Was my pre-employment drug screening a privacy invasion? Details...?

I don't do drugs. I took a saliva test in the HR dept. of my new company. It is signed and sealed and sent to a lab, in my presence. The test was handled properly.

My question is about my prescription meds for depression/anxiety. One is a controlled substance that may be tested for. The HR person never asked about prescriptions, so I asked him if he needed to know. He said it depends on what they are, you'll need to bring proof. I had them with me and showed him the bottles. He noted them and asked what one med was for.

My concern is that now the entire management staff may hear that I take these meds. They don't affect my ability to work, but I feel like I could be discriminated against in the future. Like if I have a bad day or get nervous, they'll blame my depression/anxiety, which is controlled with meds. I feel like my privacy was invaded, but I couldn't risk a drug test going bad. I don't feel HR has the right to know this.

Am I over-reacting or was my privacy invaded?

It is common and perfectly legal for HR to do the actual test. That's why it was saliva and not blood or urine. I'm not so concerned that he asked what the med was for...he could have Googled it, and refusing to answer would have just been weird. I'm more concerned with the whole management staff knowing my meds and anxiety and depression issues. I had to tell him or my test may have came back positive for a drug.

You don't need to worry. It is against the law for them to give any of your information out to anyone besides the GM or whoever is the head of the office you're working at.
For the HR.. they cannot tell other people about what went on when you took the test.
If the specific person discriminates you then that is also against the law. You would be able to press charges. Your privacy is your right.

They should contact you if you didn't get the job and if that happens (which it shouldn't, because discriminating against you because of medical reasons is against the law) you should ask them what happened and if they bring up the test ask to speak to the head of the department (since you're worried about people knowing) and talk to them personally about it.

It is the policy of the company for which I work to do the drug screen OUTSIDE of work through another company for the exact reason you just described.
I would feel uncomfortable working there now with everyone knowing my personal health business. I would feel that since they did not send it out that my HIPPA was violated.
Contact legal advice to see what they say.

They don't have to hire you. You don't have to work for them. It is a give-take situation. If you want to work for them and they require saliva, then do it. Otherwise walk away with your self respect. If they then want to hire still, then you win. How good of a negotiator are you? Who needs who more? Good luck.

That's a good question. I would think that an employer doesn't need to know the reason for you taking specific medication. How is that relavent to a job? On the other hand, knowing what medications are in your system for a drug test seems to be okay. I don't think I would be concerned unless later on someone is discussing your situation. Then you have an issue for sure. It doesn't hurt to ask why they need to know that information though or how it's relevant to the job.

Since you voluntarily applied for the job, they were allowed to do a drug screen and ask those questions. This assumes everyone applying for the position goes through the same procedure.

You had the right to refuse the screen and to answer the questions. They had the right to terminate the hiring at that point.

I just dont think it is proper for a company to do drug testing on the work premises. Anything could happen to the sample in route to the lab. They should send you to a qualified medical facility for privacy reasons. Sounds like they are trying to get away cheap.

You have some reason to be concerned here. I take anxiety medication as well and currently my urine sample is pending for a new job.

Could they figure out that you have been diagnosed with anxiety/depression and chose not to hire you on that basis? Yes. But they'll never tell you that's the real reason.

If they chose not to hire you on the basis of your medical condition, then that may be invasion of priacy but it will be impossible for you to prove and therefore useless to even consider.

My advice is not to worry about it and just don't bring it up again unless they bring it up. When they ask you what you're taking it for, just say very casually: "Ehh I don't get enough sleep. My doctor thinks I think about work too much. He's a nut.. So you watch the Superbowl last night?"

No, it was not a violation. It was best to disclose the prescriptions you where taking, you didn't need to disclose the reason for taking them, that was between you and your doctor. The person in HR is not allowed by law to discuss any of this personal information to anyone within the company, if they do, only if a safety issue or instance where your health or personal harm is at issue, such as a emergency and that is to be kept confidential and may not be discussed open on the shop floor, and Hr is to keep it only between those that need to know, not those that think they need to know.Your personal medical file is to be kept separate of your personnel files and to be kept in a secure area where only certain people may have access, such as HR people or medical people.Your supervisor or manager does not have access, there is a log kept as to has reviewed your files or accessed them for any reason. You may be give access to them but usually even you have to go through certain steps to get to them. Yes you can sue if there is a breach of confidence, or some one spreads info on the shop floor about you that was private. You need to find out where they got their information date name place and to whom, if you find out it was your own big mouth telling your problems on the floor, you got no one to blame but yourself

Initially the drug screening policy is not an invasion of privacy, as a matter of fact in most states certain medical records are available to your employer anyway. Depending on the possible side effects of these meds and the type of work environment it is possible that your immediate supervisor be aware of them for safety reasons.

In the case that it were to spread to other employees then it would be become a legal matter as those records are confidential, or if you were discriminated against you could fight it as a disability.

So for right now don't worry about it, unless it affects your working conditions.