Amazon, an American brand, is now the largest e-commerce retail company in the world. The company undertakes its policies and operations awfully sincerely. To ensure the safe and efficient functioning of the firm, it gazes to the drug test of the employees. Hence, the firm invests a lot of time and money to ensure optimum performance of the staff members, especially warehouse workers. You might be curious to know about how to pass the drug test? Or must be wondering what exactly the Amazon drug test policy is. Then this article will answer all your questions.
HOW DOES AMAZON HIRE EMPLOYEES?
Every shortlisted candidate, especially warehouse workers have to go through 3 step process:
- The first step includes clearing the interview, which shall be conducted by the warehouse manager where you intend to work. A candidate’s performance in the interview will determine whether you will move to the next stage or not.
- In the second step, Amazon will check upon your background or, in other words, your personal information, past medical or criminal records, and questions concerning your experience and capabilities for a particular position in the company.
- The third and last step is a drug test, which you must pass before selecting the job. Hence, you must fulfill all the criteria to be perceived as a potential applicant for the position you are applying for.
So you can see that drug test is done before you become an integral part of Amazon. Hence, the drug test does not happen on the first day of your job. The number of steps in selecting a suitable employee for different positions might vary as it totally depends on the nature of work and posts you are applying for. Still, the drug test remains the same and always falls last, i.e., before final employment.
HOW DO THEY CONDUCT DRUG TEST?
There are different forms of doing a drug test; usually, it’s done through urine and blood samples. Amazon uses a different technique for its drug test called the mouth swab test. It is very similar to the RTPCR test done for COVID-19; they only use mouth swabs for the test. The company has a set of medical experts who conduct the swab test on the applicants. This means it is a supervised test, which makes it hard to cheat.
However, the loophole for the mouth swab test is that it only detects recent drug consumption. THC remains in saliva for only 24hours. So as such, for you to pass the drug test, you need to stay away from drugs for around 48hours, and by doing so, the swab test will not detect the drug and stand a higher chance of passing the drug test.
Surprisingly, Amazon does not use highly effective tests like urine tests to detect drugs as THC in your system remains for several days after consuming them, and urine tests are completely capable of detecting those drugs and their level of intensity in your body.
IS AMAZON DRUG TESTING RANDOM?
The testing policy of Amazon is random and not specific. They conduct drug tests of their employees at any given time without any prior notice. Since the whole reason behind drug testing is to see how clean their system is, it gives barely any time to any work to clean themselves beforehand.
This also means that the system may never pick you up in their drug test since this is a random process. It might be rare since Amazon has thousands of employees, but still a possibility. While getting selected for a test does not mean that it involves high risk. Many workers currently employed for Amazon have claimed that they are almost always on weed and never have to worry about anything.
But in certain cases, if an employee works using certain heavyweight machines or equipment, the chances of Drug testing would automatically increase as it has a high risk of getting involved in the accidents. It is a non-negotiable process and will definitely take place.
PURPOSE FOR DRUG TEST BY AMAZON
The drug test involves detecting common sort of drugs people are prone to often using, namely marijuana, meth, cocaine, meth, opiates, etc. Amazon needs to have its employees adopt the policy of ‘NO DRUGS.’ But if one has a Marijuana Medical Card, Amazon will most likely hire you. Since this card is important, it must be from a valid Doctor or a physician and must be kept on hand always till the time it is valid.
Failing this test would mean NO JOB at Amazon. This is because you are not suitable for the job based on the 3-Step hiring process. The key feature about Amazon’s Drug Test policy is that if you fail the Drug Test, they will not offer you employment and not record the reason for rejection. This, in simple words, means that Amazon will not share your report with any other company where you wish to apply after getting clean.
The result for the drug test can be as fast as within 3 days, or it may take up to 2 weeks since it depends upon the lab efficiency and availability for testing.
CONCLUSION
This article tries to summarize the key points one must keep in mind before applying for Amazon. Since you cannot become an employee without passing the Drug test, an individual needs to avoid drug addiction. This test may easily pass, so all that one needs to take care of is to avoid getting high at least 2 days before the drug test if you want to get employed. There is nothing to fret about the testing policy. If you respect the policies of Amazon and are keen on working with them, understanding their policies and complying with them would be required. This will promote a healthy workspace for you and reduce stress related to the Drug test.
Also read How Hard Is It To Get A Job At Amazon?
