Masonry Magazine October 2005 Page. 56
News
News continued from page 53
directors and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Sustainable Buildings Council. He has also been a devoted member of The Masonry Society for a number of years, serving on several committees including the University Professors Masonry Workshop Steering Committee, which he chairs.
Source: The Masonry Society News
TMS Recognizes Fellow Members
The Masonry Society (TMS) is pleased to announce the appointment of the first-ever Fellow Members. This distinguished group will be recognized at the 2005 TMS Annual Meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the Awards Lunch Ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005.
The first Fellow Members to TMS are:
Daniel P. Abrams
William G. Bailey
J. Gregg Borchelt
Russell H. Brown
Robert G. Drysdale
Ahmad Hamid
Gary C. Hart
Richard E. Klingner
Max L. Porter
John G. Tawresey
Earlier this year, TMS's Membership Committee considered packets for a number of nominees and forwarded a recommendation to the Board of Directors for consideration. The Board approved the aforementioned distinguished members as TMS's first Fellow Members via an e-mail ballot.
To qualify for Fellow Membership status, a member must have made outstanding contributions to TMS and have been a member for no less than ten consecutive years. Nominees are considered by the Membership Committee, which makes recommendations to the Board of Directors. Those granted Fellowship status carry the designation FTMS, Fellow of The Masonry Society.
The Membership Committee of TMS is currently accepting applications for nominees for Fellow Membership until Feb. 1, 2006. A nomination form is posted on the Awards portion of the TMS website at www.masonrysociety.org, along with a listing of eligible TMS members.
NAWIC Education Foundation Recognized as Quality Program Provider
The American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) recently selected the NAWIC Education Foundation (NEF) as a provider of quality continuing education based on the content and News continued on page 56
Drug-Free Workplace Dilemma
MASONRY NEWS CONTRACTOR TIP
Are you missing out on opportunities because you don't have a drug-free workplace policy in effect? Worse, are you putting your employees at risk? This subject is a sensitive topic for most companies, and it was for Lang Masonry as well. We initiated a drug-free workplace in November 2000. I didn't know how it was going to work out.
I suspected some of our employees used drugs casually, but never considered it a problem at work. I figured it was their choice what they put into their bodies after-hours. However, eventually I had a lot of trouble with equipment getting damaged. And, any supervisor knows that if you put 20 men on one project, watching them all at the same time is difficult. Some of our best employees started complaining that we were not drug testing. They put letters in the suggestion box that read, "You have a forklift operator out here that is going to get someone hurt and is costing us all money. Get him off the job because he is on drugs."
I have even had parents say, "My son wasn't on drugs until he came to work for your company." That's an eye-opener. This involvement with drugs was not the kind of image I wanted for our company.
So, after years of believing that we did not need a drug-testing policy, and that it was too intrusive for employees, I gave in. Considering the negative impact drugs were having on our business and employees, I decided our company would begin a drug-testing program.
Who benefits from having a drug-free workplace? You and your employees. The statistics indicate that the employee turnover rate does go down and accidents drop 40-50% when you have a drug free work place program (Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation [BWC]). In addition, according to the Ohio BWC, the cost of substance abuse on businesses affects productivity in four key ways: absenteeism, accidents, medical claims and employee theft.
Also, in some states, a drug-free workplace may become the deciding factor of whether or not you receive a state-funded project in the future. In Ohio for example, as of Jan. 1, 2003, in order to bid or perform work on any project that involves funds from the state, the contractor must have a drug-free workplace policy in effect. We were lucky to be a couple of years ahead of the curve on this mandate. Keep in mind: Since this is the direction most businesses are headed, if your company isn't drug testing, you may unknowingly be employing some drug users who can't get hired elsewhere.
Once I implemented our drug testing policy, I was not a very popular guy for about six months. I received nasty letters from upset employees. It was then that I finally realized a drug problem had existed in the company. Within a few months, the complaints slowly subsided, and the attitudes of everyone at the company improved. Equipment abuse is down, employee morale is better, and drug testing is a routine process for us now.
If you are considering starting a drug-testing program, I recommend that you begin it as soon as possible, before drug use gets out of hand. Also, give employees a 30-day notice to clean up their acts before the first test. No company is immune to this problem, no matter how hard management tries to prevent it.
Provided by Damian Lang, President of Lang Masonry Contractors, Inc. and EZ Grout Corp.