There are often general norms and policies about when it’s appropriate to use that tap though. This article is exploring what those should be for another substance with different properties.
I worked at an office where the beer tap was locked most of the time and could only be unlocked by the residential "Workplace Experience PM" for officially sanctioned events.
A similar locking cabinet could be used for fast-acting cannabis gummies.
Or maybe just let people find whatever mental state they prefer, and if their work output is sufficient to justify their salary, fuck right off with telling other adults that they must remain sober at all times.
Set rational expectations. The on call people need to remain sober, as well as anyone operating or maintaining critical infrastructure or machinery. If you're dealing with the public, you should probably be mostly sober. If you're doing data entry requiring precision, you probably shouldn't be doing 5 grams of mushrooms, but a few beers or a little weed might get you in the zone and make the work enjoyable.
If someone produces excellent output while a little drunk or high, or maybe they like to trip for inspiration, or they take a second Adderall to plow through a project, that should be a decision up to the worker and their doctor.
Set behavioral expectations for respectful workplaces, but let's not pretend that a sober, unaltered state of mind is the one and only appropriate condition for all work situations. Fetishizing sobriety and stigmatizing altered states are anti-human ideas.
I've worked at high level isp positions and many of the top engineers - CCIE level - were working while high as fuck. They did excellent work, but could get a case of the giggles at silly things. Management knew and would ignore it unless someone behaved inappropriately. Altering your state of mind is not a sin - behaving badly is not an inevitable consequence of drug use. Drug use is not always behaving badly.
Yeah sorry, no thanks. Software is buggy enough already. How about the guy working on that new autopilot navigation system for Boeing? Smoke all you want on your own time, but I prefer the engineers keep their faculties intact.
This is the crux. I wonder how much this is part of the WFH preference. Some people have tasks and a mental constitution for which cannabis is perfectly fine. Other people have the same tasks, but won’t perform up to par when buzzed. They may not be able to tell, the inner and external experiences are different. And there is work for which you really shouldn’t even take the chance.
Need everybody to be responsible enough to know where they stand. If you’re underpaid/underappreciated, that’s one thing. If you’re well-paid or appreciated you really should be bringing your best.
Given the effects of ADHD and anxiety meds on children, “sobriety” hasn’t really been fully fetishized in a while. If you don’t think so, take one of your kid’s meds and see what you think.
By and large substances that alter human consciousness have been frowned upon since the dawn of civilization. Religions tend to tell you to avoid them (Islam expressly forbids all mind-altering substances, Christianity and Judaism say ok to alcohol but only within limits of sobriety).
In current times it seems especially prudent to resist openness to marijuana lest it serve as a gateway to harder drugs. Because, we are sort of going through an opioid crisis of epic proportions: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm
When I'm driving home from work, I have to pass a certain intersection which is filled with folks on hard drugs, and sometimes they're very brave in that they like to walk into oncoming traffic while barely alert, you have to basically be _super_ careful and ready to brake hard in an instant to make sure you don't kill them, and that really irritates me. And I can't help but think that this is the result of the recent openness to drugs, including by our libertarian-inclined peers in the tech sector. Somehow or other the comedians and edgelord warriors won this one, and everyone thinks marijuana is cool, even when the science is out on its harm: long-term usage causes memory and general cognition impairment, usage by adolescents and pre-teens results in even more serious and lasting damage.
It kind of makes me want to pull all of my hair out when you have streets like this in every other large city it seems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi1Kf-1qd6Y What a shameful and irresponsible thing to do, to be defending recreational drugs in any manner at this point.
Embracing the full range of experience available to you, and using tools to achieve those states is intrinsically human. There's nothing superior or desirable about not using chemical tools to alter your state, and it's silly to think that way. Teetotalling is masochism.
You might not like changing from your baseline, but maybe you don't like blue or purple and prefer red cars. You don't have to like everything, and not everything has to be to your taste.
Not having heroin and clean needles in the office kitchen is akin to having to wash your own beer glass. It is time to end this ridiculous double standard.