I had cleared everything with my background check and received a call saying that I failed the drug test and my offer is being rescinded. This was my second test, the first came back diluted (I believe I drank too much water since the previous day I didn't produce enough pee in the cup). I am worried they have mixed up the first test results with the second. There's no reason for it to come back as a fail/diluted since i stopped drinking water 8 hours before the second test and am not on any medication (prescribed or over the counter). I have offered to take a hair and blood test and the hiring manager is seeing what he can do but what do you think my chances are?
failing a pre employment drug test
This is certainly a unique situation. The user above failed a drug test for submitting a diluted sample. This is pretty common. If you drink too much water before a test it you may be required to submit another sample as above. On the other hand you may just be failed for submitting an unusable sample.
Below is the original poster revisiting where he went wrong. Unfortunately the offer was rescinded because this bank had a two test minimum.
from certified user @LABanker213"
It was an honest mistake, I had never taken a drug test before and didn't even know dilution was a thing. I used the LabCorp testing facilities. At the site I went to, their drug screens are only for a short three hour period and I was unable to provide a sample during that time frame. I wish someone had asked/advised me on the maximum amount of water to drink for the second test. I obviously was not trying to cheat the system as I offered to do a hair test and my third test came back clean. What was really devastating was that I received the email stating that I had cleared everything and was all set for my start date only for HR to call a week later with this issue.
Basically you drink more than two glasses within 2 hours of your test, you'll just pee straight water. They see it as trying to purposefully skew the results. I had drank 4 glasses and I'm a pretty small person so it was probably even worse.
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I think you should be aggressive about it and suggest taking another test or using other alternative like you suggested.
Did you ask them what they found on the drug results?
Also, did you do any drugs otherwise?
Thank you I am pushing hard for the hair and/or blood test. I am waiting on them to get back to me for the reasons why I failed. I have not taken any drugs (including alcohol and cigarettes) so that's why I'm thinking it was possibly too dilute again.
Just really freaking out. I worked so hard to get this job and it was a long interview process (over 2 months)
Yeah would agree on standing strong about it, perhaps consult a GP/Doctor/Nurse to find out what may have caused it to come back negative.
Yeah I know - I could totally relate to this. But just calm down and know that freaking out at this point will only worsen this instead of helping you. Figure out why it did not pass and be aggressive about the hair/blood tests.
I just don't understand - if you did not do any drugs, how can you fail?
Hope this works out well for you man. Hang in there.
OP - strong name to content ratio. Fucking west coasters....
extremely Rick James voice Cocaine is a helluva drug.
Next time, don't take drugs.
So I get in contact with someone, it was marked as "fail" since the first test (which I didn't even know counted) was marked as "refusal to test" since I couldn't provide enough of a sample and hence me over drinking on the second test. They are not even considering the third test/second sample since there's a hard two test limit.
Have you been in contact with HR about possibly taking a hair test / blood test? If so, what did they say?
The person I spoke with was the head of their health services department. I offered to take another urine, hair, blood test, basically anything. They are standing firm on it. I reached out to the hiring manager to relay the message and he and the recruiter are seeing what they can do.
Might as well blow a few rails at this point, at least. Get your money's worth.
Just got word that there's nothing they can do. Sucks because it was for JPM/MS/GS front office position. Hopefully my story can help someone. Just be careful not to overlook any details in the onboarding process.
They wouldn't let you wait around and use the water cooler until you could pee enough the first time?
Something doesn't feel right to me. As someone who has become an expert on piss tests recently, let me tell you why.
So from what I gathered you took tests on two separate days because the first day you couldn't pee enough? What testing facility did you use? This strikes me as odd because even if you DON"T for some reason pee enough to fill the cup (which is not a high hurdle) they will keep you at the testing facility and give you water and let you pee again that day. The ONLY reason you can be failed for this is if you leave the facility and choose to test another day.
It is possible that you did this, and it is also possible, but unlikely, that the nurse did not inform you of this condition.
The second thing that is sketchy is that you received a diluted test on the second day for drinking too much water. This doesn't make sense because if your issue was that you simply couldn't pee enough the day before, I don't know why you would chug so much water that it ended up diluting yourself.
It just sounds like not all the dots are connecting here. If you really haven't been smoking, and haven't done any other drugs, then why would you a) be so nervous that you couldn't pee enough or the first day and b) be so nervous on the second day that you drank so much water that you ended up diluting yourself?
It was an honest mistake, I had never taken a drug test before and didn't even know dilution was a thing. I used the LabCorp testing facilities. At the site I went to, their drug screens are only for a short three hour period and I was unable to provide a sample during that time frame. I wish someone had asked/advised me on the maximum amount of water to drink for the second test. I obviously was not trying to cheat the system as I offered to do a hair test and my third test came back clean. What was really devastating was that I received the email stating that I had cleared everything and was all set for my start date only for HR to call a week later with this issue.
wait a minute - I don't even know dilution was a thing as well.. What's there to know about drug test dilution??
I am going to do my drug test soon.
Tell them you had a few poppy seed muffins before.
I wish it would have been that easy but no substances appeared. My second test was just inconclusive due to being too diluted.
can someone educate me what is this dilution thing? What to do before taking the drug test??
Basically you drink more than two glasses within 2 hours of your test, you'll just pee straight water. They see it as trying to purposefully skew the results. I had drank 4 glasses and I'm a pretty small person so it was probably even worse.
ok thank you, and I am sorry that this happened to you. Can't imagine what you are going through now after all this hard work.
So basically I shouldn't drink more than 2 glasses of water within 2 hours of my test that day? Anything else to watch out for?
Basically you just need you piss to be a little yellow
Well, if they give you the hair sample test go pass it. However, I would just keep applying. Just so you know, hair tests go back further than urine.
Drug Test/Piss Test Failure (Originally Posted: 03/14/2007)
There's been a lot of talk about these tests on this board lately. If you fail one, can you ever be hired again by that company or are you blackballed for life? Or say you apply to IBD and fail it, can you go re-apply to S & T and take another one or is it one strike and you're out no matter what?
Yep, just moving forward now. And I offered to do the hair test because of that reason in order to prove I wasn't trying to hide anything. They wouldn't consider it, even after I offered to pay for it. There's one more person left who could possibly sway the decision but I'm not betting on it. Just wanted to share this to help other people out.
Hey man - You mentioned it was a long interview process... Out of curiosity.
How many days/how muc time did you have between your final interview and the pre employment screening and drug test?
Damn, why do you people push it so much?
Exactly!
Is there something wrong with everyone? What's going on with you 20-somethins. Every f'n day there's a post about drugs and a drug test.
God I'm so fed up of hearing about this shit. Argggghhh!!! FED UP.
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