The Case of the Pot Brownies: What is the HR lesson?

What can we learn from the case of the pot brownies? As this case shows, a lot.

57 year old Ku’uipoaloha Lawler brought a batch of homemade brownies to work in August and gave them out to a few of his co-workers at the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. Lawler told the other bus drivers that he made the brownies at home, but he neglected to mention the full list of ingredients, namely – the marijuana, reports The San Diego Union-Tribune. Mark Hall, one of Lawler’s co-workers, and two more staffers each ate some of the brownies before heading out on their daily routes.

Soon after eating the pot brownies the drivers began to feel the effects of the drugs and quickly pulled over to call for replacements. That was obviously a smart move on their part, not only to protect their passengers but also to prevent them from being arrested for driving while impaired as the law does not offer exceptions for unintentional intoxication.

Not surprisingly, Lawler’s supervisors at work were not amused when they found out about the pot brownies. He was immediately fired, and the San Diego Police Department is currently investigating the incident as a possible poisoning. The San Diego Union-Tribune notes that this crime is considered a felony that carries a punishment of up to five years in prison. This isn’t the part of the story that was surprising. Lawler earned his trouble, but the other innocent drivers also went through a lot of grief for Lawler’s prank.

Mark Hall and the other drivers were immediately placed on paid leave when the transit system found out about the incident. They were also told they would have to enroll in substance abuse counseling before they could come back to work, and they would be placed in a position that did not require operating a vehicle. Only one of the three drivers accepted this, and the other two were kept on unpaid leave while they determined how to proceed.

The Federal Transit Administration reviewed the case, and a month after the incident agreed to waive their safety requirements and allow the bus drivers to return to work in their original positions.

Although the case was resolved as it should have been, it did take a month and cost two employees a month of salary waiting for the outcome to be determined.

What can your Human Resources department learn from this incident? It’s obvious that MTS’s disciplinary system broke down somewhere in this case.

Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face when writing and revising your disciplinary policies and procedures for the employee handbook. In other words - don't allow a poorly thought out short term solution create even greater problems in the long run.

Most companies have a zero tolerance policy for staffers driving under the influence, for example. This is an important policy and one that your company should address in the employee handbook to protect the company from possible litigation. However, there should definitely be some wiggle room in the policy to allow for incidents such as the above, as rare as they may be.

I'll also state the obvious and suggest that you have any employee policies and procedures written by a HR professional and reviewed by legal counsel before rolling out to your staff, no matter what size your company is. It's just smart business.