Employee reveals job asked staff to get FBI background checks at personal expense and lie about it

Corporations run on the efforts of their employees, but oftentimes these are the people corporations are least concerned with in the grand scheme of things. Some companies leave their employees high and dry in times of trouble, despite sometimes being the very cause of that trouble. Reddit user u/kn0ck_0ut has found themselves in a predicament like this where they're required to choose whether they allow themselves to be exploited or keep their job by going through with their employer's problematic demand.

They shared in a r/antiwork forum post that the company they work for wants them to go through an FBI check but at their own cost and risk. They described their predicament on Reddit and got responses from other people who also had to face such behavior from their bosses and employers. This sheds light on how the policies are so overwhelmingly in favor of employers and leave employees with very little choice.

u/kn0ck_0ut is not wrong to think that the company is exploiting them as it matches the increasingly disturbing trend seen across America. In a survey, 77.4% of the employees accepted that they have been exploited by their employers, as per paychex.com. The exploitation occurs by being made to do someone else's work, work during time off or be given responsibilities that are not necessarily a part of their work profile. The objective of corporations is to garner as much advantage as they can by giving back to the employees as little as possible.

"My job has rolled out a process requiring everyone to get an FBI background check (fingerprint process) and in the instructions, it states 'we do not have a service code, you will say it is for personal use not employment.' I'm feeling scammed," u/kn0ck_0ut wrote. "This is for employment. Isn't the company supposed to cover costs for checks they require all employees to do? I've been procrastinating on this check for months but they're starting to come down on me and I wonder if anyone has any experience dealing with anything similar."

The comment section sympathized with the Reddit user and also shared a glimpse of their own experiences. u/ErellaVent1 came up with a suggestion: "If you’re already hired I would just continue to procrastinate, and when/if they fire you take that to the UIA and claim you need benefits because your employer fired you for not paying for an FBI background check whilst also being asked to lie to the FBI." u/Kinkelly, who went through these checks shared their own experience, writing: "Had 3 live scans done in my life, all 3 paid by employer. This is an indicator of the type of company you are going to go to work for, I would seek employment elsewhere."

Meanwhile, u/BeautyIsTheBeast383 pointed out that the company is also asking its employees to lie to the FBI. "The law states you can only use the information for the purposes requested. If you mark personal use, you cannot give it to an employer. They are doing this possibly to circumvent look-back period laws. A personal use record will contain everything back to the beginning of time and items expunged or sealed from public view. An employer check will only contain a certain number of years and is subject to redactions. Illegal discrimination is sus, criminal history blanket policies. At the very least they are circumventing workers rights," they commented.