Employee marijuana use: Is your organization prepared?
More than one-third of business owners say they are not yet prepared to manage the impact of legalized marijuana on the workplace.
Employers operating in states that have legalized marijuana use may be having a tough time figuring out how to handle a worker who smoked pot the night before. The employee may or may not still be experiencing some of the effects when they punch in for work – whether they sit at a desk or operate heavy machinery.
A recent Paychex survey bears out this dilemma for employers: more than one-third of business owners with fewer than 500 employees say they are not yet prepared to manage the impact of legalized marijuana on the workplace — 34% say this regarding medical marijuana and 38% say this regarding marijuana for recreational use.
The respondents are slightly more prepared to manage legalized medical use than recreational use: 42% say they are very prepared to handle someone who smoked pot for medicinal reasons, while 39% say this for someone who just wanted to get high to relax. A quarter are somewhat prepared for both (24% for medical use and 23% for recreational use).
Broken down by industry, the professional services sector is the most prepared (70%) for medical use and the least prepared for recreational use (58%). Manufacturing and retail/wholesale are the most prepared industries for recreational use (tied at 64%), while manufacturing is the least prepared for medical use (64%).
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