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Vault Message Board: Workplace

Topic Name: Ethics
Message Name: correction
Date Posted: 04/04/2002
In Reply To: I need some advice here or maybe just somebody's two cents. Maybe I just need to vent. I was recentley terminated from a major corporation over something that is downright ridiculous. I began a very good sales job a little while ago and was fired over a speeding ticket. Let me rephrase, I was fired over a speeding ticket I received 2 years ago. On my second interview with the company I filled out an application that asked some typical questions...'have you ever been terminated before', 'have you ever been arrested', 'do you have any traffic violations'. I went through this long application quickly and checked 'no' to all. I wasn't lying I just simply forgot that I received a traffic violation 2 years ago. I would never bother trying to hide something like that, it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Four weeks after my district manager confirmed that the background check was done & fine (two weeks after I was on the payroll) the company HR guy said that he was "rescinding" my offer. He says that because I said that I didn't have any violations on my application two months earlier that I had "falsified" my resume b/c they found this speeding ticket on my record. I explained that this was not intentional on my part and that I simply forgot about it which I did. He wouldn't budge and terminated my employment with them right there. Am I an idiot b/c I forgot about a speeding ticket when I filled out this application? Does anyone else think that this is ridiculous? I am now unemployed and left a good job where I worked happily for four years. I can't go back to my old company b/c they have filled my position. Can a company legally "rescind" an offer after I was on the payroll already? Shouldn't the background check be done by then? Aren't they at fault for saying that it was done and fine when apparently it wasn't? Who the hell doesn't have or forget about a speeding ticket, I mean this was the only thing on my entire legal record for my entire life. What do I do now? I mean I'm looking for a new job obviously, I'm not crying too much about it. But-in my future interviews do I mention this and just tell them what happened? I'm guessing that's what I'll do but will this look bad to other companies? Will they understand how badly I got screwed over? Keep in mind that this is a major company here, one that I'm sure you've all heard of. Is this a normal business practice or does this just seem bizzare? Does this stink of some kind of shady interoffice politics? I realize I wrote a book here but any feedback be it a book or a sentence would be helpful.
Message: The HR guy said that I falsified my application, not my resume.

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