***Disclaimer: The content of this blog may be highly upsetting to some readers. There will be no judgement [for once] on my end if you skip this week’s post because yours truly actually raged out at the office for a good long minute when I dealt with this particular issue.***
I read background checks. It's part of my job. Read, analyze, and determine whether or not a candidate is eligible to work with us based on pre-specified, set criteria. Several of my previous posts have discussed background checks and the ensuing hilarity – always in the most confidential manner, of course. I am one of the few people in my office authorized to assess the background checks, and while this sounds all grandiose and powerful, it's more along the lines of: I am anal enough to delve into the complexities of a background check without missing a charge that may potentially disqualify someone from working with us or one of our clients based on that set criteria I mentioned a few sentences ago.
Yay, me. #promotion
Moving along.
I go through anywhere from three to thirty-three background checks every day as the final results are sent to us from our background check company periodically throughout the day. Happily, most of the reports are pretty mundane: so-and-so has done absolutely nothing criminal in his/her life. Great. Humanity has indeed set a low bar if being a good person maps to not being a criminal.
So, I was doing my due diligence on a gloriously sunny weekday morning when I come across one that was several pages long. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean there is anything in the details that would disqualify the person from working with us or any of our clients. You wouldn’t believe the paper required to cover whether someone changed his/her name after getting married. Sheesh. (I think the longest background check I have had to wade through was over 60 pages. That took a while, as you can well imagine.)
Alas, this particular check was going to be a pain because the first charge on there was a sex crime. Not necessarily an automatic fail for us (have I mentioned humanity’s low bar yet?), so I need to dig deeper into the details. Here's where things went off the rails:
The victim was (at one point in time during a seven-year period of abuse) under the age of 13.
The defendant was over the age of 22 when the abuse began.
The defendant was convicted seven years ago, which means he served less than seven years in prison if he was already out and looking for a job.
Cue the rage fest. Got a child rapist on our hands who served less than seven years for taking sexual advantage of someone for seven years who was legally a minor for no fewer than five of those years. Eww, gross, does not even begin to cover it. And, I got to wade through that mess and determine whether or not he was eligible to work for us. Lucky me. Guess what I decided?
Well. Actually, the mess was so far above my pay grade that I had to send it to HR to sort out. But you can guess what I would have decided if it was my call.
Cue the vindictive smile.
Oh, and do not leave me some pathetic comment about how he had probably turned over a new leaf and was looking for a fresh start. Or do. I’ll send you the R-rated version of this post to tell you what I really think about this guy and his need for a fresh start.
I've come across sex crimes before, and murders, and homicides, and batteries. You name it, I've seen it. This was a level that – I’m pretty sure – even the murderers, homicidal maniacs, and general wife beaters would say is too far.
P.S.: The guy in question sent in a very polite email stating that he was kindly awaiting our decision and hopes to be in our employ in the near future. Dude, as much as I’d like to tell you to kick rocks, this one wasn’t my decision to make.
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