Job Interviews After Rehab

You are sitting with a resume gap and a fear that the next question will be rehab. You do not have to volunteer a treatment history before an offer. Answer a lawful question. Do not stop a prescribed medicine, heavy drinking, or a benzodiazepine so you will look employable on Monday.

If you are in danger tonight, or someone will not wake, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.

Before an offer, treatment history is off limits

Before a job offer, an employer may not ask disability questions and may not require a medical exam. The employer may ask whether you can perform the job, if the question is not phrased as a disability question, and may ask you to describe or demonstrate how you would do the work.

Past addiction to illegal drugs or controlled substances is a covered disability if you are not currently using them illegally. Past casual use is not a disability. Before an offer, an employer may ask whether you have ever used illegal drugs, when you last used, and whether you used in the last six months. Questions likely to reveal addiction are barred: how often you used in the past, whether you were ever addicted, and whether you were ever treated for drug addiction or drug abuse. Questions about current illegal use are allowed, because current illegal use is not protected when the employer acts on that use.

Alcohol is a different set of questions. An employer may ask whether you drink or whether you have been arrested for driving under the influence. Those questions do not reveal alcoholism. Before an offer, the employer may not ask how much you drink or whether you have been in alcohol rehab. Alcoholism can be a disability. If the question is barred, you can decline it. If it is lawful, answer it. Do not invent a cleaner history.

After an offer, the exam rule changes

After a conditional offer, an employer may require a medical exam if everyone in that job category takes the same exam. If you are not hired because of a disability, the reasons have to be job-related and consistent with business necessity, and no reasonable accommodation would let you perform the essential functions. During employment, exams generally have to meet that same job-related test. A reasonable accommodation is a change so a qualified person can do the job, unless it would mean significant difficulty or expense. Whether you meet the legal test is between you, the employer, and a lawyer if you need one.

A test for illegal drugs is not a medical exam. The ADA does not encourage, authorize, or prohibit those tests. If a test is positive, the employer may ask what medications you take and whether a lawful prescription explains the result. What to do after a positive test is in a failed workplace drug test. How to talk with an employer you already have is in talking with your boss about rehab. A gap on the page you hand them is in resume gaps from rehab.

Do not stop heavy drinking on your own to look employable. A sudden stop after chronic heavy drinking can be life-threatening. Stopping a benzodiazepine abruptly, or cutting it too fast, can cause seizures.

Search FindTreatment.gov if the care itself is the next step. Call or text (800) 653-9376 if you want treatment arranged around a job search.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• EEOC: Enforcement Guidance on Preemployment Disability-Related Questions and Medical Examinations
• EEOC: The ADA, Your Responsibilities as an Employer
• FDA: Boxed warning on benzodiazepines
• NIAAA Core Resource: Alcohol Use Disorder, From Risk to Diagnosis to Recovery
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov

Common Questions