today is the day

My Dell support job starts today. A week and a half ago, I faxed the necessary paperwork to the contract company handling this job. They didn't find the faxes until Wednesday (I had sent them the previous Thursday). As a result of that SNAFU, the FedEx package containing the urinalysis and fingerprinting instructions did not arrive until Friday afternoon. The earliest urinalysis appointment I could obtain was today at 10:30 AM. I sent an email to my contact at Peak Systems to let him know - and to find out if this would delay my start date - but he told me to get the drug test and show up for work at 12:30 PM. There I will be fingerprinted and proceed to get down to business.

They haven't given me a W-4 to fill out yet, nor have they requested copies of my ID. That will probably be taken care of at the job site.

Urinalysis worries me. I don't trust drug tests. I've only been given a piss test for one other job in my entire life: as a temp-to-hire day laborer for an HVAC equipment distributor back in 2006. I passed that test. Nevertheless, the test worries me. I take several prescription drugs and fear that they may skew the test results.

I found it odd that I would need a background check and drug test for a warehouse job. In this situation, though, I will be working for a bank and handling their computers. Fingerprinting is understandable. Background check, OK. I'm clean as a whistle in that respect. Drug tests I consider intrusive. Still, you do what you must in order to get a job.