Background check

Here I am, a middle aged librarian.  I'm a grandmother, too, complete with graying hair and sensible shoes.  I fit the stereotype.  I even knit.  Yet somehow, it took four weeks to dredge through my past.  Though my life is not quite as boring as my children seem to think it is, I really haven't done anything to trigger an intense check of my past.  Yes, a few motor vehicle violations (some parking, some speeding), but all my other interactions with law enforcement have been either in the context of my job, or social.

It seems the good detective who conducted my background check focused a great deal on my educational background. True, I didn't take a straight and narrow path through my undergraduate studies.  I took courses at a variety of colleges and universities. And I changed focus a few times. And, yes, I attended college under three different names in two different states, but I told the officer all of that up front. If I had falsified any transcripts, wouldn't it look better if I took all my credits at one school, focused on one degree, and excelled in all of my classes.  No one who's lying would have handed over the ragged stack of transcripts that I did.

Which brings me to the question: What if someone did have some indiscretions in their youth?  What if he smoked pot -- even if he never inhaled (a reference that will only be caught by readers of a certain age)?  What if she did default on a loan?  What if the divorce was messy? What separates a worthy candidate from an unworthy candidate? 

Sure, when I post something on facebook or twitter or this blog, I think about possible repercussions. I conduct myself as the bearer of a good name.  I don't want to embarrass myself, my husband, or my children. I don't want to sully my parent's good names.  But what if I had messed up in my teens or twenties? Would that mark me forever unworthy?  Even decades later?

True, I don't know what line I would have had to cross in order to be disqualified as a department head in the City of Franklin, but it does make me wonder.  It also makes me think that the likelihood is great that I will be working with a team of people who think before they act, who care about the organization at least as much as they care about themselves, and who are what they seem.

Maybe the background check was good thing afterall.