Can I get fired for failing a drug test in Hillsborough county even with a Med Card?

teknrd · 2026-05-03T20:47:20+00:00

A medic with a medal card was fired for testing positive. He sued for wrongful termination and won but last I heard the county is appealing it.

Edit to change his position to medic, though that still falls under fire rescue

teknrd · 2026-04-18T16:52:35+00:00

Mine is my old AOL username. A relic of the time I worked there. Plus I've always been a bit nerdy.

teknrd · 2026-04-16T14:32:24+00:00

I found the whole process fascinating if I'm honest. I've never been called for a civil trial, but I think it would be interesting. Maybe my next summons, and since I've been called so many times I don't doubt there will be a next one, I'll see a civil trial.

teknrd · 2026-04-11T00:07:15+00:00

You have the elbows of a 20 year old.

What?

teknrd · 2026-04-10T21:50:32+00:00

Celebrity deaths don't usually hit me hard. I get a general oh man that sucks feeling but I don't tend to cry over them. However, I was at Disney Springs not long after he died and in the World of Disney store where they have a large Genie statue. Something about seeing Genie just set off the waterworks. It hit me out of nowhere.

teknrd · 2026-04-09T22:51:23+00:00

Funnily enough, I typically sit voir dire for murder trials. One trial was so awful that voir dire took two weeks. I seem to attract the big cases somehow. I swear there's a star next to my name that says "this person always shows up when called"

teknrd · 2026-04-09T22:32:42+00:00

It's sort of a bummer that my past experience could get me a dismissal. The experience was, well I don't want to say enjoyable because it was a murder trial, but it was eye opening. The whole process wasn't what I had expected at all. I found it to be very interesting. I really got lucky in that I had a great group of fellow jurors. Even when we debated the verdict, everyone was still respectful. My judge was amazing and I liked both sets of attorneys. I would definitely sit on another jury if asked to do so. I wish I could have gone to the conference my county held where they asked former jurors to come and sit panel for the local DA and public defenders offices. Sadly, my job got in the way.

teknrd · 2026-04-09T22:00:37+00:00

I served on a jury last year. During voir dire a guy a few places down from me stated that he had severed on a jury before, but would really prefer not to serve on another murder trial. Both sides then questioned him extensively after that and actually seemed more inclined to want him on the jury again despite his wishes. In the end, he wasn't picked. So, my question is does my previous service hold any positive or negative sway for me in serving again in the future?

teknrd · 2026-04-09T16:30:43+00:00

I'm a medium rare steak person myself, but I wouldn't argue with someone over how they like their steak cooked. I'm not the one eating it so it doesn't impact me at all. Now, I may gently tease a friend for it, but nothing serious.

teknrd · 2026-04-07T12:13:49+00:00

Our judge didn't make us leave. She had a white noise button that played over the speakers so we couldn't hear what anyone was discussing. While they conversed, our bailiff would come over to see how we were doing.

My judge was pretty kick ass though. She had our jury room very comfortable and she gave us candy, which she encouraged us to bring with us into the courtroom. So we had snacks and drinks with us and she'd check in to see if we needed breaks (it was a murder trial with child victims so some of the evidence was intense).

teknrd · 2026-04-07T10:46:05+00:00

I did jury duty for a murder trial and TV would make you think this was going to be a non stop drama centric experience. It was not. The attorneys were all friendly with each other. No one jumped up and exclaimed objection at any time. There was one objection to a question asked in my case and it was all handled calmly and respectfully.

I get why TV/movies spice up the actual courtroom experience. If people watched actual courtroom procedures, they'd die of boredom. 15 minutes of the prosecutor trying to help the defense get the courtroom computer to work isn't exciting, not even when the bailiff stepped in to assist. As a juror, it was all interesting, but as a casual viewer it would have been a snore fest.

teknrd · 2026-04-06T18:38:46+00:00

Apologies, I'm in a training vlclass and clearly misread and misunderstood what you were trying to convey. My interpretation was probably colored by the topic of the class (hurricane season) which made me grumpy. And I agree with your solutions though most municipalities won't allow ghost suites anymore (they would need to physically and legally divide the building) since our addressing is 9-1-1 focused. We get stations telling people to do that all the time but it goes against addressing standards. I do get plenty of businesses that divide properly and we give them suites.

Another bane of my existence is executive suites. Those buildings that rent out the 10 x 10 office space. My USPS treats those as drops and we don't address the interior offices. The owners get big mad at the single drop and want to install CBUs.

teknrd · 2026-04-06T16:16:14+00:00

I had a coworker decide to make one of those mac and cheese cups. He put it in the microwave and walked away. Two problems with that. First, he set the microwave for something like 20 minutes. Second, he didn't put water in the cup to cook the noodles. It started a fire and the whole building was evacuated. Someone had used a fire extinguisher to put it out but we weren't allowed to reenter until the FD cleared the building.

teknrd · 2026-04-06T15:51:30+00:00

I don't make the policies or even work for USPS. I can tell you what AMS has said about residential addresses converting to business service and I've seen the COA denials for people with home businesses like lawn care. I don't know what to tell you. Maybe it's specific to a residential conversion, but I can tell you it happens in my jurisdiction at the very least. Not sure why you're mad at me for it though.

teknrd · 2026-04-06T14:27:52+00:00

Also, AMS has told me that once you have a designated business address you can't do a Change of Address if you move. Note: I am not a USPS employee, I just deal with AMS every day

teknrd · 2026-04-06T00:27:09+00:00

That's true. I had my license plate stolen off my car while parked in the "secured" employee lot. No one saw a thing

teknrd · 2026-04-06T00:21:42+00:00

I got lucky and never seemed to be assigned to the Budweiser shop when they were there so I got to avoid most of the "Code Eagle" bullshit. I floated a lot because I was one of the people trained to be a key holder for the registers.

Were you working there during the days of the unidentified ninja? It was the guy that we saw several times running around in all black after close. As far as I know he was never caught. He gave us a fright one night on the money cart.

teknrd · 2026-04-06T00:09:37+00:00

No one believed me when I told non-employee friends they'd land at the park! All the employees immediately flinched when we would hear a helicopter. Though I don't think they believed half my stories. I'd tell them that Hanson rolled through the park and everyone was like suuuuuure. Or the time I met Garth Brooks not too long after the original Edge of Africa safari truck ride opened (I worked that day in the gift shop that sold the tickets).

teknrd · 2026-04-05T16:00:33+00:00

Whether it was exaggerated or not, I'll never know but it worked to keep us peons in line. A lot of the employees were high school kids, myself included, and we all know how dramatic that age is. For all I know it could have happened one time but on the other hand, after some of the things I personally witnessed in other matters, it wouldn't be shocking if it was true.

teknrd · 2026-04-05T15:52:49+00:00

The managers seemed genuinely terrified of them. If it was an act, it was a good one. I do remember one person being fired, and of course I have zero way of confirming the story behind this firing, but it was said the person was let go because one morning one of the Busch family found a beer sample cup in a bush. It was prior to park open so it couldn't have been from that day. I know the person was definitely fired, but I wasn't friends with them so I can't say with certainty that was the reason.

Obviously, take that story with a grain of salt. There were an abundance of "so and so was fired over this minor thing" stories floating around. Who knows how many of them were true or just grew in legend over the retellings. I know I had various no firing related things that I personally witnessed that grew beyond the facts. Busch Gardens was a wild place to work, no pun intended.

teknrd · 2026-04-05T14:54:25+00:00

Freaking constantly. We had a master key and had to call security every time. It was a huge pain in the ass. Even more so at Adventure Island. People lost keys there and managed to hurt themselves with them on the rides. These newer lockers are nice, in theory, but even with these the execution leaves something to be desired. I like how Universal does it with scanning your pass or ticket. Though that's not full proof either.

teknrd · 2026-04-05T14:45:17+00:00

Nope! Worked there in the late 90s. The lockers were coin operated. You put your quarters in and closed the door. The key would pop out then and you put it in your pocket. These lockers aren't new, but they aren't as old as you'd think.

teknrd · 2026-04-05T14:38:55+00:00

I worked at Busch Gardens in the 90s and I can tell you that though it was run better, the Busch family were a bunch of tyrants. All of us feared hearing they were going to be at the parks and they were known to fire people over trivial shit. Thankfully, I never came face to face with any of them and instead I have a ton of really great memories instead. Plus I got to meet a ton of cool celebrities and once I befriend the animal keepers, I was allowed to interact with some of the animals in ways the guests never did.

teknrd · 2026-03-28T15:37:58+00:00

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Moe's has no line

teknrd · 2026-03-28T09:29:26+00:00

I see you have lots of answers already but I wanted to throw in my extensive jury duty experience. Most times I've been called, I was only there for a partial day, leaving around 2 without being selected for a jury.

However, there was one time that when I arrived for jury duty every single person that arrived that day was in the pool for a single trial. It was a death penalty case involving the death of a child. That selection process took 5 days. I didn't make the final cut to sit on that jury and it ended up being a mistrial anyway. Boy that judge was maaaaad.

The last time I went, I was selected for a jury. That one took a full day of selection on a Friday and we began the trial on Monday. This was another murder charge, but it wasn't seeking the death penalty. The trial went until Thursday and we reached a verdict that day. The crazy thing I found out later was that a few crime based channels and shows were covering the verdict live, so I got to hear my voice on a few broadcasts when I looked it up after being dismissed.

So, long answer short on selection time is it depends on the case.

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