Contemporary Issue Essay Paper
Write a paper identifying a contemporary scientific, technical, or social issue impacting the workplace. Research at least one law-oriented article that discusses the selected issue. Address the following elements in your issue synopsis:

Describe your chosen contemporary scientific, technical, or social issue, including how it has impacted the workplace.
Analyze how your issue influenced or could influence employee productivity in your own current or former organization. Be sure to keep the organization anonymous.
Explain the impact of your issue from the perspective of an HRM executive.
Assess how relevant legislation affects your issue in the workplace.
Assess the ethical ramifications of your issue on HRM practices in the workplace.
Your paper should be 3–4 double-spaced pages in length. Support your assertions with citations from your course readings, workplace examples, and any relevant additional research. Use APA-formatted in-text citations and references. Review the Contemporary Issue Scoring Guide before submitting this assignment to ensure that you have thoroughly addressed the grading criteria.

Contemporary issue

Describe your chosen contemporary scientific, technical, or social issue, including how it has impacted the workplace.

The chosen contemporary issue is how to handle marijuana use in the workplace. As more states legalize the use of marijuana either for recreational and medical purposes, employers continue to grapple with the issue of how to handle employees who use marijuana. Rhode Island, New York, Nevada, Minnesota, Maine, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut and Arizona recognize the difficulty associated with the issue and have presented statutes that protect employees against being discriminated against primarily on the basis of using marijuana for medical purposes, or for testing positive during workplace drug tests for marijuana. Although these statutes protect workers, there could be a conflict if the workplace is regulated by the Drug Free Workplace Act. That is because the Act adopts a zero tolerance policy, especially for federal contractors and federal grant recipients. Besides this legislation, employers are typically justified in adopting a drug free policy for safety-sensitive positions in which intoxicated workers could risk their safety or the safety of others. These legislation add to the issue of concern as it becomes a challenge to determine the specific legislation that employers should follow (Liquori, 2020). Should they allow personnel to use marijuana, and what of the implications on safety, or should they stop the use of marijuana in the workplace and how would this reflect on legislation to legalize marijuana use.  Contemporary Issue Essay Paper

Analyze how your issue influenced or could influence employee productivity in your own current or former organization. Be sure to keep the organization anonymous.

Although marijuana has been touted for having a calming effect, it has a profound effect on the workplace. Marijuana affects motor skills such as coordination, reaction time and depth perception while creating sensory distortion. For the workplace, these effects could be deadly, especially when the concerned employees operate heavy machinery or performs safety sensitive tasks. In fact, employees who use marijuana have a 75% higher probability of absenteeism from work when compared to their counterparts who do not use marijuana. In addition, they report 85% more injuries and 55% more accidents. The implication is that allowing marijuana use in the workplace would cause more absenteeism, injuries and industrial accidents. Besides that, marijuana use would cause more law suits from personnel who get injured in the workplace or customers whose work is not delivered as intended. Additionally, it would cause a high turnover as the workplace becomes more dangerous with more incidents of accidents so that workers seeking a safer workplace are forced to leave and seek employment in safer environments. Also, it would increase worker compensation as hazard pay is included to carter for a more dangerous workplace. Furthermore, it would reduce productivity by reducing the short term motivation for work and concentration at work (Lytle, 2019).

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Explain the impact of your issue from the perspective of an HRM executive.

The issue of marijuana use in the workplace presents a challenge for HRM on how to keep up with the legislation, and what they can and cannot do. The use and possession of marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but some states legally allow for marijuana use either for medical or recreational purposes. The challenge for HRM is how to balance the law with workplace safety and productivity, and workers expectations/preferences. State legalization of marijuana use implies that workers are protected by the law when they possess and use marijuana in the workplace, and they cannot be targeted on the basis of marijuana use as this would be considered victimization. Still, this has implications for productivity through making workers less productive. Also, an increasing number of workers are using marijuana, and they expect to use it in the workplace. 66% of Americans favor marijuana in the workplace. This is a significant percentage given that more than 32 million individuals of working age use marijuana. The widespread use of marijuana implies that policies against marijuana use would limit the pool of prospective workers (Lytle, 2019). As HRM grapples with the issue of marijuana use in the workplace, they must also contend with the issues of worker productivity and safety. Besides that, it has implications for drug testing policies. With the legalization of marijuana use at the state level, workers are expected to increasingly challenge workplace drug testing. This would turn marijuana testing into a problematic issue as workers challenge employers under privacy, discrimination and other relevant legislation (Gonzalez, 2019).

Assess how relevant legislation affects your issue in the workplace.

The available legislation have created much confusion on how to address the issue. On one hand, marijuana use or possession is not legalized at the federal level. The Controlled Substance Act makes marijuana illegal at the federal level. On the other hand, marijuana use and possession is legal in some of the states. The juxtaposition of laws at the state and federal levels of government has led to challenges and confusion in the workplace. Workers are likely to bring a suit of wrongful termination against their employers if protected by the state legalization statutes. In addition, the issue is affected by zero tolerance policies, especially for employers who are required to conform to the Drug Free Workplace Act. This Act requires that all federal contractors and grant recipients adopt a zero tolerance policy on marijuana use in the workplace. Although the Act does not include provisions for employers to conduct mandatory drug testing, there is an expectation that state legislation legalizing marijuana use in the workplace would be ignored. Besides that, the issue is affected by the Americans with Disabilities Act that prohibits employers from discriminating against qualified personnel on the basis of disability. Some of the disability persons are using marijuana for medical purposes, and targeting them for the marijuana use could be interpreted as targeting them for being disabled thereby contravening the disabilities act (Liquori, 2020).

Assess the ethical ramifications of your issue on HRM practices in the workplace.

Allowing for marijuana use presents some ethical concerns. Firstly, how does HRM grapple with the issue of applying different sets of rules for different personnel? What happens if an employee is unable to present a medical permit for using marijuana? Should HRM institute action against such personnel for flaunting drug policies, or would that be a double standard as some are allowed to use marijuana while others are punished for doing the same? These are ethical questions that HRM must answer as they grapple with the issue. Secondly, they must address safety as an ethical concern. It is right to allow personnel to use marijuana, knowing that there is a high probability of accidents occurring in the workplace as the workers threaten their safety and the safety of others. Thirdly, marijuana use inhibits the capacity to make decisions thus creating an un-virtuous work environment. Persons who use marijuana use their sense of moral judgment. Finally, marijuana is indicated for medical purposes as a pain and stress reliever so that inhibiting its use could increase pain and stress among some workers (Fox, 2018).

References

Fox, R. (2018). The legalization of cannabis and its ethical considerations. Retrieved from https://www.linkreducation.com/en/content/the-legalization-of-cannabis-and-its-ethical-considerations/3447

Gonzalez, C. (2019). How recreational marijuana affect the workplace? Employers’ main concerns include productivity, safety, and determining impairment and consequences. Retrieved from https://www.chicagobusiness.com/marijuanacannabis/how-will-recreational-marijuana-affect-workplace

Liquori, F. (2020). The effect of marijuana legalization on employment law. The NAAG Training & Research Arm, 1(2). Retrieved from https://www.naag.org/publications/nagtri-journal/volume-1-number-2/the-effects-of-marijuana-legalization-on-employment-law.php

Lytle, T. (2019). Marijuana and the workplace: it’s complicated. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/fall2019/pages/marijuana-and-the-workplace-its-complicated.aspx

Contemporary Issue Essay Paper