A paradigm is a fancy word that explains the way something is perceived to act or expected to act.

A paradigm shift is a complete change of these previous expectations. Today I took another step in hoping to acquire some more permanent employment. This path is well travelled and I expected no blind corners. The usual landmarks appeared; The job advertisement, this time on Seek.com.au, check. Send resum and cover letter, check. The phone-call vetting me for the job, are you still interested?, what are your salary expectations? Etc, check. Pre-interview psych test, Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices, Acer Higher Test WL and WQ etc, yeah ok, if this makes you feel better to pay $350+ per applicant before you interview them, anyway for what it is worth, another check. Still nothing I have not been through before. Now for the big one the interview on site. Come to our site, tell security you are meeting miss X, she meets me at the gate, I get a little security badge that allows me through a steel gate, cute but not completely unexpected, we walk to the interview room, the interview is exactly what I expected, one hour of back and forth asking questions supposedly on how I would do a specific task but really on 'how would I fit in with the current team', I am then escorted back to the gate, no seriously they realy used the term escorted off site. I suppose I should have seen this as a warning sign but I was still excited about the chance of getting the job. They advised me that the next steps are checking references and a medical, sure, I say, I have done a few medicals the most strenuous one was for airforce officer training, this also included a pee drug test. How hard can this be? I received a call from one of my referees telling me how it went. So far very cool. Now the medical. Be there at 3:30 and allow about an hour. No problem. Here, fill in this form and release. Have you got photo ID? A hearing test first, I think this is a funny thing for an IT guy, I quietly wonder if this means that a deaf person would be eliminated at this time, after all you need both ears to read a computer screen. Next height and weight and for good measure, measure around the waist. Stand on this line and cover your left eye read the smallest line you can. You know the drill. Next sit on this chair and read the smallest line on the card. One eye at a time. Next we are going to test your breathing, blow in here for 60 seconds. You know, just in case I need to give the server mouth to mouth resuscitation. They start to explain that next I need to pee in a cup, they get two cups because they test one now and send one away and they need to separate the samples. The female nurse takes me to a convenience and explains it all again, pee in one cup and they will pour some from one into the other. She then locks the door, from the inside. So far I have been compliant, obedient and willing but this was something I was not expecting. No, nope, completely unexpected. Wait, what? I ask nicely if she can wait outside. No she cannot, she promises not to look though. Not the point I say, I do not pee with someone in the room. I do not even go to the toilet when my wife is in the room, I am not going to do it with a complete stranger hanging around. I start to look for other solutions. can you pat me down for concealed items instead? This is still something I don't like but at least I get to keep my pants on. Nope, this is the Australian Standard. This term started off innocently but after the dozen or so time that they would use it after this, it became a catchphrase, a rally to my objections. I almost finished up there. I asked if I could make a phone-call. I called the recruitment officer who explained that she would also had to go through this process but that they allowed her to mostly close the door, however this was not given as an option for me, person in the room or no test. I asked for a blood test instead, again no! They were determined not to allow their to be diluted by my pee test. I have two problems with this method, the first was that they sprung it on me, the second that a

person of the opposite gender had to be present. I can accept that she might have been the only person in the surgery qualified. They later told me that both nurses had been certified. But the former point forced me to make a decision very quickly, under pressure. The worst kind of environment to make a decision in. On the one hand I had my standards and this felt like a violation of those standards on the other hand I need this job. Everyone I spoke to said that they thought I would know the process, I am not sure why I should have known it, I have never worked at a minesite and they knew this because it was one of the questions in the interview and on the release form. So the question, so far unanswered, is; Is the job worth that much indignity I completed the medical about 40 minutes after that, once a third waiting room kept me entertained with a stack of magazined aimed at a female audience. A senior doctor took me through the last few physical tests that included my twisting and turning and checking for things I had already answered on my form. At least she was nice about it. She told me I passed and she gave me some inside information about how the drug tests would be administered regularly on site as well. These must be great places to work if recreational drug use is so rampant. I can accept that drugs in the workplace can present a hazard to a compromised employee and his, or her, colleagues. I can accept that some kind of drug testing must take place especially if the person works with any kind of machinery, heavy or light. I will remind the kind reader that the position I filed for is, or by now probably was, an IT position. The heaviest machine I would drive would be the trolley with the 3kg monitor on it. You know because of OH&S standards we use trolleys to move equipment around. Also I don't drink, don't smoke and definitely I DO NOT DO DRUGS. This was a known factor prior to the medical. What was done is that someone somewhere was too gutless to take a stand and decided that all employees must undertake drug tests, this would mean that no-one could say that they were targeted or harassed if they were chosen for a drug test because the tests are given to everyone. Equality for everyone. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander they say. Well I say, that I am not a goose, gander or even a chicken. I am some kind of sheep or a goat and the sauce they are trying to marinate me in, is all wrong. For good measure when I told them that I do not take drugs they told me in every way possible, without using the words you are lying, that I was lying through my teeth. Not only I lied, I was going through great measures to hide my lying nature and I was trying to deceive, defraud and weasel my way into the company, probably so that I could smuggle drugs to the other employees and make them high, (or whatever it is that drugs do to employees). They justify their actions by calling on the greater good and naming the process an Australian Standard, daring me to be unpatriotic and implying that somehow I am a traitor to my country. I now have to wait to see if they still want anything to do with me. I, on the other hand, am not so sure that I am as excited about this job as I was a few hours ago, when the medical was something I was looking forward to. I call for another paradigm shift, back to normalcy. A man is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Start a career by calling a man a liar and you will have one very quickly. Show your fellows some dignity and allow them to keep theirs. I pray that this world once again becomes a better place.