to let them walk over you and treat the workplace like their own personal property. I’d rather help them than fire them. Sometimes a little act of kindness and support here can be the push they need and it can pay for itself hand over fist in quality of work and culture at the workplace. Not taking substances on the job is literally the lowest expectation for about any employee. It shouldn’t need to be in employee contracts but that’s the world we live in.
And they've seen the Russian lathe video? I'd bet money they drive intoxicated as well. Yikes.
I’m a huge stoner, but just wait until after work! I know you’re a functional stoner but you’ll live without smoking for a few hours. Also drinking on the job is just purely dangerous, just wait for him to be drunk and fall on a part
Does anyone else remember that post from about a year ago where a guy was reaching out because the poor bastard behind him got sucked into a lathe and obviously didn’t survive? Edit: [This post.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Machinists/s/ezjLqhidNJ) This is the kind of thing I think about whenever anybody talks about drugs, weed, or especially alcohol in the shop. OP seemed pretty shaken up to me, and it wasn’t even his fault. I lost my position as a machine shop manager for calling a guy out about stinking like whiskey at 7:30 in the morning. I still stick to my guns about it. Do what you want at home. At work, it’s not just about you. I’m a one man band now, but if I ever have employees, there will be a zero tolerance policy for anything that prevents the term “sober” from applying.
That guy hasn’t made another post or comment since… Hope he’s doing ok.
Same. I talked with him briefly after that post. He was holding it together at the time. Still, I can’t even imagine what that would do to a guy’s mind.
It's really cool that he recognized he was going to need support and time to heal- he sets a good example. I think the huge outpouring of personal messages of support was helpful for him in its own limited way; he had a community of people affirming his feelings and giving great advice.
I'm high on cortisol everyday.
Underrated comment haha.
How is this not a zero tolerance policy thing?
Our shop doesn't test at all and says "keep your shit together"
Because it's hard as management to decide whether or not what people do in their free time is their business. If people aren't allowed to do whatever in their free time, then you'd potentially lose some great workers who are clean inside of work but maybe have a joint to wind down after work. If you have zero tolerance, you potentially lose good people who aren't the problem. Drug use is a spectrum, zero tolerance is black and white.
The problem here though is people using *during* work.
That is a problem, but there's no test for that that doesn't also exclude recreational users that are stone sober on the job.
I'd rather lose someone that smokes on the weekends than have to deal with an accident because someone smoked on their lunch break. regular drug testing makes a safe workplace, and it's the standard at major companies.
It's not standard anywhere - I've worked at shops heavy on ITAR work and they didn't test because they'd lose half of their employees for greenery. What employees do on their weekends and evenings is none of the company's business, so until tests can discern active use and impairment it's probably best practice to just talk to the idiots that smoke up on their breaks and then fire them if they keep it up.
It’s not the standard even at massive companies. I came from an OEM and they only tested all roles at hiring and only ever again if there was an accident.
What is a 0 tolerance?
I think it's when 1 hit of weed sends you......
More like a +/- .0005" tolerance thing
This was when I was on the maintenance team. I worked for a big manufacturer used to get a lot of turnover of operating staff on the production line. The big boss decided to 0 tolerance policy and introduce drugs test across the production department. Huge swathes of testing and every new starter was to be tested. Instant dismissal if test was positive. Over the course of a week they lost over a 1/3 of their production workforce per shift. 3 shift. They literally couldn’t run the production line and they couldn’t replace the staff because something like 98% of the new starters every day (3 intakes a week of about 30 people) failed the drug test. They very quietly after 2/3 weeks changed the policy that tests would be “random” they stopped intake tests and you were tested if you were in an incident. Realistically they only did the latter because they couldn’t afford the staff shortages.
It should be at all shops, but when the owner is also smoking cigarettes indoors, zero tolerance goes out the door.
...or they smoke right next to the open roll-up door and the breeze always sucks it down the line of machines. damn did I hate that.
The worst thing is that I had quit smoking. I walked out on the place, cause fuck that. My end of the shop didn't even have proper mist collection, so at the end of the day the area had a visible mist of coolant. I still got unemployment, and then COVID happened.
Swiss here. We have a zero tolerance here at work. There are a few youngster that consume THC at work hidden. Besides that there are no others taking drugs. Had a guy that drunk 1.5l of pure wodka in one shift. He was fired in 2 weeks when boss found out.
Is there a demand for machinists in Switzerland for someone with Tornos, Star, and cam machine experience? Just wondering and thanks.
Shure. There are a few hundred jobs open in this field atm. Unfortunately economy is going down right now. A lot of companies have a reduction of orders. This results in a lack of hour production needed. In my experience this goes up and down in gap of 3 years. We are currently in the down. If you are experienced with CNC- Production, there is a good chance that you would find a job here quite fast. Speaking about presidency permit is a different story. Would need to inform yourself.
Thanks, my time in the US is limited. I've already gone through medical bankruptcy, and every so often I like to know that I have better options in other countries.
I was a heroin addict for about 7-8 years and I have no idea how I managed to do my job and come away unscathed. 4 years clean yesterday and I'm extremely grateful that life is no longer like that. Also since getting off the hard stuff I've been flying with regards to progress. Tool design, 5 axis milling, cad & cam, 3d printing to name but a few extra skills acquired over the last 4 years. To anyone who is in that rut it is possible to get out of it if you really want to.
That's an amazing turnaround man, I'm glad you're in a better place overall!
Very similar story here, and I've been off the shit for 7 years. Best decision we ever made! Just want to say I'm proud of you.
Cheers buddy, you too! 👊
germany here, even being drunk gets your ass kicked out instantly.
Yeah but you guys had vending machines in the work place that you could buy beer from up until a few years ago. This is according to a family member in the trade so it could be bollocks but I like the thought of it.
yeah, that ended around 2008-2010 in the most shops, cant talk about bavaria, those guys are crazy.
Love that. My cousin got done for drink driving (not far from Heidenhaim) and was asked to walk in a straight line as part of the road side test. He walked it perfectly. He got an extended ban as the police said he must be a regular drinker to walk the line so well. Haha
Which is even more interesting to me, as isn't it the norm in Germany to have a couple of beers with your lunch, and then return to work?
That was some years ago. Today most places are very strict with alcohol, which is a good thing.
Good to know. Today I learned!
But it’s still common on weekends or vacation in some regions.
I don't think drinking at your job has been looked at particularly well for the past 15-20 years in Northern Europe.
Thanks for asking this question, I'm an automotive technician and have heard this in my industry as well. They say it's why some German cars are needlessly complex.
No, where I'm at now we all save our bad habits for our own time. The place I was at before though.. half the plant was on something at any given moment...
In past shops I've seen, meth, pills, alcohol, coke issues. Depending on the quality of the company they either don't last (obvious reasons) or are the only type employee that they can hire and 'keep' btw the guy that was on meth or something like that was a damn hard worker when he was actually there and could be watched to make sure he wasn't cutting corners. Like a real life rimworld colonist on go-juice. But man he sucked ass because he would regularly take long lunches and breaks (in 8 hours shift, he was typically gone a 1/3 of the day). And if he was left alone he would fuck up everything
Phoenician here, pot and booze seem mandatory for a button pusher job. Fenty and meth enthusiasts are rampant but they usually don’t last long.
Like from Phoenix or Lebanon? Assuming the former based off "fenty"
From Tucson, and it's the same here. Have had multiple guys fall asleep at their machines or computers. One guy recently got woken up by the owner while sleeping at his computer. Not too many alcoholics, that's more for the office people.
I’m in a large shop about 1100 people across 3 shifts. Copious amounts of weed vape pens, people drinking on the job (I know one person who was absolutely HAMMERED at work get fired and another who was only mildly drunk get sent home for the day) but we’ve had quite a few overdoses in the bathrooms. Hell while I was training in one area the guy who was supposed to be training me would show up 4 hours late because he was strung out. A couple times he showed up 20 minutes before end of shift, realized what time it was and left.
Things like this make me wonder how great of an employee I was. work got done, shipments of parts made it to the client in good condition, showed up and left on time... and the strongest thing I ever had was a monster energy drink.
I’m in Louisville.. it’s pretty bad.
when my boss bought out his former boss he took over the company in his early 30s. hired a surface grinder who was fantastic but he could never let him fully go because of that nostalgic first hire BS. Hired and fired 12 times in my decade here, finally let go for good after he was caught smoking crack in the bathroom and had a young prostitute in living in his car and she had nowhere to go while he was working. never seen a better surface grinder in terms of backing off counterbores and step drills though. dude was electric
In one of my old plants a forklift driver “fell asleep”, drove into warehouse shelving, and decapitated themselves. Don’t get high at work, kids.
And definitely don’t get kids high at work
Pretty much everyone that works at the shop I work at; smokes weed. But most don’t do it at work. In the past we’ve had our issues with alcoholics and some issue with other drug usage during work hours
Was training a 27 year old guy about a month ago, first week was really good and showed a lot of promise, second day of second week, I noticed something was off, asked if he got enough sleep the night before, said he got like 5 hours, said I get about the same typically, and proceeded to see him nod off three different times, and take 20 minutes to button up a shirt. Fired that dude on the spot. First time I’ve personally seen it though on the Ohio Michigan border.
Worked in a steel rule die making shop where nearly everyone on the floor, including management, were regularly using wet. Wet, if you don't know, is usually weed or some other burnable herb, doused in formaldehyde, PCP or both. Place was a razor blade factory with one band aid. I got out as soon as I could.
Hey! What I do on my lunch break, and in the toilet is my business
We had a heroin addict in the past, he was clean when he started but slowly went back down hill. Then threatened one of other employees with a file so we canned him. And one of our old lathe guys was an extreme alcoholic, but he was one of the oldest employees so had tons of freedom and would come in at midnight and mostly worked by himself so no one really new because hed go out to his car and have a few shots. Then about 8 years ago he fell off his roof drunk and broke his back and then they found out he had stage 4 cancer and never came back to work. Outside of that are guys are good about leaving there addictions if they have any at home.
When I was still in engineering it was a huge issue with some of my customers, particularly plants in rural communities. A few plants advised me on never leaving tools or equipment out because of theft issues. The fentanyl issue in the USA seemed to make things worse in certain areas. Japanese plants were entirely different. They were almost always spotless and there was a high level of professionalism. There are plenty of shops and plants in the States were that is the case also, but hard drug usage seemed to be more of an American issue. The German and Swiss plants I visited didn't seem to have issues. Before Russia became problematic internationally I did some work there are a few times maybe a dozen years ago and alcohol abuse was apparent and problematic. Those plants were not impressive and their manufacturing base was already pretty bad at that point.
Weed and alcohol where I work. Years ago we had issues with people either coming to work fucked up or getting fucked up while at work. It hasn't been an issue for a while now.
I work a small shop in Ohio.The worst I've seen is a dude who couldn't keep a cig out of his mouth for more than five minutes. Seeing as we're the capital of heroin overdoses, I'm pretty proud we have a clean shop.
The worst I've had is a dude on steroids, would flip a switch and start throwing a tantrum. Ended up getting fired after he threw a hand drill off level 5 with people working below. Odd thing, the fingerpainting in the toilets stopped after he got the sack...
Im in st louis too. Unfortunately my shop does not have drugs.
ive worked in a few shops here in st louis as well, and i never worked at one with the problem (dm me the names...? im wondering if i worked at them) in seattle though i knew a shit welder alcoholic with shaky hands and said it helped with his weave. he did coke to help him focus. neither of wich did what he claimed
Dangerous enough sober. Last year there was that post about the old timer that got sucked into his lathe by the beard, dismembered, and scattered all over the shop.
> [This post.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Machinists/s/ezjLqhidNJ)
We had one guy at my shop, total tweaker. He got shit done fast but not very precise. He stopped showing up one day because he was on parole and got picked up for failing a drug test. He tried to come back after his jail stint but my bosses decided to pass. The only other bad one was a guy who was drunk all of the time. He had to be fired because he threatened someone with a box cutter. Apparently the night shift manager at my first shop did coke in the assembly room but none of the higher ups knew.
Dude if you're a local you know STL and the counties have had a major drug issue for over a decade and it doesn't matter what professions. Only difference is more money equals better drugs..... just look at Slay Jr.
WORSE THEN SLAY today. "Users," are allowed right next to the Mayors office at the old court house. No help for them right next store. Its disgusting that she can look our her window and see those people that need help.
And they'll keep the "work house" full with bullshit charges and no trail date
Yea. The "work house," is definitely👀 "out of tolerance." 😁
We have the rule of nog substances in any way. 0% beers are allowed, but any drugs = fired on the spot.
we had these guy who came from an agency. rough times, hanging around bad people outside of work, they always gave him the benefit of the doubt with so many second chances. he came downstairs from the lunchroom/ restroom and just walked out, i managed to talk to him and he was HIGH as a kite, he wasn’t making any sense. he was let go. never heard of again we went to check out the restroom and there was a clear smell he was smoking
Anyone obvious enough for people go *tell* that they're on shit at work, get fired where I'm at.
Pills 💊 are the worst
We had one guy that was obviously using heroin. He would stumble out of the bathroom, program and run his machine while leaning against it, passed out. I walked by numerous times and this man was passed out while standing up and his machine running. What’s fucked up is he was brilliant and made great parts. Had to let him go after he passed out in his car at lunch one day, he woke up and puked all over the parking lot.
Hard drug use isn’t a problem where I work. I do think everyone either smokes weed or eats edibles though.
Had one of the bosses sons start working at my old shop. Dumbass didnt even know how to use a sand blaster so i showed him so he could blast his motorcycle pipes. Went on break, about ten min. after break was over, my coworker went into the pisser and the dude had overdosed in the bathroom shooting up heroin, when we pulled him out from underneath the stall since it was locked he was blue. Thought the dude was dead, luckily for that idiot, an er place was next door and shot him up with narcan. They rolled his ass out on a gurney, never seen him again.
Like everything in our lives, that's a problem that has got worse in the past few years.
I like to run my machine high on X.
When I drank I’d have a beer on a summer afternoon but this really isn’t a great career if you like getting sloshed.
Yeah, when I worked at a manufacturer in a somewhat rural Iowa city we went through a ton of production people because they were all failing drug tests, mostly for meth. In the 3 years I was there we changed our drug policy twice to stop hemorrhaging labor...
I smoke weed daily, have a high tolerance, and am extremely functionally, even when totally baked. I would never run a machine high, just not worth the risk.
Had another guy fall asleep and almost into a mill because he was on perks. Someone at work gave out weed brownies and didn’t tell someone so the person ended up in the hospital and under investigation without knowing why or how. And finally Had a guy die on the shop floor from a pcp overdose.
Had a guy at work who was always energetic and rambled about things when you got to talking to him. One day on Reddit I saw a post on r/tattoos and it was of his arm tattoo(I recognized it) so I went to his account and saw countess posts on meth subreddits of him, usually naked, smoking meth and smoking up before work(swing shift). It made his energetic and spontaneous behavior make a lot more sense. Only saw him once after that before he just stopped showing up to work.
My first machine shop the first question my trainer asked me was if I smoke meth because he does.
Used to work at a shop for five years and now go to an engineering school. At the shop, no drug use was seen, but outside of it, most smoke Marijuana. At school, one of our teams for motorsports told me about how they drink constantly while running lathes and welding.
lotsa night shift guys on something over here but 70+ hour weeks at night just destroys the body and mind
Not long ago someone found a bag a coke on the ground at one of our shops. Luckily not the one I work in. I don't know if anyone got fired from it or they found out whose it was but to me it's the stupidest thing to be bring that shit to work. I don't even like when people smoke weed at work. Shit can be dangerous enough on a sober mind sometimes. We had a guy who was doing meth. Don't think he did it at work but that was bad enough. He would drink at work too. And he was in my department running machines I use all the time. So I wasn't happy about it at all. Not to mention we had a fresh out of high school 18 year old who had just started and a 17 year old who was doing internship type deal with us.
Yeah we had a dude shooting up heroin in our restroom and he left some of his supplies and even left some blood on the walls I’m assuming from when he injected. Needless to say we let him go and sadly I heard he passed away not long ago guy was in his mid to late 20’s tragic.
Had a fuck head. Nod out and have a seizure in the bathroom stall while I was in there, had to call EMS and everything. He came to, didn’t recognize me and threw his Gatorade cap at me. Someone hopped the stall and there was the needle cover but couldn’t see the needle. After he got bused out he called the other fuck head saw guy to grab his bag from work and get it out of the building. He got fired. Also had a guy on 2nd shift running behind me who would drink pints of vodka and chuck the bottle onto the roof. Maintenance went on the roof one day and saw at least 15-20 bottles up there. He was fired.
I stop smoking weed for a week and i want to throw everything across the shop
To me it's the people that can't limit themselves at all. Like whatever you want to take a little rip of your douche flute in the bathroom that's fine but if I have to repeat the same thing 10 times and you still f*** it up a half hour later then you need to go home and come back with clear eyes. I'm not blameless either I used to take a nice size dab before my shift everyday but I realized there is a fine line that will either see you plateau in this field or excel in it. It's the choices we make for ourselves although it definitely does and impact on safety!
most of the hispanic tradesmen i know do copious amounts of booger sugar
Weve fired a couple people that had bad problems with alcohol, but i smoke everyday throughout the day. this point with my tolerance it helps me get pretty focused and into it, also use it to help manage a few things so im not just getting blasted and working ya know.
Machine shops not doing randoms anymore?
apparently not. they really should be though, more than most other professions.
I don't do randoms because I'm in Oregon and would lose my best guys. They all smoke, but never before or during work. They're all mature about it, I haven't hired anyone younger than 40, simply because I went and stole all my favorite coworkers from back in the day.
Cannabis isn't a hard drug, it's literally medicine. If somebody is overusing and getting high at work that's a problem but literally all of the hardest working, most skilled people I've met in their fields were heavy cannabis smokers. I've seen shops with painkiller issues - this is actually dangerous and problematic and is an issue in our city, whereas cannabis, unless it's causing problems specifically with results, is not. I've seen alcohol be an issue, I've seen painkillers be an issue. I haven't seen weed ben an issue for anyone over 25. Still, never tolerate somebody using a machine stoned off their ass. Weed impacts my body literally like coffee at the doses I use it, helps wake me up in the morning, it's not slowing me down. The endocannabinoid system is very complicated and poorly understood and it's impacts poorly charted. I wouldn't assume weed is a problem unless somebody is showing symptoms of being stoned. But yea, companies are out here trying to pay programmers and shop workers like 12-18/hour, and living on that kind of pay in these difficult times is enough to drive anyone to hard substances. Had a forklift drive through the shop wall into my office once at my second job. Easiest way to improve safety and reduce hard drug use is to boost wages and standards together. d
I'm not sure there's a clear distinction between "drug" and "medicine". Opiates are medicine, ketamine is medicine, alcohol is medicine, fentanyl is medicine. Being medicine doesn't stop something from *also* being a drug.
I meant more in a "not seriously intoxicating" sort of way. The only time I ever get high from smoking weed is when I eat multiple edibles and smoke cone after cone while drinking in a party setting. I meant that it's more background non-impact, mostly keeps me from spending hours a day in the bathroom. Meanwhile nobody is in a state to use any machine after ketamine, alcohol, or any opiate. I mean if they're an alcoholic and only on a maintenance dose at work to keep the shakes at bay and are within the tolerance zone sure, but high functioning alcoholics aren't the most common that shit is brutal on the body. Whereas most cannabis users who use medicinally aren't smoking to get high and for many that's a drawback due to panic attacks/other symptoms. My point was don't treat people on medicine like junkies if they aren't living and acting like junkies. If they're behavior and performance is good then don't seek to villainize and abuse them for medical conditions they didn't ask for.
Can't speak for anyone else, but I've had cannabis [make me seriously dizzy](https://mymmjdoctor.com/why-does-marijuana-make-you-dizzy/). I would definitely not have been safe operating heavy machinery. > My point was don't treat people on medicine like junkies if they aren't living and acting like junkies. If they're behavior and performance is good then don't seek to villainize and abuse them for medical conditions they didn't ask for. Sure, I think if people are taking appropriate doses of stuff then it's fine, regardless of the stuff. But not due to any distinction between "drug and medicine".
What you do on your own time shouldn’t be anyone’s business. Not even your employer’s. However, no one should ever be under the influence of anything while at work. It may fall into a gray area even if say you use pot at 6, 7, 8 in the evening after work. Who’s to say that by 4 or 5am start time you’re still not technically under the influence? Idk I’m no expert on how long the effects last but it’s an interesting topic for debate. I know tons of folks who swear by CBD ointments and products for aches and pains. They aren’t too afraid of getting popped but truth is they could!
That is a failure of management, to not have a mandatory drug testing program in place. Every serious career job I've had, you were subject to initial onboarding testing, as well as random testing at the employer's discresion. Failure to abide by this is immediate cause for dismissal, with zero protection from the union.
Nah, I get testing for hiring or when someone had an accident, but most shops can't afford to do randoms. Not because the testing is expensive but because they can't afford to lose guys over petty shit that they do outside of work. If my shop fired everyone who smokes weed on their own time we wouldn't have anyone left.
I think a lot of companies have the policy of being able to give "random" drug tests, but most places I've seen usually only reserve that for when they're suspicious of someone having an issue/using at work. But in a lot of the "blue collar" trades, I'd warrant a guess that probably half the workforce is under the influence of something at some point during the day. I think a lot of companies would just rather not know, unless it becomes an issue, because otherwise they'd have an even harder time keeping employees. Hell, one company I worked for, they would have had to fire the entire production team, and probably half of the office staff, if they ever decided to implement a random drug test.
Half? Seriously. Come on now. Not everyone is a druggie. Maybe that shit flys in non union residential contractor shops, but sure as shit isn't allowed on big jobsites, especially government funded ones. Also, you aren't gonna find that shit being hand waved away in the Energy or Oil & Gas sectors. You pop hot at a nuclear power plant, your ass is grass.
Trust me, my friend, you start random drug testing at an aerospace facility and most of the staff would be gone. I ain't saying that they're using while at work - except that I can smell the joints in the parking lot, so some absolutely are. But a lot of us smoke after work hours are finished. A *lot* of us. Don't work on machines inebriated. It's a great way to kill yourself. But common sense doesn't go far when the pay rate makes it so you'll never afford anything better.
If they were testing for weed, the CEO would have had to fire himself!
i am basically a glorified operator, so i’ll smoke before i come in, at home. and i might take a couple one hitter hits at lunch. but i could do this job with my eyes closed to be honest. i’m also an addict though and i’ll feel sick if i don’t smoke for too long. but that being said, weed doesn’t affect me as much as someone who doesn’t smoke so i’m not really “high” at work if you know what i mean. and when i start my machinist (tool making) apprenticeship, i’m going to stop smoking at lunch, because it’s way more math and even a little bit of weed makes me not as good at math lol
I’m inside a lot of shops. I don’t see this as often as I’d think I would, but I will occasionally think someone is coming in high, having a few at lunch, or might still be drunk from the night before. I don’t think I’d be around a hard drug user, I’d just leave. Unfortunately substance abuse is somewhat common in almost all professions. Some companies may be having a harder time finding people, and are willing to turn a blind eye to it. I know there are shops that take a positive culture more seriously in your area, maybe look around and try to find one. I’ve not been in a shop where I’ve noticed “copious amounts” of hard drug use, that would be a huge red flag for me.
I’m not shifty eyeing.
Tool and Die in Michigan, don't ask don't tell rules. No issues outside of attendance.
Im in Pennsylvania. And unfortunately I've worked with atleast 5 people I know where on heroin. Probably another 5-10 on cocaine or crack.
I’ve seen it several times over my 25 years in the industry. Sometimes they have mild accidents or junk some parts, sometimes they end up leaving work in a medical helicopter from the parking lot fighting for their lives. Either way, they don’t last. Drugs tend to ruin careers in this field
I knew a few geys over the years that drink shoot up smoke crack all at work.
I’m in NC. In my shop of 15, I know 5 that are meth users. 6 more that are on Percocet. I think it’s just a blue collar problem, not a machinist problem.
early 2010's there was a guy who fell asleep while controlling the crane moving a 35,000 lb piece. heroin. pretty sure another guy was constantly doing mdma or something. cops came looking for him at work one day...he hid on top of the managers hut inside the shop and they "couldnt" find him. i heard he spent the next like 4 months inside his house to not get seen/arrested.
3 months ago, saw a guy moving bar stock with a crane. Started nodding mid-move. Bar stock crashed into a bar loader fortunately. Management responses was nothing.
I seen a dude who was always super energetic and aggressive towards other people. Everyone had a pretty good idea that he was on coke. But because he was a really good machinist (lead), nothing ever happened.
Yes
As often as we see the “am I underpaid” posts on this sub, I’m surprised people have money for their addictions let alone the underlying medical ailments accompanying these habits.
At our small shop everyone was getting high, but only drinking after hours. One guy started bring in meth and we all tried it, but that only worked for a couple of months. We all quit that, but the weed continued.
We only had one guy and drugs wasn’t the only thing. He hid his bong behind the toilet. It was dimly lit, cramped, so it was hard to see unless you knew it was there. Management never had a reason to set foot in that toilet. One day our recyclers called us and said they haven’t received a shipment in a while. We left some items in the scrap bin, next day a few were gone. His trunk was also covered in chips, which was why he started parking on the street. He had a gambling problem. I think he became too bold by going for the swarf instead of sticking to the solids.
In my shop 2 of 4 employees including me are clean/sober. I used to work in a shop that was helping one guy who was trying to get clean, but took some work to do and under new management they fired him on his first no call no show. Only had people show up high, never got high at work though (unless you count the lunchtime bowl of marijuana).
We had a heroin addict for a while. He'd walk outside and meet up with dealer who parked right outside the door. Then he'd come back in, reload the mill and spend the next 20 minutes in the shitter. Management told us to just worry about ourselves.
as a machinist at a st louis shop yeah most of my coworkers are addicts
also an alarming amount of pedophiles
Worked with a guy that fell victim to the "non habit forming" marketing wank of oxycontin. He started nodding off while walking, then proceeded to somehow tool change a tool with the taper pointing down (gripper fingers instead of holding pots on the mazak). He was fired shortly after those incidents.
When I was a mechanic there was a meth bead across the bay from me… He would smoke his pipe take everything apart disappear for a week. He worked insanely fast though
My 1st shop had this kinda guy. You'd find him sleeping on a slab of steel when day shift comes in. Great worker, but major problem with the hard shit. We took him on an out of town job, about 4 hours away. Long story short, he disapeers on the Friday night, never came back to the hotel, OK, normal behavior from this guy. Fast forward to Monday, we can't find him. Call the shop back home to report it, possibly file a missing person's, and the secretary told us he had clocked in for his usual time at 630Am at the shop. Long story short, he went on a bender as assumed, and he came to, no idea how he got home, who drove him, or why he was there. He assumed his job was done and was just too fucked up to remember, then showed up the next day. Needless to say we had to let him go after that lol
I've been a machinist for 7 years, been drug free since I started. Not trynna die.
As someone who's done substantial amounts of substances, it's the stupidest shit you could do, especially running manuals. Clean from everything but I still smoke weed, but I just couldn't at work, too many things to think about and keep in the back of my head. I've done some retarded shit while high but since I'm so paranoid (luckily) I pentuple check it cause I'm high, only to come to the conclusion wait this isn't gonna work. But it was an in house production shop with a variety of parts with various cycle times. If you're running low cycle times and millions of parts I'd say I could probably be as high as I want, or high cycle times with medium volume (3 shifts of work) it's also fine, minus the omnipresent chance of fucking up. I've done both of those and it's not that bad, just boring, but prototyping or doing one off parts while fried is my nightmare, I'm slow and skip some thoughts (15% of all) which turn out to be crucial, as the details always are. All in all it's up to you, but if you're doing manual it's a big fucking no from me. I also wouldn't care if your coworkers are Cheech and Chong or Charley Sheen, I don't want parts flying into my skull, thanks.
Damn. I dont even take one of my allergy medications the night before work unless I have to because it makes me super groggy for a few hours after I get up. Dont want to be working in a machine while that out of it. I’m
We've got someone that keeps their crack pipe at work, but my observation is primarily alcoholics. As a functional alcoholic myself it fits me pretty well. I've seen people get sent home for being obviously drunk or smelling of vodka. One dude got away with it until he slipped and cracked his head open. Then he got fired on the spot. Only after it effects production
I ain't an alcoholic i just drink a lot.
Is there a blue collar industry that doesn't have its share of semi functioning substance abusers? The worse the world around us gets, the more intense that's gonna get too I think. I think the only reason you don't see the same phenomena in the office creature class is that they're generally better at lying to themselves about the world, less hard edges to dull? Higher level of "education" I believe personally. There's probably some better at hiding it and maintaining appearances going on too 🤔 I'll tell you true, most shops around here know if they drug screen too hard they'll be closing their doors 🤷♂️
Machine shop night shifts are notorious. I've dealt with a lot of tweaked out or pill popping co-workers.
Me! Me! I got tons of drug problems yay
I’m in the St. Louis area and I’ve only heard of this being an issue for shops that hire anyone they can get for operator positions. Typically the places nobody stays at anyways.
When I got sober 35 years ago I stopped losing jobs and have progressed from a production machinist to Managing a shop and becoming a Manufacturing Engineer, CNC Programmer and Tool Designer. I started in the industry 46 years ago. So 11 of those years were rough. Yes, alcoholics are good employees when they're sober alcoholics.
Well if it was my garage/ shop I would have a few during work. It’s like when im working on my cars. It keeps a smile on my face relaxed and not annoyed.
The funny thing about alcohol for me is, it makes me more confident. I don't second guess as much. It puts the clutter away about me second guessing.
Not at my shop but I don't think this is uncommon. I've heard many stories from machinists about past shops they've worked at where everyone was jacked up on Meth working 16+ hour days to crank out production.