It’s time to review three ideas that need to be “let go” in 2009.
1. Credit Checks of Job Applicants. According to the Society of Human Resource Management and Kroll, 43% of employers run credit checks on potential employees, up from 36% in 2004. These checks involve rent, student loans, credit cards and mortgages and can make the difference between someone getting hired or having their application tossed.
In the best of times this is a dubious measurement to use when looking to hire someone. But given the rapidly increasing foreclosure rate, ballooning credit card debt and the general demise of capitalism as we’ve know it, credit checks of job applicants are a joke. A very bad joke.
I’d make an exception for people who handle substantial amounts of money as part of doing their jobs, but for a truck driver, administrative assistant or nurse, this is unnecessary. Personally, I believe that it violates our 4th Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment and this is coming from a guy with a good credit score.
Let’s stop pouring salt in the wounds of our fellow citizens. Credit checks are wrong in the hiring process and need to be stopped.
2. Bonus Formulas. It seems every day that pigs can fly, at least on Wall Street. One day we hear from the President about $18 billion in bonus payments at companies receiving TARP government bailout bucks. Then the next day the headline is that 700 Merrill Lynch workers
received million dollar bonus payments each.
Clearly this proves that there is a parallel universe, one where pigs party like crazy. I think we need to toss all the old bonus formulas and swap them for calculations that actually don’t reward people when the markets sink by 50%. Is that too much to ask?
I’m all for pay for performance, but Wall Street seems to focus on the wrong “p” in the first part of this sentence at the expense of the second “p.”
3. Retirement. Ouch. Retirement has been pushed back for many of us. Instead of kicking back in our early 60s, many of us will now be working until our 70’s. We’ll have no choice.
We might not have a choice about how long we work, but we do have a choice about where we work. That’s why it’s so important to really focus on what we want to do with our careers, to decide what is meaningful and important to each of us.
And this may be the silver lining of the current mess. That it could push many people into jobs that hold more meaning for them.
As a special guest this week, we’re bringing in the star of the Apprentice, and former high roller, to bid adieu to credit checks, bonus formulas and retirement.
Donald: “You’re fired!”
Rosner: “Thanks Mr. Trump.”
About the Author: Bob Rosner is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist and contributor to On The Money. He has been called “Dilbert with a solution.” Check out the free resources available at workplace911.com. You can contact Bob via bob@workplace911.com.
