As I type this, a colleague of mine is filling out an application for a position at another facility. The background check states that it checks EVERYTHING (pretty personal!) including bankruptcy, which she declared a couple of years ago.
She was wondering if she needs to worry about not getting this job because of the bankruptcy? How much does credit play into whether or not someone lands a job? It seems like it shouldn't make any difference.
Thanks for any input. Unfortunately I don't have much help to offer her.
The point is that people who are seeking a job and have a good work history should not be denied employment because of their credit history. You have no idea what resources were "truly" available to the person to utilize and what the exact circumstances were. It is easy to monday morning quarterback on what they could/should have done but really what are we going to do, deny employment to all who have a stain on their credit reports?
I have never said that no one with lousy credit should ever be hired. I have said that how they have handled their debts in view of what life has thrown at them speaks to character and on that basis a company could very well be interested in their credit history.
A lot of assumptions being made in this thread, boy.
And of course there are legitimate reasons for declaring bakruptcy. Funny, though, in my long life I have never met a single person who had one.
I have never said that no one with lousy credit should ever be hired. I have said that how they have handled their debts in view of what life has thrown at them speaks to character and on that basis a company could very well be interested in their credit history.
A lot of assumptions being made in this thread, boy.
And of course there are legitimate reasons for declaring bakruptcy. Funny, though, in my long life I have never met a single person who had one.
(And yes, that's a judgment.)
With all due respect, with over 300 million people living in the U.S., even if you personally have never met one, somehow I am quite sure they are out there.
The fact is we have no idea the ins and outs of peoples situations and just blanketly deciding that a bad credit score means bad character is unfair and wrong.
What about people who will constantly lie about the supposed "ins and outs" of those situations ... i.e. the fact that they could pay but didn't. How's an employer supposed to tell the difference.
A debt is a responsibility. You either take care of that responsibility or you don't. Things go wrong in life. It doesn't change your obligations. Responsible people still manage to pay their bills when things go wrong, freeloaders don't.
If you don't make the mortgage payment, the bank is still going to take your house because that's your responsibility. If you don't show up for your job because things go wrong, you're still going to be fired because that's your responsibility. Nobody is going to cut you any slack in those situations ... why should debt be any different?
In the end, the excuses don't matter. If you didn't plan for the possibility of things going wrong, then you shouldn't have borrowed the money in the first place. It doesn't change the fact that you assumed an obligation and are responsible for it.
A debt is a responsibility. You either take care of that responsibility or you don't. Things go wrong in life. It doesn't change your obligations. Responsible people still manage to pay their bills when things go wrong, freeloaders don't.
Some of the sentiment here really concerns me. Sometimes responsible people cannot manage to pay the bills when things go wrong because they are unable. This makes me think of my grandfather. He was your average working family man, until he found himself suddenly in a wheelchair, permanently at age 40. He was a responsible man. He had disability insurance. He had health insurance. He had savings. It wasn't enough. You bet he declared backruptcy. He was so ashamed. The family barely had food on the table.
I agree, there are freeloaders. I just can't see judging so harshly.
There sure are some criticizing people on this board. Geez, I sure hope they never get sick or have something really bad happen to them. I know people who have filed that would never have imagined doing so due to circumstances beyond their control (a sick child). God forbid, this should ever happen to some on this board!
Some of the sentiment here really concerns me. Sometimes responsible people cannot manage to pay the bills when things go wrong because they are unable. This makes me think of my grandfather. He was your average working family man, until he found himself suddenly in a wheelchair, permanently at age 40. He was a responsible man. He had disability insurance. He had health insurance. He had savings. It wasn't enough. You bet he declared backruptcy. He was so ashamed. The family barely had food on the table.
I agree, there are freeloaders. I just can't see judging so harshly.
Thank you! Years ago, my husband lost his job due to downsizing, we were unable to sell our home because of a severely depressed market ( 10 homes for sale on the same 2 blocks!). We had to foreclose on the house and it went up for auction and sold 3 months later for the original purchase price plus, so no one was cheated. We moved and divorced soon after.
Now here's the good part...I have had the same job for over fifteen years and lived in the same rental for the same 15 years.
My credit went south because I chose to go to a credit repair and pay off my debts while my ex managed to buy a house and has over 30,000$ in credit cards racked up! Even though my income is higher, I now have "bad credit" for paying off my debts (even though it has been over 5 years).
Do I think this is a reflection on my poor character? No. Sometimes things happen even to people with "good character"...life is too full of bureaucratic inconsistentsies to make a judgement of character on credit history alone.
Thank you! Years ago, my husband lost his job due to downsizing, we were unable to sell our home because of a severely depressed market ( 10 homes for sale on the same 2 blocks!). We had to foreclose on the house and it went up for auction and sold 3 months later for the original purchase price plus, so no one was cheated. We moved and divorced soon after.
Now here's the good part...I have had the same job for over fifteen years and lived in the same rental for the same 15 years.
My credit went south because I chose to go to a credit repair and pay off my debts while my ex managed to buy a house and has over 30,000$ in credit cards racked up! Even though my income is higher, I now have "bad credit" for paying off my debts (even though it has been over 5 years).
Do I think this is a reflection on my poor character? No. Sometimes things happen even to people with "good character"...life is too full of bureaucratic inconsistentsies to make a judgement of character on credit history alone.
I feel your pain. When my husband got laid off in 2001, I was 8 months pregnant. Luckily, the company paid the insurance for 2 months. We also had a very low mortgage payment. However, like many young Americans we had a lot of cc debt. Well we didn't want to file bankruptcy and spent almost 3 years paying everything off. And only have an emergency cc that we never carry a balance on. We even paid cash when I need a new car. I make small purchase each month and pay it off just to keep the account active. We only got a house because we qualify for VA, which only requires 1 year of no late payments. It takes forever to bring your credit score up. Yet I know someone who filed bankruptcy. A month after it was final, they were out buying a new car and other stuff on credit. They were in no worse situation than we were before they filed. All of their debt was credit card! There was also no change in their employment situation. What's more is they waited until they had and spent their tax refund just so they court couldn't take it. And because they didn't work to pay it off they have learned no lesson and are once again in the same situation. Oh I am sure there are situations that bankruptcy is needed but there are many that aren't.
If financial history speaks to character, then what is the character of our politicians? Just a thought. Do they deserve to be "employed" since running up massive debt?
If financial history speaks to character, then what is the character of our politicians? Just a thought. Do they deserve to be "employed" since running up massive debt?
Well... no. But we're not supposed to get political.
My credit went south because I chose to go to a credit repair and pay off my debts while my ex managed to buy a house and has over 30,000$ in credit cards racked up! Even though my income is higher, I now have "bad credit" for paying off my debts (even though it has been over 5 years).
Do I think this is a reflection on my poor character? No. Sometimes things happen even to people with "good character"...life is too full of bureaucratic inconsistentsies to make a judgement of character on credit history alone.
First off, bankruptcy is not bad credit. And your making the choice you did testifies to your excellent character. You chose to to the right thing rather than the expedient thing. Anyone who pulled your report and heard your explanation would hire you in a heartbeat, as they should.
What about people who will constantly lie about the supposed "ins and outs" of those situations ... i.e. the fact that they could pay but didn't. How's an employer supposed to tell the difference.
A debt is a responsibility. You either take care of that responsibility or you don't. Things go wrong in life. It doesn't change your obligations. Responsible people still manage to pay their bills when things go wrong, freeloaders don't.
If you don't make the mortgage payment, the bank is still going to take your house because that's your responsibility. If you don't show up for your job because things go wrong, you're still going to be fired because that's your responsibility. Nobody is going to cut you any slack in those situations ... why should debt be any different?
In the end, the excuses don't matter. If you didn't plan for the possibility of things going wrong, then you shouldn't have borrowed the money in the first place. It doesn't change the fact that you assumed an obligation and are responsible for it.
:typing
So all the victims of Katrina who lost their homes, jobs, family members, possesions and will undoubtly have bad credit because of it should have known not to live in Louisiana because the levy's might break and then they would lose everything? I hate to bring up a tragic situation, but this is essentially what it "looks" like you are saying here. :uhoh21: Things happen in life and yes you have to deal with the ups and downs of it, but I just can't see blanketly denying employment to a population based on some people's abuse of the credit system. Again, what are we to do with these people? How are they ever going to be useful agents to society again if they cannot find gainful employment. The bigger picture has to be looked at.
So all the victims of Katrina who lost their homes, jobs, family members, possesions and will undoubtly have bad credit because of it should have known not to live in Louisiana because the levy's might break and then they would lose everything? I hate to bring up a tragic situation, but this is essentially what it "looks" like you are saying here. :uhoh21:
I know for a fact that they DID know and yeah ... they should have moved.
I grew up in New Orleans. I moved in the '80s because it made no sense to stay there. Even back then, everybody knew the big one would hit one day. And they knew it would be bad because there were series of newspaper articles on the subject every couple of years or so. There were also constant local news stories about the coastal erosion and how it was going to make the next hurricane a lot worse than previous hurricanes. Louisiana loses several miles of coastline every year and, even 20 years ago, people knew that it would eventually cause a disaster.
I constantly tried to talk my sister and mother into moving yet, they refused. When you live in Lousiana, you know all of the politicians are corrupt, and that you can't count on any decent infrastructure to protect you. They don't bother to fill the potholes in the streets, much less keep up the levees. Everybody knew this because the corrupt Levee Board and other corrupt politicans were constantly in the news. Louisiana is world famous for corruption.
Then, when my mother died three years ago I again suggested that my sister should move since, with Mom's passing, there really wasn't any reason to stay. There was, 20 years later, yet another a series of local newspaper articles on the levees, the coastal erosion and the disaster that would happen if a hurricane hit. My sister would have been able to sell her house at a very nice price back then but, she refused to move. There had been a series of floods in the city and I told her that she better, at the very least, beef up her insurance but, of course, she didn't. Instead, she kept borrowing on her home equity.
Now, of course, my sister has credit problems and wishes she had moved. So who's fault is that ... really? It's not like people didn't know. It's been all over the local news for decades and I don't think you'll find a single person in New Orleans who didn't know this would happen unless they've been hiding under a rock for the last 20 years.
Only 20 percent of New Orleans homeowners bought flood insurance ... even though the place flooded on a regular basis for several years before Katrina. So, again, who's fault is that?
I live in California where fires and earthquakes are the biggest problems. Three years ago we lived in an area which, because of extended drought, had become very high risk for fire because all of the trees had died. You were literally surrounded by matchsticks that could go up in flames at any time. And we couldn't get insurance coverage because of the fire risk which, again, had been covered extensively by the local newspapers.
We knew it was only a matter of time before disaster struck so ... we moved. Four months later, the big fires hit and the place went up in flames. A total of 5,000 homes were lost.
The biggest problem people had with the California fires was not upgrading their insurance to keep up with home values. So, even though I now live in a lower fire risk area, I've still doubled up on my fire and earthquake insurance. Since my home value has gone up significantly, I've made sure I'm covered on that as well.
Do you know how much it cost? Only 40 extra bucks a month. I also made sure I have insurance with carriers who had good track records of paying claims after the fires.
So ... it is possible to move and take precautions avoid disaster. The warning signs are usually there if you choose to pay attention, take some responsibility and actually do something about it. I know, because if I've done it more than once.
SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN
10,263 Posts
I have never said that no one with lousy credit should ever be hired. I have said that how they have handled their debts in view of what life has thrown at them speaks to character and on that basis a company could very well be interested in their credit history.
A lot of assumptions being made in this thread, boy.
And of course there are legitimate reasons for declaring bakruptcy. Funny, though, in my long life I have never met a single person who had one.
(And yes, that's a judgment.)