Your Credit...As a Condition of Your Employment?

Greetings, America, and thank you for visiting my corner of the Earth.  My hope in the fare you receive by reading the blog posts I've written thus far, is, at the very least, mild entertainment, with a side of having you plop down hard in your chair and thinking hard about what I said.  If I can accomplish that even once, I'll be more than thrilled, believe it.  Please note, if you haven't already, that my opinion has been known to bring out the "Defender" in a person, and on occasion I also manage to piss one or two people off, as well.  Know full well that there is a comment box at the bottom of each and every blog page, and that I fully expect you to fill it out and tell me how you feel, no matter how sharp the knife.  If I couldn't or didn't raise an eyebrow or two, then what's the sense in moving on?  At least I'll know there are more people than myself who feel strongly on the matters I cover.  Go right ahead and do that, by all means, I insist.  Note also that I choose not to advertise, though I may find another blog page with a larger reach that I might sign up with, with the intent of acquiring a wider audience of readers and jam their widget on this page to bring them out of their corners.

Here's a small but widely-known and accepted condition to your employment at a job these days, your credit report, prior to hire.  Please, if you don't mind, tell me what your credit situation relates to as far as how well you can do a job?

To be fair, let's look at this little gem from an employer's point of view.  It's said, that if your credit sucks, you're more likely to steal from your company.  You know, to pay your bills.  Really?  Yep, that's gotta be the whole reason I applied to work at Burger King, just so I could steal from the register while no one of the 10,000 people that go into Burger King daily, or my management, or my fellow employees, or the cameras are looking; then run immediately to my local grocery store after work so I can pay my delinquent phone bill.  Right.

First of all, if my moral compass is such that I'm going to steal from the company I work for (and then lose my job, and possibly get thrown in jail for it), improving my credit score, or even paying my electric bill before I buy the 70" Sony flatscreen TV I've never been able to afford before I stole from you, is not likely. Second, according the the "We can't hire you because there's a theft charge on your record" standard that's been in place for over 11 years is going to prevent me from getting another job, anywhere....ever.  So what do you think the chances are that I'm applying to work for you just so I can steal from you and pay off my gambling debts?  Zero to none, I'd say.

I'm sure that there's been past occurrences where, somewhere along the line, there have been theft issues at every company in America.  If I reach far enough, I might just investigate the record of any one of these thieves, and will probably find that their credit really does suck.  I'd have to say that anybody that steals, of course, is probably going to have sucky credit, so isn't this really a given?  Then I'm guessing that it was the brilliant idea of some research company somewhere in the United States where someone said "Hey.  Since that guy had crummy credit and stole money from the cash register, then surely ALL thieves have bad credit...so hey, let's just suggest we do employment credit checks!  That way, if someone has terrible credit, then we can immediately pigeonhole him as someone that shouldn't be hired because he might steal from you...and here's researched proof in our favor!  What's more, I'm sure that if we can get one huge respected company to ask for these, then pretty soon we'll have a standard on our hands, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, and we, as the credit checking company, can make a lot of money doing it!"

Now really America.  Let's go there, shall we?  First of all, have you ever noticed, that if you Google a credit score average in America, that no one can give you a real answer?  That's because no one WANTS you to know that answer.  That's also because there are four...count 'em, four different scales.  So really, because there is no regulated national standard for credit scoring, you could have a good score with one company, and a lousy one with another.  I love these sites that tell you what the average score is for people with loans...of course they're going to have good credit scores...that's why they have LOANS!!  And, the average credit score, according to FICO (the leader of the "credit score industry"), is over 700, and in the "Excellent" category.  You've got to know this is insanity.  There is no...possible...way.  I'll bet you if I average everyone in my neighborhood alone?  We'd be hard-pressed to hit 600.

Those of you out there with perfect or near perfect credit scores are going to brush this one off.  Of course you will.  It's all about how responsible you are, isn't it?  That's what these companies are really trying to find out about you.  I have only this to say about that.  I am a person who doesn't play the credit game.  My credit is neither bad nor good.  How does this make me a risk?  I'm a hard working, responsible, dedicated and loyal employee.  Does the fact that my credit score is zero make me a thief by default?  If you go to your pond, and you find 10 green frogs, does this mean all frogs are green?

So essentially, America, if you're bill pile is bigger than your paid file?  Kiss that management position good-bye.  If your electric bill was not paid on time last month and it dropped your credit score by 100 points, I don't see you getting that promotion.  And, God forbid, if you have no credit at all, bad or good (then you're like me, and don't play the credit game), then I don't see you getting that job at Wells Fargo as a credit specialist.  According to this way of thinking, you might just decide to start writing down customer's credit card numbers, steal their identities, thinking you can get away with it, and that this, of course, is infinitely more important than paying your bills and putting a roof over your children's heads.  Also, isn't it pretty much fair to say that some of our biggest thieves, con artists and scammers are some of the very billionaires out there with absolutely perfect credit scores?  I don't think we have to go any further than Enron to see that.

The solution to this madness?  A.  File this under discrimination where employment is concerned, ban asking about people's personal credit situation as a condition of employment, and let's put these research companies that are making a mint off of our lousy or non-existent credit scores out of business.  You can't put a finger on anyone's moral behavior because of their credit score.  B.  If you're going to keep playing (or insist that we Americans keep playing) the credit game, then have a branch of government federally mandate that we go by one scale and one scale only.