Recruiting firm CEO goes viral after speech about drugs, Christmas parties
The CEO of a recruiting firm in Australia has gone viral after his speech on drugs and relationships during workplace Christmas parties was posted online.
In the video, Sharp and Carter CEO Stephen Carter can be heard saying that he does drugs and giving workplace relationship advice.
"I take drugs myself; I just don't do it at work events," Carter said in the footage quoted by news.com.au. "Because that's when things get really out of hand. If you take drugs at the Christmas party, you will be fired. It's a really strong rule."
He can also be heard telling his staff that if they want to cheat on their partner, it would not be wise to do it with someone at work.
"If you are going to cheat on your partner and if you have to do it – just don't do it with someone at work [as] it really becomes problematic, as we have seen," he said.
The video was uploaded online by the Herald Sun, which has been informed by Carter in an interview that he has been making that same speech for seven years and was not expecting it to be uploaded online.
"I probably would have chosen to use my words a bit differently if I knew that," he said.
He told the Sun, as reported by news.com.au, that he had not done drugs for "about five years" and he was just saying that the workplace isn't a good place for drugs.
"It's to do with friends in a social setting. Go and have drugs tomorrow for all I care, but don't do it at the Christmas party or at work," Carter said.
On his relationship advice, the CEO said that he was only "trying to get ahead" of the situation and that his intentions were to look after and care for his people.
"At 203 people we are representative of society, and in society that happens, people take drugs, people cheat on their partner and I'm just trying to get ahead of that. I don't want to clean up their mess afterwards," he told the news outlet.
In Australia, cannabis has the highest reported prevalence of lifetime and recent consumption among the general population in the country, with 11.5% of people using it in 2022-2023, according to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
The Model Work Health and Safety Act gives employers the responsibility to ensure that drug use policies are set in the business.
Workers also have the duty to take "reasonable care for their own health and safety and not adversely affect the safety of others," according to Safework Australia.
