polyrized wrote on Aug 10
th, 2005 at 11:23pm:
Should disqualification from a job be based on mistakes you've made in the distant past or should it be based on the chances you will make mistakes in the future?
For many people a period of experimentation is part of growing and they end up learning from mistakes... they are probably a lot less likely to have problems in the future than if they hadn't experimented.
Experimentation is normal, I agree. I think that is the reason why if an applicant admits they drank beer in high school, or smoked a joint or two in high school, they are not automatically disqualified. No one expects to hire saints.
But I also think there is a difference between normal experimentation and habitual drug use/illegal activity. A person who smoked marijuana fifty times, or a person who “experimented” with ecstasy five times, falls more into the latter category. A person, even a teenager, should be able to recognize that using drugs is a mistake. Once they realize that, they should stop. If it takes them a long period of time and many uses before they realize their mistake, they are probably showing less responsibility and wisdom than the person who comes to the same conclusion after smoking one or two joints.
Does that mean that, ten years later, they would make a bad cop? Probably not. But if they are standing next to an applicant who is similar to them in every other way, except for the fact that they have little or no drug use in their past, which one would it be more reasonable to hire?
As far as a person’s chances of making a mistake in the future, how on earth would you ever quantify that? The only possible method of predicting future activity is to look at a person’s past activity, and that is inaccurate as often as it is accurate.
polyrized wrote on Aug 10
th, 2005 at 11:23pm:
There is also a certain perversity in a system which punishes candor and honesty while rewarding deception and cheating.
I agree. But at the end of the day you have to look yourself in the mirror and know that you were honest and responsible. If the agency to which you are applying doesn’t believe you are good enough because of past transgressions, then move on with your head held high. Who cares if someone else lied and made it through? Don’t let it bother you – their karma will catch up to them eventually.