Employment and dignity don’t mix these days

By SJ Otto

Looking for a job today is an experience in humility. Those who are not humiliated might not really be human.

The first indignation is the drug test. An applicant has to go to a lab and pee in a cup, in a laboratory that specializes in drug testing. By coincidence, such a test is also need when a person is arrested and accused of a crime. If a person has a DUI he/she will be taking a lot of them.

But the other day I took one because I was trying to get a job. I am told by my wife and friends… ”These days you just have to take a drug test.” OK I do, but it is still humiliating.

Some places are running background checks that include a credit check. I’m not trying to buy a new car, I’m trying to get a job. If my credit is bad then I really need a new job. I don’t understand why an employer would need that. It’s just one more way of acting as if they are our parents rather than an employer.

They check our driving record….even if it has nothing to do with the job. I actually lost out on a job because the employer found out I had temporarily lost my driver’s license. I did nothing really bad, I was just late paying a speeding ticket. It had nothing to do with my ability to do the job. I have ADD so my driving record isn’t good.

And I live in Wichita, a major metropolis in Kansas, where the city leaders are too dim witted to realize that they should be providing their citizens with public transportation. We have busses, but they close at 6pm. I know people who would use busses if they ran past 6, but they because they get off work too late. This is a city with almost a million people and no one ever thought people might need transportation past 6pm? I would use the buss if the system wasn’t so lousy.

Employers also read our Facebook accounts, looking for suspicious reasons not to hire us….or to fire us if we are already hired. When getting a job today, forget about privacy. The need for income compels us to have to give it all up.

I have read and heard employers say such things as “Just as if you were living in my house, you go by my rules.” In other words we are just older kids. They like to say “you represent the company in your off hours.” But we aren’t paid in our off hours.

For three summers now I have been job hunting and I keep coming up empty. There don’t seem to be a lot of jobs here in Wichita and the employers really want us to notice how expendable we are. My son lives in Portland, Oregon and he has told me that employers there need workers real bad, so they have to treat their employees with a little respect. And that is what we employees are missing…RESPECT.

Cub Koda Random Drug Testing