I have never been very good with my money. And for most of my life, I have really not made “enough” money to balance out my expenses. Sure, if I had spent less, gone to a cheaper college, not gone out to eat so often, etc . . .

but I make plenty of excuses, too. My parents had no respect for my boundaries when it came to money, and I was constantly given the message that “we don’t have enough money” in my family of origin, a message I seem to have been trying to disprove ever since.

I’ve been limited by this or that circumstance. “I was doing the best I could at the time and I just need to accept where I am at this point.” or my personal favorite, “Everybody’s broke/everybody’s in debt. It’s the American way!”

But the other day, researching background check companies for work, I wandered upon an article that really bothered me, because of the way it represented “people like me”.

“. . . such screenings have become a necessity in today’s workplace. The issue at hand is as much about the character of an employee as it is about their potential criminal history.

And beyond that, background investigations are about more than negligent hiring concerns (though those concerns are worth the effort of prevention in and of themselves). A credit check, resume check, or educational references help employers to judge the character of an employee, an important issue in today’s competitive workplace.” (http://www.ebiinc.com/news/)

So there it is. It’s not that I made a few (hundred) bad choices, or that things “just happened” in my life. I am, at heart, simply a bad person. Obviously this is the case, right? And it could hurt my chances of getting at least some jobs . . . because, without even knowing anything else about me, someone will make a judgment about who I am based on this. I will also pay more for my car insurance because of this.

but what exactly “this” is, I’m not sure.

poor choices? a victim of my generation?

or is it truly a simple matter of lacking character?

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