Getting Hired with a Criminal Charge
The Effects of Criminal Charges Getting Hired or Finding Work
Ask anyone in a career position or working in a professional capacity, and the idea of what happens if charged with a crime will send shivers through that person. While the American legal process follows the premise of innocent until proven guilty, most people know that just the presence of a criminal charge or indictment is enough to be a scarlet letter on a person’s name.
Immediate Impact
If a person is lucky, the criminal charge that has been filed doesn’t end up in the local newspaper. The press love to run stories on someone being targeted in an investigation, but they also tend to focus on big crimes versus petty issues. However, as soon as it does go to print, a person in a job plays the roll of the dice as to whether anyone has read the local paper that day or not. He will likely hold onto his job until criminal charges get filed, and job visits by the police will evolve into a work suspension. Employers often use “paid-leave” to get a suspected person out of the office until a termination goes through.