It is probably too late on this election day to change any
votes but I felt the need to explain why despite my substantially left view on
social issues I voted Republican. Partially
to my own wife who sometimes wonders what happened to that liberal 22 year old
who was going to save the world that she met inn college. Most people do not have the experience of
being a business owner so it is hard to understand so I wanted to provide some
very specific reasons.
Here is a short explanation.
I am in a meeting of other business owners on this election day. We are spending a great deal of our time,
mental abilities, and money trying to find ways to grow our business without adding any employees. I know a statement like that can be taken out
of context and makes us sound like the evil businessmen in the advertisements. But
here is the truth. I made a good living
working in corporate America. If money
is all I cared about I could have stayed there and done just fine with a lot
less stress and a lot more time off. The
single thing I enjoy more than anything else in owning my own business is
coaching and developing my employees. When
my dad died and seemed like every employee in the company came to his funeral
and they all came up and told me stories of how he encouraged them to get go
back to school, to take jobs they did not think they could handle, and
otherwise pushed them to be better people than they believed they could be I
realized that is what I wanted to do that.
My dad died almost 10 years ago and one of his employees promised to take
care of my dad’s prized car and to give to his newborn and at the time only
grandchild as a birthday present when he turns 16. One of my dad’s employees was so touched by
him that he promised to keep a 16 year vigil.
That is pretty darn cool and that was my role model. I want people to tell Lindsay those stories
about me when I am gone. A lot of my
employees have never had someone believe in them or trust them. When you give them that trust and some
coaching and skills it is amazing to watch them grow in every way imaginable. Selfishly I take great almost parent like joy
when I see my people grow up and improve their lives, move their kids into
better schools, and turn around a family story of failure and poverty while
working for me.
So how is it that a person that has a core value and belief in hiring people
and developing them now sitting in a room trying to figure out how to not hire
anyone? Over the last four years of
owning my business it has become increasingly more difficult, expensive, and
personally risky to have employees.
Allow me to give you the most crystal clear example of a policy
implemented under the Obama administration that makes me not want to hire
anyone.
Under this administration the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
has issued new guidelines that state screening for employment using a criminal
background check can be considered discrimination. The EEOC says that I need to take into
account how long ago the crime was committed, how that crime may effect the job
for which they are applying, and I need to allow them to explain the
circumstances of the crime. That does
not sound that unreasonable at first glance but that is because the people who
wrote those rules have no experience in hiring people. Here are some facts. Theft in particular is hugely under
reported. Most people think the police
will not bother with it and most employers do not want the bad press. If theft happens the employer will often fire
the person and pay the victim to just make it go away. If there is one theft conviction there is
often more like 10 – 20 times it happened before someone actually bothered to
press charges and it could be proved.
Second, over 90% of all cases are settled in a plea agreement which
usually results in the person being charged with accepting a lessor charge. If I run a background check and it says
possession of stolen property, 19 times out of 20 it means it was a theft or burglary
charge and they plead down to possession.
I do not have access to any of this information as these cases are
normally sealed. When I run a background
check all I get is the date and what they were convicted of. I can literally only see the tip of the
iceburg and have to guess what is under the surface. The EEOC says I have to let this person
explain what happened. They do not give
me access to the court files. They say
I have to give the one person in the room that has been convicted in a court of
law to have a disregard for the rules of society a chance to explain
themselves.
Now here is what you need to understand on the other side. If one of my employees steals from you, I am liable. If one of my employees assaults you or rapes you,
I am liable. This means I can be sued
for my company and as a sole proprietor it means my house, my savings, and my
family is on the line each and every time I hire someone because legally my
business is me. If I am found to have
not properly screened my employee I can be found negligent which voids my
insurance. If I knowingly hire a felon
and they commit another crime I am going to be found negligent by a jury. I can
literally lose everything from a single bad hire. It is
a huge leap of faith and risk every single time I hire someone. And now my own government says it may be
illegal for me to look at look at the one piece of 100% proven past behavior as
a factor in my hiring decision. Has the
world lost its mind?
If I do not have you convinced lets look at the specific
case that caused this new rule to be created.
This case came about because a man was fired from his job once it was
discovered he had a 40 year old conviction for murder which he did not disclose
and once it was discovered he was terminated.
He sued his employer for discrimination. This man KILLED someone. When
I run his check the only thing I know for a fact is 40 years ago he killed a
person and was convicted of murder meaning it was planned. When as an employee do any of you want your
boss to take the risk of hiring this man?
Remember I do not get access to all the court files. But Derek it was 40 years ago, someone has
to give him a chance. Can you tell me when
did he get out of jail? I have no
idea. Do you? Remember this is murder so he could have
been locked away for a long time, he could have just been released. What were the circumstances of the
crime? The only person I get to ask is
the person convicted of killing another man who has every incentive to
lie. If I later terminate this man what
could happen to me personally? When
should I be expected to not only risk my life’s savings but also literally my
life and the life of every other employee to hire this man? I know this sounds insane and you think I am
making it up because in the current political landscape that is what people do
is blow things out of context but I am not.
Google it. Look at the EEOCs own
website and read the case law that caused this ruling to be put into
place. This entire rule came about due
to the lawsuit of man convicted of murder.
When as an employer is it ever acceptable for me to risk hiring this
man? If he eventually kills someone how
can I ever live with myself because I wanted to “give him a chance”. My vision for the stories being told at my
funeral switches instead to visions of my trying to explain to some grieving family
at the funeral of their loved one why I had to hire this person because of EEOC
rules said I needed to give him a chance.
But my government has created a policy that says I have to legally take
into account the fact it was 40 years ago and allow him to tell some story I
cannot verify about how he was just defending someone else and he had a bad
attorney and so on with no way to verify what is true. I have one and only one fact, he was
convicted of killing someone and if I hire based on the one provable fact I
have, it is discrimination.
I can go on with other examples. How
the health care law scares the pants off me because no one can explain it to me
because the rules are not yet written and it is only 14 months away. I have this huge looming cost that no one
can explain to me . I can tell you
stories of people cheating the unemployment system that will make you want to
repeal the entire unemployment insurance program. And disability? How about the adult male on lifetime disability
for ADHD. Or the, I am not kidding here,
4 – 5 people a month that apply for a job but then ask to be paid under the
table because they are on disability. I
run a residential cleaning service so I pull from the group of people on these
programs and when you see how it really works and the tremendous amount of
fraud and waste, it starts to make you more conservative by the day. Or how some of the people I try to promote
and start down that path to a whole new life and they will not accept the
promotion because they will lose their benefits. It is almost a weekly occurrence in my
office that someone asks me to reduce their hours because once again they don’t
want to lose their benefits. I have said
before my business would make a great reality television series and I wish you
could all just experience what it is like for a week because it would be an eye
opening experience.
So I have spent months reading daily Facebook posts and just being quiet as
people I know and love post some really nasty things about Republicans and I
just wanted to explain my views. To be
clear I wish there was a third choice because I think the Republicans are on
the wrong side of many social issues. But at the end of the day there is a lot of historic
momentum on the side of things going the right way on social issues in my
opinion. Gays are going to get the right
to marry. Women are not going to lose
the right to abortion. My daughter is
going to grow up with more liberal social views than me just as my generation
did with the one before us and so on. I
don’t think any candidate can stop it, at worst they can slow it down a
little. If I really felt any of this
was at risk I may vote differently but I don’t.
However as a person who is in the trenches as a business owner day in
and day out I can tell you with all honesty the momentum is completely in the
wrong direction when it relates to hiring and creating jobs. The system makes good people not want to
hire people and It is getting worse by the day.
I am person who’s greatest joy is creating jobs for my people and helping
them to grow beyond their own expectations.
Yet because of the environment I am in, I am find myself spending a
great deal of my time and resources trying to figure out how to not hire people
for all the reasons outlined above. That
bothers me a lot. And I think it should bother
you too.
