Did I just screw myself out of this job?

[N7K8]

I was called with the job offer last Friday, and then I got my offer letter and whatnot telling me to schedule my drug screen on Monday. I did "schedule" it, but it doesn't give you a time to come in; it just tells you their business hours. Well, I had some questions about documents and paperwork and whatnot for HR anyway, so I called them, and they said that I would be too late to start on the start date that they gave me, because the cutoff time to have everything done was that Tuesday at noon. So it wouldn't have been possible for me to have done all the pre-employment stuff in less than 2 days. So I called the recruiter and asked to be bumped to the next start date (July 6th) because the HR people said I was too late to start on the 22nd. He seemed totally fine with that, so I figured I was pretty much off the hook and I could take a couple days to relax and I'd just start the pre-employment stuff the following Monday, since that bought me an extra 2 weeks. Well lo and behold, on Friday I look at the offer letter and it says I have 72 hours from the time I received the letter to take the drug test. Well, it's now Friday, and even though we moved my start date, I checked my phone and I had received the e-mail to start "pre-boarding" yesterday evening. And I had missed like 4 phone calls from the recruiter and HR.

I guess when I told the recruiter I missed the cutoff and to just move me to the next start date, I figured I would have those 2 weeks to get everything done. And maybe that they'd even start the process over and send me a new offer letter with the corrected start date. But I guessed wrong. And now they're all closed for the weekend and I have to wait until Monday to call and see if I'm out of the job or if they'll work with me and let me take the drug test and do everything like normal. Like I said, I have 2 weeks until the start date, so I figure it shouldn't be a big deal. But I didn't see that I had 72 hours to take that drug test until today. So I'm scared to death that my job offer is going to be rescinded for this. I'm sure other people have missed their drug testing window, but the fact that I basically neglected my phone/e-mail for a couple days isn't going to look good either. Has this ever happened to anyone else? Do you think they'll work with me and let me take these 2 weeks to do my pre-employment stuff after all?

[midazoslam]

It sounds like that there was a miscommunication between both parties - the organisation and you. All that can be done is to call on Monday, explain your predicament and what was discussed with the recruiter, and that you assumed such and such (this also indicates humility and acknowledging your wrongdoings, which can be quite attractive to employers).

Good luck.