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WNB

Telstra manager's career goes up in smoke
Richard Kerbaj | Brisbane Courier Mail | 9/19/2005

It started as a team-building weekend for Telstra workers but quickly sank into a drunken, drug-taking party that ended with the boss getting the sack.

The winter bonding session at a holiday house in Cape Patterson, southeast of Melbourne, was meant to focus the tight-knit team's workplace goals for the new financial year.

While it was a good-natured Friday night, without the usual workplace dramas, the decision to bring out marijuana after a solid session of drinking ended the 15-year career of the Telstra manager who organised the trip.

After returning from dinner on the night, one account executive found the atmosphere fitting for a "smoke". So he rolled up a joint, lit it and passed it around.

Six team members, including then sales manager Mark Lang from Telstra's business and government (TBG) division in Collins St, Melbourne, took turns at puffing on it.

But now Mr Lang is bitter that he was the only victim in the fallout from the weekend in July last year - and unions believe drugs are a serious problem in the workplace.

Mr Lang was sacked in December for admitting to smoking marijuana during the team-building event, after one of his own team members, who didn't attend the Cape Patterson function, told TBG general manager Andrew Greig what he knew from hearsay.

TBG national sales director Bill Dunn confirmed a sales manager was dismissed from Telstra for taking drugs. "There was an employee who was asked to leave for taking drugs at a company function. That is totally against our rules, so therefore he was asked to leave."

While Mr Lang was the most senior employee at the team-building function in Cape Patterson, he was not the only person who admitted to smoking marijuana. Five of his team members also confessed to Mr Greig, a former NSW police officer, who conducted the internal investigation. But Mr Lang said although he was dismissed, the other five escaped with "verbal or written warnings" for committing the same offence.

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reggie_the_dog

so you can get drunk at a company function, but you cannot smoke a joint,

isnt cannabis decriminalized in most of australia?

Buzzby

Australian drug policy

Apparently getting drunk is not against the company's policy while marijuana use is. I have no problem with this. When you become an employee you agree to abide by the company's rules, however arbitrary they may be. I mean, if you can be constrained to do something as stupid as wear a piece of cloth tied around your neck every day they can certainly dictate what recreational drugs you use on company time. A manager with 15 years of experience should have known better. He probably would have, had he not been drunk.

I'm surprised that heavy drinking is permissible at company functions, but Australians have a different attitude towards that than Americans.

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reggie_the_dog

I am with you about company policies against cannabis use while ON COMPANY TIME, in the sense that they are paying you to work

this thing in australia seemed to be a weekend retreat for the company workers, perhaps the others were warned and he was fired because as a manager he was still "on the clock" so to speak and the others were on weekend.


Its not like they were at a lunch meeting or on coffee break or something when they smoked up.

also i think this guy messed up when he admitted to smoking although the boss had only heard a hearsay account of the event.

yuri420

In South and Western Australia(my home!), but the bulk of Australians live on the East coast where pot is not only illegal but more expensive(NSW, Vic, etc)

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yuri420

Here in the great land of Oz some workers will go out to a bar for lunch, have 5/6 beers and return to work half an hour later. Marijuana, on the other hand, is generally done in private.

king cola

"Mr Lang was sacked in December for admitting to smoking marijuana during the team-building event, after one of his own team members, who didn't attend the Cape Patterson function, told TBG general manager Andrew Greig what he knew from hearsay."

He smoked with team members, apparently one of them must have bragged to the member who didn't show up about their manager smoking or overheard the others talking about what they had done. It goes to show that even if you smoke pot with people, they might still slip up and talk about it in front of someone who doesn't putting you at risk of losing a job. The member who told on the manager, might have not got along with him or felt that he was doing something good by turning him in.

Being in his job position he should have just smoked pot in privacey, kept to himself about using it.

reggie_the_dog: "also i think this guy messed up when he admitted to smoking although the boss had only heard a hearsay account of the event."

I thought of that too before reading your post, it's hearsay and he admitted to it. Depending on how long it was before he was confronted about smoking pot, if he hadn't smoked it within 30 days of being confronted he should have said, "alright give me a drug test then!" He should have atleast denied it and tried to pass it off as just being a rumor.

carlover_36

Seems the gentlman made a bad choice,unfortunatly we all must hide from the descriminations hailed upon us by society.I am curious as to the statement "He took drugs". I am under the opinion that Marijuana is not a Drug,it is all natural and is not taken but inhaled.The lawyers like to use word definitions against us,perhaps we ought to turn hte tables.

yuri420

A drug refers to ANY substance which has mind-altering effects. Marijuana, whether natural or not, is most certainly a drug. as is coffee, Panadol and Pepsi

Buzzby

Let's see... Opium is the dried juice of a poppy seed pod - 100% natural. Like cannabis, it can be smoked (or vaporized or eaten). Therefore, opium is not a drug. Right?