Why do companies look at credit reports?

They say it's because it helps determine the responsibility of the candidate.

Yet they also forget that some people wish to pay back their debt.

Yet capitalist filth say it's solely to determine "responsibility". And that companies would just assume the candidate would find shady ways to get more money than what they are being paid. (lovely)

It's all about control.

...great minds DO think alike.

:toast:

:evilgrin:

...the degree to which a person is in debt, which (usually) draws a direct correlation to that person's inclination to show up for work. In short, the degree to which a potential employee can be retained / controlled / manipulated by dangling the carrot of "security" and "steady work."

If you have a mortgage payment, car payment, tuition for your kids, credit cards...you need to get on the treadmill and S.T.F.U.

Conversely, if you're single and have no debt, the first time the job attempts to bend you over it's very easy to walk out the front door and not look back.

ONE of the things I've done in my career is work in H.R...I'm not all that proud of it, and from an insiders' point of view, I concur that most H.R. "professionals" truly suck. Not ALL, just MOST. But it gave me a wealth of information that I still use to this day.

2 questions for you.

Sometimes people are interviewed when the person to fill the job has already been chosen. I've heard this is to satisfy equal opportunity requirements...but I don't think it's always the case.
(It really ticks me off when I've travelled a distance to interview and this sort of thing happens.) And yet, sometimes I've seen employers (once a state agency, once a county agency) just slip somebody into a position without even advertising it. How can this be?

(2) Tim Field, a Brit who's been at the forefront of informing people about workplace bullying (google him), said that the main purpose of human resources is to keep the employer out of court. Would you agree?

1. Sometimes people are interviewed when the person to fill the job has already been chosen.

Sometimes a decision is made to put a specific individual in a position before the position becomes open, or...if it's a new position...before the ink is dry on the job description.

In order to maintain the illusion of being "fair" in their hiring practices, management stages a cattle call in which any and all comers are invited in to do a little dance for their amusement. The decision has already been made, but the dancing keeps peace among the natives.

I was working as a temp while going to San Jose State at night to finish my degree. I interviewed at a temp job in which "Temp to Permanent" was the carrot dangled in front of me. Turns out that an INTERNAL candidate had already been interviewed for the job. My reaction was "So what you're looking for is me to come in and keep the position going until you promote this person?" The response was "yes." I turned it down, went back to my agency and they said "It sounds like YOU interviewed THEM." I said "you're right."

I've seen employers just slip somebody into a position without even advertising it. How can this be?

I've seen it too, and the lack of ethics is usually balanced by some H.R. sleight-of-hand in which the job description is changed to accommodate new responsibilities, as opposed to a new position being created. Ever watch Star Trek: The Next Generation? You know Picard's catch phrase, "Make it so?" Managers say that to H.R. employees hundreds of times a day. They take the dirty laundry down into the H.R. basement and say "I want all of these clean when I come back."

2. The main purpose of human resources is to keep the employer out of court. Would you agree?

Here's the single biggest mistake that ANY employee can make when dealing with H.R....write it down, e-mail this thread, whatever...I've seen people make this mistake many, many times.

The Human Resources Department EXISTS to feed the head of the beast, NOT the tail.

TOO MANY people have walked into H.R. offices and started spilling their guts, baring their soul, sharing their inner secrets...

Know what happens when you do that?

The H.R. employee walks in a straight line to your manager and repeats EVERY...WORD...YOU...SAID.

EVERY word.

Then they "strategize."

If you're a GOOD worker bee and you're reaching your target goals, and you're not expressing your frustrations to your fellow worker bees, and if making you happy will keep you productive, they MIGHT come up with a list of ways of making you happy.

If you're NOT a golden child, they start making a list of the people who can replace you in a heartbeat.

H.R. is NOT your friend. If you're the CEO, H.R. is your friend. Other than that, H.R. is NOT your friend. They will NEVER bite the hand that feeds them. They DO NOT think for themselves. They DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD.

:patriot:

They don't care if you are in debt, if you owe $5,000 to Visa or something like that. And your mortgage won't even matter.

They just look for alarming trends or excessive debt.

The reason they do this is to prevent things like corporate espionage. Say your work as a chemist for a pharmecutical company, for instance. If you are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, you might be a security risk. If someone from another company were to offer you thousands of dollars to sell company secrets, you might be inclined to take them up on it.

That's not saying that being in debt means that people are more dishonest or more likely dishonest.

They won't base their judgement just on your credit report.

It just gives them a little more insight, so they know if they need to do any further research.

because of credit checks...


how is he supposed to pay back debt?

The reasoning behind it is is to see if you are honest and pay your bills....on time or have been consistent in keeping yourself out of debt.

Why you might ask? I guess some studys have shown that people who are in way over thier heads in debt or have trouble keeping money around at all can can't take care of their personal business, sometimes they tend to take from the company they work for and/or are not very honest with thier duties.



That's how I remember it explained to me.

Some people may "wish" they could pay back their debt.

But then again, they could just as easily not have borrowed.

I wouldn't hire a deadbeat.

problems are because of huge medical bills with no health insurance? I'm more interested in employment history than financial history when I interview people.

If you need money to pay off debts, you either win the lottery or you go to work. It's not that hard to figure out.

It's just another way of screening potential employees and although determining responsibility based on credit could be accomplished strictly through a credit score, they pull the whole report and glean other information that some tea-leaf reader thinks is relevant. It's needlessly intrusive for most jobs but as long as applicants are willing to put up with it, companies will continue to insist on it.

because the guarranteed job he signed up for required a security
clearance. Because of his bad credit they deemed him a security risk.

I told him he was lucky, but he was pissed.

and proprietary issues, the thinking is that it helps tell if a person is more capable of being bribed for information.