Man, Unable to Urinate, Gets Fired & Sues Monday, May 24, 2004 A Georgia man is suing Caterpillar, Inc. for discrimination after his inability to urinate got him fired. Assembly line worker Tom Smith, 55, drank 40 ounces of water and had three hours to produce a specimen for a drug test but failed to do so. He was suspended a day later and dismissed the next month. Smith says he suffers from paruresis, an embarassing condition better known as "shy bladder" and marked by an inability to urinate on demand or among others. He is suing under the Americans With Disabilities Act, claiming his rights were violated. According to the lawsuit, Smith was later able to produce a sample during a medical exam paid for by Caterpillar, but the company did not accept it because it wasn't from the specified three-hour period. Smith also says he paid for and passed an independent drug test of his hair. Employers conduct about 45 million drug tests a year. Steven Soifer, Ph.D., head of the International Paruresis Association, says his organization doesn't take a position on the validity or necessity of drug testing. But he says employers need to abandon urine testing or provide alternatives to avoid risking lawsuits such as Smith's. "If they're going to be doing [drug testing], the regulations certainly need to be revamped and made more humane for people who suffer from paruresis and other disorders," Soifer said. "You have a limited problem and you're using draconian measures to address it, which is ridiculous." Judy Appel, Drug Policy Alliance Acting Director of Legal Affairs, says the Smith case is another example of why suspicionless drug testing, which costs employers millions of dollars a year and doesn't deter drug use, is an affront to employee privacy. http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/05_24_04paruresis.cfm
that really sucks, when i worked they drew employee numbers like it was some damn lottery for piss tests once a month.
I also suffer from the "shy bladder" symptome, lol. IT sucks, but how often really do people demand urine from me right then and there lol, it's not a lot.
Damn, and he passed a hair test that he payed for himself, and they still would'nt give him his job back. what a load of shit.
Same here...I can remember having to give urine for a physical and I just couldn't do it. The nurse was waiting outside the door and everything, it was pretty embarrassing. Thankfully I didn't lose my j...ob or anything over it...that's bullshit.
My situation is worse. I have a real bad case of "bladder shyness"....to the point that when I used to be on probation, it took literally around 2 hours to finally piss in front of the POs. Now, I might be getting back on probation, what a problem If I can't , they take me to jail, I lose my job, yay!
Sometimes I do get a "shy bladder", but then I just get in the mindset that I'm by myself and no one else is around, and it just flows You just have to go to your "happy place" :H
The drug tests are not all they are cracked up to be, I have been tested*back when I worked* When I knew that smoke, among other things were in my system, and passed, then had a friend test, and he failed and he does not touch a single thing other than a beer about every other weekend. They refused him a hair test, dropped his pay by 1.50 an hour and 2 weeks later fired him.
all in all drug testing via urine is a bunch of bs. especialy testing for thc numberone it is not addictive and will almost never cause an employee to harm a buisness and infact will generaly make a worker more dedicated, number two there are about 100 other substances out there almost all of which are legal and commonly used by many people which will register posative on the standard urine analasis. if you are ever subjected to a drug test make sure you have a list of EVERY thing you have brought into your body within the last 48 hours including foods and especialy OTC pain medication. on another note the same OTC pain killers can get you off the hook if you are a heroin addict simply take 2 or 3 tylenol with codene about 1 hour before you go it will register posative but will FORCE the clinic to do a GC test on your urine if you presist that you are not a heroin/opium user and that it must be wrong in which they will find small traces of tylenol and codene which will void any signature of opium/heroin/demerol/morphine. the main key complain you cannot pee they will make you drink large quantitys of water this is your advantage as you are now diluting your urine sample apon the demand of supervision wich will reduce the likelyhood of testing posative for anything and they cannot refuse the sample.