When Drugs Enter the Workplace

In this exclusive bonus episode, we continue the conversation from January 20th "Compensation Reviews." We explore how sharing financial insights with your team can strengthen relationships and boost morale. But what happens when transparency is mismanaged? Learn how the right balance of spending and communication can lead to a more productive, trusting environment — and what you can do to make it happen at your practice.

Why You Should Listen:

• Ever wonder how much financial transparency is too much for your dental team? We break it down for you.
• Discover the strategies that can help you get your team onboard with your financial decisions without causing friction.
• Get actionable tips on how to strike the right balance between spending on team culture and maintaining profitability.
• Hear how you can totally transform your team perspective on their compensation and involvement in your practice’s financial health.

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Transcript

0:01

[Music] hey listeners I have a thought for you

0:07

um it is nothing new you've heard me say it before I believe it was season 3 it was one of my favorite taglines I'm so

0:14

pleased with myself and I figured it's coming back it's very applicable right now um if you have not signed up as a

0:23

subscriber my thought for you is you're the problem not me we have all these

0:30

resources for you we've got the bonus episodes we've got the digest that's just phenomenal and you're hesitating

0:38

and I don't know why you don't need the help uh you're your own coach like

0:44

you're going to just take yourself to the top because you don't need any extra help or resources so if that's the case

0:50

you are the problem not me okay stop fooling around go sign

0:58

up it is is February woohoo we survived January well you tell me cuz somebody

1:05

said like oh the 73 days of January I'm like first of all I'd never heard of that like does January always feel long

1:11

to everybody I guess I missed that one but to me this January flew it was like

1:16

the 17 days of January like what happened to the rest of them yeah and

1:21

well it was it was a little wild in Texas cuz we had some fun weather that threw something I felt like because of

1:28

that weather that happened in the middle which which by the way we got amazing snow in Texas which we never get it was

1:33

like it almost January didn't start until after that maybe I don't know yeah

1:39

I think that's why it felt shorter Perhaps Perhaps anyway here we are February and I'm ready to get back into

1:44

some drama um and so when I asked you about what your clients blah blah blah you

1:50

brought up something that thank God of all the drama that has hit my shoulders

1:57

cuz I feel like I've a I'm I'm a magnet here um somehow I have evaded this I

2:05

don't know how but you have is that the right word evaded eluded El whatever

2:10

I've dodged it um or if I if I haven't dodged it it seems like I have like I've

2:18

been unaware mhm so living in my sandbox and I hope to stay there forever because

2:25

I think this topic would put me over the edge and so when you mention I was like

2:31

you actually have a client that's dealing with this and apparently you have several several y so go ahead ma'am

2:37

okay so talk about drama drugs in the workplace and it's one of those things

2:45

that you know it's a reality and yet at the same time when it hits it surprises

2:51

me every time so I'll give a few examples of things that have come up over really

2:59

this last last month which is shocking but I do want to give examples CU I

3:05

think it's important for practice owners to know what could be happening that maybe they're even unaware of at this

3:11

point so three distinct examples that were potentially things that could have

3:18

been caught um maybe a little faster than they were caught so the first example that I will give is sorry if I

3:26

can interrupt here a minute um so um one thing would be are we can we go over

3:34

I don't know what you like think for the flow of this podcast but I'd love to hear the examples and then I'm hoping

3:39

can we talk about like like you're saying I'm assuming you're going to talk about signs that we could look for yes but then what do we do about it are we

3:46

going to dialog some of that definitely definitely um want to dialogue because we've got to when you discover that

3:55

there could be some um drugs in the workplace or when I alcohol IFI drugs

4:00

but um things that would alter a person's performance in patient care that once you recognize that you

4:08

have to take action like there's no sitting back and let me observe this there has to be action that's taken so

4:13

this is one of those categories it's not worth just knowing about it like you've got to be looking for the signs actively

4:19

as a provider patient care patient safety is your top priority and so if

4:25

there is a member of your team that is altered in some way by a sub

4:30

you've got to be on the lookout for that so yes we will talk about Solutions as well and all three of these had different solutions by the way so my

4:38

stomach's like the bile is rising as we are talking right now it it should be this is uh intense areas so the first

4:47

one is um a young lady on a team that um

4:55

honestly I love this young lady like just uh my heart goes out to her for the

5:02

struggle that she's going through and and you'll hear this tone I I view this

5:07

very much uh it's uh it's hard like it's hard to see people addicted to things

5:14

and unable to break a hard habit um there's a podcast that I listen to where

5:21

um I follow it's called hooked by the way on just Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast I would

5:27

highly recommend a good followup to this episode is to go and listen to that it

5:33

follows the life of a very successful um Boeing Employee that ended up getting

5:40

addicted through no fault of his own had an injury the doctor prescribed pain

5:45

meds he next thing you know he's he's addicted and it just brought a whole different perspective to how easy it is

5:53

to get addicted to these substances so this is a similar path for this um one

5:59

lighting um and so we brought her onto the team lots of potential just a huge little

6:06

positive bundle of energy um but we started picking up on

6:13

signs that she was um inconsistent so

6:19

she'd come in one day and she would have a certain person one day she would be

6:25

super energetic and positive and then we would notice even throughout out the day

6:30

that she would become just distant or Moody and so we're like oh you know

6:37

she's got some things going on in life you know we normally qualify this as they're having a hard day or they're

6:43

having a hard time but there would be times that we would notice that even as

6:48

we were talking to her it was like she was definit she was there and

6:54

present and responsive and all of that but we're like I don't know there's something about her that seems like she's not here with us in the moment or

7:03

she would have moments um in her role that she would get extra jittery like

7:08

just almost like nervous couldn't sit still not really paying

7:14

attention we're like where is she like she so who was picking up on that like is she an RDA or RDA yeah okay and so

7:23

but it was not just so the doctor was aware it was more her co-workers that

7:30

were starting to pick up on signs of like is she okay like she's

7:37

she just seems I don't know and there was nothing they couldn't quite put their finger on it so the reason I

7:44

describ this is I feel like when there's substance abuse on the team it is not

7:50

overt in your face like I think we think about substance abuse and it's like how

7:56

can you not notice that I think that is a very subtle thing that you're looking

8:02

for and again on that hooked podcast I mean he worked at Boeing and was fully

8:10

doped up on heroin and would go and do his job that's crazy so when you think

8:17

about that you're like okay and he was in a position of leadership in Boeing and so you're like if somebody like that

8:23

can go in and perform to a decent level enough that they're not firing him or he's not

8:28

getting pulled in for Behavior things like they're able to function so you

8:34

really are looking for just subtle signs that something's a little bit off so the

8:41

team was more or less taking note of this and because again she was a newer member on the team and so I think we're

8:47

a little extra Critical with the newer members on the team thank goodness in this scenario I think if she'd been

8:52

there a really long time and then happened into substance abuse the team probably would have made

8:59

a lot of of exceptions for her like oh she's just going through a lot or whatever so again I say that to mean we

9:05

have to really pay attention to these subtle subtle cues there was nothing overt about this particular lady that

9:12

that was concerning it was just a lot of little things then there was one there

9:17

there were two things that basically tipped the team over to say something and the doctor is like oh wait a second

9:23

something's wrong so the team started noticing um foil in in the bathroom

9:30

there'd be little pieces of foil like in the toilet or like a little piece on the

9:37

floor and so you're like what is that I what is that a sign of it is very

9:43

clearly a sign of drug use by the way so um again she apparently would have

9:49

moments where she was going into the bathroom and using drugs on the property

9:54

now come to find out and we'll get through the story but ultimately she was not doing it on the property she was

10:02

doing it at home but was removing the evidence from home and putting it in her

10:07

pocket and all of that so that there was no evidence at home and then she would run and go to the bathroom and it would happen to um to you know fall out of her

10:15

pocket so again you're like if I were a practice owner and walked in and saw a little piece of foil on my bathroom

10:21

floor I wouldn't think twice about it which is why I mention it because it's one of those little subtle cues so the

10:28

team started noticing that and they're like why is there often times a little

10:33

piece of foil in the bathroom um that is so interesting that the team the little things the team

10:39

picks up on uhhm yeah so they um brought

10:44

that concern to the doctor and they were like hey we just wanted to make you aware that we're seeing little pieces of

10:52

foil in the bathroom there's some Behavior things that we're kind of concerned about with this person um we just want

11:00

you to be aware so of course the doctor turns her eyes bright and she's like

11:06

okay let me take a closer look at his person so during assisting she would um

11:12

really pay attention to how did she seem does she seemed present she was establishing a lot more eye contact with

11:19

the uh employee just really trying to watch her closely cuz again this is a big accusation I think we've got to be

11:26

really careful and also we've got to be overly cautious and so she just was really watching the

11:33

employee she said there was one day in particular that the employee was just

11:40

act she was like I couldn't put my finger on it but she was just not present with me she was assisting extra

11:46

jittery couldn't really sit still and she said I asked for I can't remember

11:52

what piece of equipment she asked for but when she handed the instrument over

11:58

she wasn't wasn't paying attention to the depth of it and it whacked the patient on the face now thankfully

12:04

patient's not injured it was a harmless instrument but still immediately the doctor paused the

12:12

treatment and said you know hey you know can you come with me um subbed

12:19

out and at that moment she was like Hey you know can you handle sterilization

12:25

and blah blah blah and then she the doctor just was like she's not going to be imp here

12:30

today at the end of that day she addressed um the employee which we'll

12:35

we'll come to how this was solved so I want to tell the signs on this one subtle very subtle the second example is

12:43

more overt so this is also a new employee to the team

12:49

um interestingly enough the examples that I'm going to share three of them are are new employees so this was a new

12:55

employee to the team um came in with great promise great potential this was a hygienist by the way and

13:04

uh the doctor described her as having a very unique personality he was like

13:10

she's very unique she's got her own little kind of vibe to her and I was like oh I'll be interesting to meet this

13:16

lady well she was doing fine the first few days and then like day day four day five

13:24

she came to work late and they're like oh that's not a good sign so there was

13:29

no other concerns other than she arrived to work late and they're like okay we'll have to

13:36

address that day like six of her employment she continued to take

13:43

frequent bathroom breaks which again you're like who's even watching right but it was enough consistency that

13:50

they're like why does she keep going to the bathroom um and it would be when she had

13:56

a patient in the chair so she would SE the patient take a quick bath bathroom break and again the doctor was telling

14:02

me I didn't even really notice anything until cuz his office

14:07

thank goodness is in the hallway that goes to the bathroom and so he's like finally you know by afternoon I'm like

14:14

wow I've seen her go to the bathroom like a lot today and so finally like 3:00 you know

14:23

3:30 she walked by addressed him said hello to him and then he was like okay

14:29

I'm going to take note of this and he was like she was in there for like 10 minutes and he was like this is weird

14:34

cuz her patient is in the chair so she walks back out to go take care of the patient and he immediately decides to go

14:41

into the to the bathroom to he he's just like just something told me something's

14:46

up and he was like it was an overwhelming smell of marijuana so throughout the day she had

14:55

been taking these restroom breaks and smoking marijuana so again we'll talk about what his

15:02

solution to that was that's example number two more inyour face overt but even still I think a very highly attuned

15:08

doctor that was really paying attention to this new employee and she still got to day six now he feels confident there

15:15

was none of that was happening day 1 through 5 day six is when it started and thankfully he caught her on the day that

15:22

it started um so that was the next one um

15:27

more overt and in your the other one also new employee um just

15:36

the team again the team is usually aware that something's off the doctor is

15:41

usually the last to know so the team started becoming aware that each

15:47

morning in morning meeting this lady would have trouble staying awake she

15:54

seemed really sleepy um very almost like argic in the

16:00

morning and so some of the team members became I wouldn't say concerned they're

16:06

just like what's going on with her and so they would uh they started like

16:11

taking in signs and symptoms so to speak then they started putting together the

16:16

fact that she always smelled like alcohol in the mornings and so finally at that point

16:23

once they're like oh wait we think she's coming in drunk um

16:29

they brought it to the doctor's attention now this was a few months of

16:34

employment before people are cuz you know you have this leeway for new employees you're like oh they're you

16:41

probably think you're the crazy one going oh man I thought I smelled something maybe how dare I yes yes and

16:48

so um again took a few months it's completely different substance right so

16:54

we've got a different substance in the first one we've got marijuana and the second

16:59

one we've got the third one alcohol so three completely different types of sance abuse which all rep manifested

17:07

themselves very differently and in each of those except for really the marijuana one the team was really the one that was

17:14

picking up on symptoms I'll throw out one more example because I forgot about this one before we started which

17:20

was a team member a long time it's the only long time um team member um that

17:27

the team started noticing she was having a lot of health issues um a lot of just

17:32

chronic pain type issues um and

17:38

so anyway they started watching to make sure so they were very much on top of it

17:43

because they noticed that she was going through a lot of health issues and were wanting to make sure that you know

17:49

substance abuse didn't become a part of that particular um example and

17:55

so even that as an example example would be it may not be a new team member but

18:02

you're watching somebody that's going through maybe they've gone through a a divorce maybe they've gone through a

18:07

surgery that they're having trouble getting healed from maybe they're um

18:13

they do have some kind of chronic pain tune your ear ears in on that and watch that person because if you go and listen

18:20

to the hooked podcast that is how a lot of substance abuse begins is just

18:25

they're going through some chronic pain they're on pain medicines for a regular period of time and then they can't um

18:32

can't do without it so uh anyway that's a situation to also be aware of so those

18:39

are four different examples let me pause and let you make any comments uh the

18:44

bile is till Rising um yeah man that that just sounds very intense and as you've been talking

18:51

I've kind of been thinking back about some of my employees and potentially have I missed some signs cuz certainly

18:57

we do have lots of employees that you know are paycheck to paycheck or are

19:04

going through home life stuff the one assistant I've I've kind of mentioned before that uh her husband was cheating

19:10

on her and you know the changes we started seeing in her and you're right coming late and I don't I don't think

19:16

that there was ever looking back on her I don't think there was a dependency thing or you know I don't think she was

19:21

medicating or alcohol in or whatever but I guess to me I would have never even thought about watching out for that

19:29

yeah um you know I know there's a lot of things about like four dentists the professional recovery Network um so I

19:37

know like we we are we are very susceptible um you know to all the

19:43

stresses and everything that we're going through um but yeah I and and even like the foil I I don't think the foil would

19:50

have ever caught my eye like that's so maybe I'm just in a bubble and in my own fan B well I think we all I think

19:56

there's really is not something we think about

20:02

or uh want to think about but even still it's just not at the top of our mind and

20:08

you know I think back as I was listening to the the hooked podcast I'm like you

20:14

know you hear about this opioid crisis this opioid crisis opioid crisis all the things that we now as dentist have to do

20:21

yes so it's like in our face it's there and yet we don't think of it in our own home yeah and with our team it's not

20:28

even crossing our mind and I think that's where if nothing else I do hope

20:34

this episode brings light to the fact that we need to think about it it is

20:40

more prevalent than we than we really think about and the

20:45

signs are often subtle which I think is the scarier part of it um and I think in

20:52

all of this we've got patient safety at the top like these are altering like

20:58

these are things that would prevent an employee from be able being able to complete their job safely with that

21:05

patient so we cannot ignore this we we have to actually be able to look at the signs and address these

21:11

things so um I would say uh one of the things

21:17

that I always recommend this goes back to just documentation I always recommend an office policy manual that gives you

21:24

the right to random drug test you need to have a sign document from every

21:29

employee that allows you to randomly drug test somebody so it's funny you say

21:35

that cuz just the other day uh my husband said something um

21:40

about uh like would you be allowed to randomly drug test or you should and I was like no no no I think it's in our

21:46

policy manual and I think they're onboarding paperwork that we have a separate form that says we drug test you

21:51

got to have that you got to have that cuz what you don't want to be is in a situation where you do suspect something

21:58

and you have no what what do you do like hey Sally I'm suspecting that you're

22:04

using drugs like you have to have some concrete way to prove that those things

22:09

are in place um or or altering them now

22:14

thankfully with the first example that I shared when the doctor did approach her

22:20

about the signs she when okay okay I'm going to need you to back up what do you mean so like yes now now they're seeing

22:27

the foil she's acting funny so did he talk to you first or did

22:32

he just say hey I'm going to pull her aside when do you pull her aside what are you asking her do you have a witness

22:38

like I I just can't even imagine that conversation yeah so uh it's a female

22:44

doctor she and I did talk about it um and again cannot express the amount of

22:52

just admiration I have for this employee that's that's going through this um so

22:59

often times we think of substance abuse people in a way that they're criminal they're

23:06

um you just think the worst person and that is just not the case and so the

23:12

doctor had a really unique relationship with this particular employee um just a

23:18

lot of shared ident identity type things and so she and I

23:24

decided that um I'm going to not share a little I have to not share a little

23:29

piece of this story just to protect this person but there was a medical situation that came up kind of in the midst of all

23:36

of this that um sh kind of shined a big light on the fact that she there wasn't

23:41

it would have been hard to explain this medical issue without um without some explanation like she was going to have

23:47

to say something so the doctor used the medical scenario that happened with this

23:54

employee and all of the signs she used that as an opportunity to check in on

23:59

her and go fill me in like color the picture for me cuz I'm

24:05

seeing all of this just dock an employee were you there it was no it was just dock an employee I would imagine you

24:10

can't really pull in another employee as a witness in one of these privacy yeah because of privacy is what we talked

24:17

about um and again I think there was a high trust factor with this employee I

24:23

think if we were worried about you know lawsuits and this and

24:28

that we might have might have taken a different path but it was a very benign

24:34

conversation it was just like please tell me what's going on like please fill in the gaps for me and thankfully this

24:41

employee was very honest I mean clearly explained everything that had happened

24:47

has been happening the path that she was walking she was very overtly honest with

24:52

that um which I do think is rare I would not expect that from most people walking

25:00

that path um so I think that's probably an exception to the rule but because of

25:06

that Honesty the doctor was able to line out a very clear plan for her such as

25:13

such as so in this particular case um this lady was already connected with a

25:21

rehab program she was actively going through rehab she had um you know drug

25:28

test results that she could provide to the doctor um she did admit that she had

25:35

been you know Under the Influence um she descri she described how the foil got

25:41

there why the foil got there she was able to describe all of that and she said I am already actively involved with

25:48

this rehab facility um and so the doctor said I you have to understand the

25:53

position I'm in because patient safety has to come first and yet I don't want to lose you as an employee and the I

26:01

just again I love this doctor for this because she's like who am I as a person to fire this

26:09

person and just guarantee their lack of success in their recovery plan like why

26:16

would I do that as a human being I cannot do that so um she and this employee said okay

26:24

obviously you can't be employed here right now you need to take all of the steps to get the substances completely

26:32

out of your system I need to be able to see a six week track record of clean drug tests

26:42

and if and I need to have access to those um in order for you to return to

26:48

work I want you to come back you need to hear me say I want you to come back but I've got to protect my patients so you

26:54

would have to prove a clean uh drug test which by the way way is already she's already involved in this rehab for

27:00

they're already doing that so it didn't require the doctor coordinating with a drug test

27:07

facility you can do that but in this particular case she was already involved so the employee said absolutely I will

27:13

do that she said I'm going to call today and make you um you can fully access all of my records at the rehab facility I

27:21

will go fill out that document today um and the doctor has been in full

27:27

communication with her rehab officer or whatever they call them she has she has

27:32

access to everything as if it was the patient her so this girl is in full transparency going you can have access

27:39

to everything so to me it's a win-win because the employee has a chance she

27:44

has something to fight for she's coming back to work the doctor can prevent any

27:50

kind of Calamity happening because she has full access to the drug test and so

27:56

that person returned got clean return to work everything is good now the doctor

28:02

is on high alert she's watching for any sign any symptom she's uh pretty much

28:08

every other week checking in with the rehab officer is she showing up for her appointments is she you know taking her

28:13

medicine to help uh counteract the the um drug uh addiction

28:20

basically so she's keeping the doctor is doing her job of keeping her patients safe by this Arrangement and and at the

28:28

same time she's able to give the employees stable employment um so I think it's just the best case scenario

28:33

that can happen can I argue with you here a minute yes um because I I I agree with

28:41

everything you've said except when you were like you know would she be like this heartless person to get this person

28:47

out of her office and I start going I don't know like I don't want to be labeled as heartless I didn't create

28:53

this you've put my patients in harm I got to check in with your Parole off not parole your reab coordinator and check

28:59

your drug tests and rah rah for you like is that one more thing that I should and

29:04

if I don't I'm not a good human being like I just want to clarify that I don't know that I I think if you opted to say

29:12

sorry ma'am I've got enough like so that I don't go start getting dependent on

29:17

other substances because I've got to monitor the situation I personally think like I think it's totally fair game and

29:25

you are not a horrible person if you were to say I just can't I can't I cannot support you I think if it was me

29:32

it depends on the employee it depends on whatever's going on in my world but I think I would be more like you know what

29:37

I'm going to give you two weeks of pay be on your way reapply in the future or

29:43

don't whatever like yeah so the other examples the two other ones that I

29:49

mentioned they are no longer employed with the doctor so I I agree with you

29:56

100% there's going to be situation I would say the bulk of them you're going to be like okay I do not want to mess

30:02

with this any further the reason that that one is so important is what if it

30:08

is your longtime employee that man they just went through a School of Hard Knocks they had all kinds of health

30:14

issues a divorce blah blah blah you're you're going to want to support that

30:20

person um and I I I guess all I'm saying is if you opted not to I don't think you're wrong I will not judge you if

30:27

that is the case like oh yeah I completely agree with you yeah

30:34

I think I mean I think it can be win-win like now you got to start over and find a new employee and how do we know that employee is not going to do what this

30:39

person did like I I see that yeah life can happen to any of us but I also don't

30:45

think it's wrong to be like uh peace absolutely out I'm out absolutely and

30:50

especially if you know you don't have you don't have the desire or the

30:55

diligence to follow up and make sure that the safety of your patients continues to be top priority absolutely

31:02

there's an end at some at some point and you got to figure out where that point is um so the second example that I gave

31:10

was the um marijuana in the bathroom example so that was a very different

31:16

scenario new employee very drug use on the premises during patient care um and

31:26

so as soon as the doctor realized like oh my gosh this bathroom reeks of marijuana he pulled the hygienist out of

31:33

her um appointment that she was in and said go ahead and go home for the day um

31:39

and Then followed that uh the next day with your position has been terminated

31:45

you're not allowed to come back so that one's a very different reality so did she argue that and go that wasn't me or

31:51

you're picking on me cuz of the smell okay she just got out of there she just left okay do you imagine that would be

31:57

what would happen in most cases yep okay yeah I think it's she got caught she

32:03

knew it no rebuttal no argument okay no nothing so I think when you are in that

32:12

situation it's a newer employee we've already had some red flags like why are you coming to work late and then

32:19

directly involved Ina patient care even just the fact of leaving your patient for 10 minutes to go to the bathroom

32:25

like I don't care if you're pooping every hour like that's not we can't have

32:30

that going on long term like patient Careo I mean patient care that appointment is critical so but it was

32:37

that was Swift action that was absolutely the right action he and I dialogued about that before um he

32:44

terminated her and was like yes this is the right path this is not even worth trying to be because that is bold in

32:53

your face not just once not just the beginning of the day end of the day every hour you're popping in there like

32:59

that's insane so um she was immediately let go and I think that was the right thing to oh 1,00% in that scenario so

33:08

the third one was the alcohol use um that the team became aware of

33:15

so in this particular case there is no like yes he could have

33:22

sent the employee the first thing she he has the documentation in place that he could send the employee to go you know

33:28

pee in a cup and see or go test her alcohol level but he was like I think

33:35

she's not happy in her position anyway I think it could be a casual conversation

33:41

about hey I only employ people that are passionate about dentistry and patient care I don't see the passion with you

33:48

and he was like I think that conversation alone will be enough to just I think she'll walk and she did so

33:55

he was able to avoid the whole implication of are you showing up drunk

34:01

so that never came up never came up okay never came up so it was the right move

34:06

on multiple levels because this was not an employee that the team was feeling good about he was like I don't think

34:13

this is the right fit she'd been there for a few months but it was like okay we don't want to keep investing in this

34:19

person so if at that point she were to um file for

34:26

unemployment is it it would it have been better for him to bring up the alcohol so he could have that to stand on or is

34:33

it just not worth it like let her F unemployment was only a couple months it's not going to be a ding like that's

34:39

the approach I would take CU to me it's like is it worth getting into do we test or sobriety in the

34:47

morning let's make sure we have the documentation for that there's going to be a whole lot of drama might she get

34:53

personally offended in the process I feel like that would have been a Messier departure I would much rather if he was

34:58

going to end up having to fire her I would have much rather him just fired her assumed the risk of unemployment and

35:04

moved on his Mar way it would have been a cleaner I think the ideal thing here would have been um which it's kind of in

35:11

retrospect and it may or may not work out but to me it's like you don't seem happy in your position do you want to just resign and I'll give you a week of

35:17

pay so you can find something else and that way you avoid the unemployment thing all together

35:23

um or if not and she's going to go look for another job or if I mean if you are

35:28

saying let's part way so I guess this is a firing um I did have a colleague called me not too long ago and it was an

35:36

employee that that did resign but then she fought for unemployment and he was

35:41

thinking like he's he's a relatively new practice owner and he was like am I going to have to pay her like thousands

35:47

a month until she finds a job and I was like oh no no no it's I don't know all the iners and outers all I know is it's

35:54

percentages you might pay yeah you know you'll get a little Ding and I I need to call him because I think this latest I

36:01

got a tax thing and I want to say like they charged charged me back like 36

36:07

bucks or 63 it was something I can't remember what what combination it was but she had worked with us for 2 years yeah um one of the ones we let go in the

36:14

summer and she filed for unemployment and it was like my my charge back because she got because I gave her two

36:21

weeks unemployment right and then she got a job pretty quickly after yeah so my ding was 63 or less I can't remember

36:29

what it was so like absolutely worth being on your way yeah um so maybe

36:35

that's what you're saying it's like it's just it's it's rather worth that than yeah the mushroom cloud of everything

36:41

else that could all the drama that can come out of that and the cost because if you're sending somebody to go be drug

36:46

test or um you know sobriety checked it's like you're paying for that so so a

36:52

couple of questions on that like would you advise if it's like this where you're trying to weed out

36:58

somebody is it better to say everybody's getting a random test absolutely so you

37:04

can't single out one person so if you're suspecting drug use on your team or I

37:11

say drug use substance abuse by the way I do want to just Aster this here that can be any mind altering mood altering

37:20

substance so um there was a person on one of my teams that was playing around

37:28

with her meds and she something changed

37:33

like she was like Tasmanian Devil Type energy and

37:38

just couldn't stay focused couldn't stop moving and anyway it was nothing

37:43

substance it was meds that she was playing around oh not playing around with she and her provider were trying to

37:49

tweak some things around so even that like making note of those things to the

37:55

employee like hey you seen them or wow this is just being aware but if you're

38:02

going to ever drug test somebody on your team or if you come to a point where you're like ooh I'm picking up on signs

38:08

with Sally and they concern me then you need to random drug test everybody so

38:14

you're not just like hey by the way we random drug tests here haven't done it in two years but Sally you're first up

38:21

and nobody else gets drug tests like it needs to be maybe Sally and Susie you guys are going to be the first ones that

38:27

are so we can't look like we're targeting a particular employee so

38:34

then I hate that because that means an unfortunate cost for the practice but what is the cost of practice safety

38:40

patient safety like we we if we suspect something we have to do what's right in

38:45

that which is random drug test everybody that doesn't all have to be at the same time that doesn't all have to be at the same day you can kind of sprinkle it out

38:52

through you know the next couple months so then my last question that I know you're you're not going to answer cuz I

38:58

think we're going to it's going to be in the digest for subscribers would be how

39:04

do I start this process like where where am I looking for where we're going to drug test do I have um that if I have

39:13

never had them sign a consent form not a consent form but a whatever the office policy manual that gives permission yeah

39:19

so both the office policy manual and our form like how do I get started on this so that if I find myself in the

39:25

situation what am I doing um and we will have some resources for and again hopefully it doesn't hit

39:32

anybody but my guess is if you listen to the examples that were provided here you might your eyes might even be opened up

39:39

to oh no I might have somebody on my team it's way more pervasive than you

39:45

would think so um I would say if nothing else awaken your eyes to the possibility start looking be diligent in that and

39:53

then use the digest to get all the resources that you need thanks for joining the ation today we hope that you

39:59

are comforted in knowing that you are not alone but we also hope that you're walking away with some really great tips

40:06

and tricks to try in your practice we value your feedback so

40:11

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40:30

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