More and more businesses, government agencies and not-for-profits are using background checks every day. Most people are fine with that, but some people don’t want to be the ones that get checked.
Some NASA workers even tried to get a judge to issue an order saying that the government couldn’t ask them certain questions on a required background check. They objected to the provisions of regulation HSPD-12 which calls for smart ID cards to be issued to government employees and contractors.
The regulation calls for a federal background check and the background check includes a question about whether the employee has taken drugs. Several employees didn’t like that.
The judge who ruled on the case said, in effect, “too bad.” The employees have until October 27 to undergo the check and get the smart ID card or they face termination.
On a less serious note, we have the dog walkers of Austin. This is a group of people who have volunteered to work at the Austin animal shelter and help out by walking dogs.
The City of Austin requires people who aspire to this lofty position to undergo a simple background check. The dog walkers don’t seem to object to being checked out. What they don’t like is giving their Social Security numbers to the city because they’re not sure the city will keep them secure.
You can pretty much bet that as the trend of increasing background checks continues we’ll see more and more incidents like these.