While it might give off “works for an intelligence agency,” there are really quite a few professions that require background checks. This means that there are countless folks out there who have to look at in depth files about the less known parts of different people’s lives.
Someone asked “People who do background checks (either HR or a 3rd party), what are some NSFW/WTF things you've discovered that have disqualified a candidate for a job?” and netizens share their wildest stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to add your own experiences in the comments below.
#1
Not for a job but I run an animal rescue and you'd be shocked how many people with animal cruelty convictions apply to adopt animals.
No, I am not sending an animal I spent months rehabbing to a home that starved it's last pets to death.
No, I am not sending an animal I spent months rehabbing to a home that starved it's last pets to death.
70points
#2
Former p**n star. She put herself through college (before OF) as a s******r, and had done a few movies. We found this out, and hired her anyway. She was a great employee, never a problem. She did have a picture at her desk of her and Ron Jeremy, but there was nothing NSFW about it. It was kind of funny when people were trying to figure out where they knew him from.
68points
#3
Assistant recommended a candidate while I was on bereavement. Passed the background check, but when I returned I had asked if anyone had looked this candidate up before sending the offer letter. Turned out the background check didn't catch that they were named in an active grand jury trial for r*ping and impregnating several minors in a juvenile detention center a while back. They were given a hush plea deal by the state because they were turning in other councilors who were in on it with them with many victims over the course of 2+ decades, and for some reason this information was not discovered by the company we use for those checks. We no longer use this company.
47points
Bored Panda got in touch with the netizen who asked the question and they were kind enough to share some more details about their thought process and what they liked. Naturally, given just how specific the question was, we wanted to know what inspired them to ask it in the first place.
As it turns out, the answer was pretty simple. “It was a question that hadn't been asked for a while,” they shared. Still, it had thousands of comments, but when asked, the netizen didn’t have much of an idea why it gained such attention. “It was popular because people have good stories to share,” they said. We did at least find out which was their favorite from the bunch. “I liked the one about the washed up actress arrested for m*th possession.”
#4
Literally anything you can imagine. The ones that surprise me the most, however, are the ones that are so relevant to the job that I can't believe you even applied for that position. Applying for an accounting or fund management position? Credit card fraud, theft, and embezzlement. You want to work in child care? Child abuse and negligence. You want to be a kids photographer? Lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. A job that that requires lots of plane and international travel? FBI no fly list. Yet, these people are the MOST heartbroken when I tell them why they didn't get the job. They're also the ones I feel the least bad about.
46points
#5
I had the recruiter at my job hire a guy. He had a very unique first and last name. When we brought him in for his final interview a girl I work with said, "You can't hire him!" and looked legitimately scared. Come to find out after a conversation with her and a quick Google he was currently currently facing charges for statutory r**e and lots of other scary s**t. The victim was one of her close friends. The girl he had charges for was barely 17. I don't even know why we have a recruiter or why they pretend to do background checks. Had a second man convicted of statutory r**e. A man who was the get away driver in a school shooting. Also a gun runner (not sure if that is the right term but he sold guns illegally through his legal business).
45points
#6
Not a background check as much as just being nosy. Company couldn’t get new employees so stopped doing background checks. New guy was giving me creepy vibes so I looked him up he’s a registered s*x offender. He’s still employed because there’s nothing they can do about it now. .
43points
#7
Not quite a background check. But I was helping do preliminary interviews for entry level position. One of the questions was have you ever done this type of work before. She said she had, and elaborated that she was fired because she slept with her manager and when he wrote her up for something she went to HR to get it taken off her record using her relationship with the manager as leverage. When I told her we have a strict policy regarding relationships within reporting management, she put her hand on my knee and asked *if there’s anything she can do to convince me to hire her*. Hard pass. That kind of not so subtle unprofessionalism isn’t what we do here miss.
39points
#8
Woman dropped off a resume at the retail location I worked at, on the cover letter it said "Google me!" She was a minor actress back in the 80s, coworker Googled and the first thing that pops up is her recent m**h arrest.
38points
#9
At my friend's company, a new guy got hired and HR sent out a welcome email with his name and info. Someone googled him and found out he was in the middle of a trial for stealing identities of clients at his last company.
He was fired within an hour of the welcome email being sent out!
He was fired within an hour of the welcome email being sent out!
37points
#10
I do a ton of background checks for different things including people applying to be foster parents.
For all of the other checks, I almost never have anything to send back. For people applying to foster, it can be up to 75+ pages of “police contact” I have to send in.
It’s incredibly disheartening and a lot of the s**t I’ve seen in their criminal histories has made me sob. I wish I was just allowed to stamp a giant *NO* on some of them.
Literally nine out of ten applicants have police contact that is serious enough to be included in the background.
For all of the other checks, I almost never have anything to send back. For people applying to foster, it can be up to 75+ pages of “police contact” I have to send in.
It’s incredibly disheartening and a lot of the s**t I’ve seen in their criminal histories has made me sob. I wish I was just allowed to stamp a giant *NO* on some of them.
Literally nine out of ten applicants have police contact that is serious enough to be included in the background.
36points
#11
I've been a background investigator for almost 10 years I've seen a lot. One that really gets under my skin is a guy who applied to work with the Boy Scouts as some sort of IT. He had 15 separate charges of SA'ing children under 12. He served 20 years and I guess he thought it just fell off his record.
34points
#12
We were trying to hire an accountant, had one lined up with amazing credentials, then he disclosed he had gone to prison for funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his previous company’s books.
34points
#13
Not HR and not a background check; I handled social media. I found WTF social posts roasting the company from 2 new hires.
The CEO had held a meeting in the company lobby. We basically had a long company lunch and went back to work.
Later that day, I was going back to my desk from a bathroom break when I swiped my phone open to check on social posts. I opened LinkedIn, and I had several messages in my inbox, which was unusual.
It's important to note here that the company lobby doubled as a demo room for products, and when the doors were closed to the lobby, we knew that a demo was occurring. The lobby had no windows to verify. After the company meeting, the doors had been shut. Turns out, it wasn't because of a demo.
Most of the messages I had received contained no text; just links to other posts. Filmed and photographed in the lobby, the videos, captions, and still images included the employees in provocative poses, twerking, mocking the CEO's earlier words, standing/sitting atop expensive products, dancing around like a strip tease atop the products, and overall s******g on the company's employees & leadership. The posts also included the company name and the CEO name, both intentionally misspelled multiple ways.
It just so happened that these new employees were connected with friends of friends with several company employees, but not me. It traveled via DM like a grapevine. My coworkers had sent the info to me because the HR director was not trusted, but they knew that I handled socials. The posts were all public, so when I opened the links, I screenshot them. There were nearly a dozen posts. On LinkedIn. Why??
Instead of going to my desk, I went to HR, who immediately went to the executive team.
The newbies were canned fast after that. I never saw them leave, but I did later find out that:
1) The posts were required to be removed.
2) They were temp workers from a 3rd party, which had rules about social media. They lasted 7 business days at our job and likely lost their positions at the temp agency, too.
3) They were personally fired by the CEO in his office.
4) Some tellings of the firings (office gossip) included that they left crying from the tongue lashing they got while others said that the CEO said little more than expressing his disappointment.
The CEO had held a meeting in the company lobby. We basically had a long company lunch and went back to work.
Later that day, I was going back to my desk from a bathroom break when I swiped my phone open to check on social posts. I opened LinkedIn, and I had several messages in my inbox, which was unusual.
It's important to note here that the company lobby doubled as a demo room for products, and when the doors were closed to the lobby, we knew that a demo was occurring. The lobby had no windows to verify. After the company meeting, the doors had been shut. Turns out, it wasn't because of a demo.
Most of the messages I had received contained no text; just links to other posts. Filmed and photographed in the lobby, the videos, captions, and still images included the employees in provocative poses, twerking, mocking the CEO's earlier words, standing/sitting atop expensive products, dancing around like a strip tease atop the products, and overall s******g on the company's employees & leadership. The posts also included the company name and the CEO name, both intentionally misspelled multiple ways.
It just so happened that these new employees were connected with friends of friends with several company employees, but not me. It traveled via DM like a grapevine. My coworkers had sent the info to me because the HR director was not trusted, but they knew that I handled socials. The posts were all public, so when I opened the links, I screenshot them. There were nearly a dozen posts. On LinkedIn. Why??
Instead of going to my desk, I went to HR, who immediately went to the executive team.
The newbies were canned fast after that. I never saw them leave, but I did later find out that:
1) The posts were required to be removed.
2) They were temp workers from a 3rd party, which had rules about social media. They lasted 7 business days at our job and likely lost their positions at the temp agency, too.
3) They were personally fired by the CEO in his office.
4) Some tellings of the firings (office gossip) included that they left crying from the tongue lashing they got while others said that the CEO said little more than expressing his disappointment.
29points
#14
Not a background check guy but I got hired at a government agency doing admin work. A guy in another department was leaving and they asked if I could take over some of his tasks while they searched for a replacement which was fine with me, so I shadowed him for a couple weeks.
Hated the guy. Talked to me like I was a toddler; everything was in a really singsongy voice and would over-explain things in such a weird way. I once wore a shirt that had a dinosaur motif and he leaned over me, hands on his knees, and said “Wow! Dinosaurs? Like Jurassic Park? Do you know Jurassic Park? It’s a movie! It’s got Din-o-saurs. You should see it! But it’s a little scaaaaaary! Make sure you have some cartoons to watch after, ok?” For context, I’m a 30+ year old man. He was probably in his mid to late 30s as well.
Dude just had a super strange energy and gave big predator vibes.
Anyway, I googled him out of sheer curiosity as to what his deal was. Sure enough, first thing that pops up is a mug shot. Turns out he’d had some unknown trouble in high school and went to college late. Joined a frat despite being 28. The frat brothers said he was “very weird” but was admitted because he was willing to buy them booze. During a party the house got raided when two girls were found unconscious in the house. Guys room turns out to be filled with d***s, including the sort you could hypothetically make two girls unconscious with. He managed to get out of any serious charges because the d***s were “for personal use to improve his school performance”; which is coded language for wealthy parents I think.
Anyways; how he got hired at the government agency baffles me. What’s more, he was leaving us for a higher power position at a different government post.
Dude gave me massive ick. .
Hated the guy. Talked to me like I was a toddler; everything was in a really singsongy voice and would over-explain things in such a weird way. I once wore a shirt that had a dinosaur motif and he leaned over me, hands on his knees, and said “Wow! Dinosaurs? Like Jurassic Park? Do you know Jurassic Park? It’s a movie! It’s got Din-o-saurs. You should see it! But it’s a little scaaaaaary! Make sure you have some cartoons to watch after, ok?” For context, I’m a 30+ year old man. He was probably in his mid to late 30s as well.
Dude just had a super strange energy and gave big predator vibes.
Anyway, I googled him out of sheer curiosity as to what his deal was. Sure enough, first thing that pops up is a mug shot. Turns out he’d had some unknown trouble in high school and went to college late. Joined a frat despite being 28. The frat brothers said he was “very weird” but was admitted because he was willing to buy them booze. During a party the house got raided when two girls were found unconscious in the house. Guys room turns out to be filled with d***s, including the sort you could hypothetically make two girls unconscious with. He managed to get out of any serious charges because the d***s were “for personal use to improve his school performance”; which is coded language for wealthy parents I think.
Anyways; how he got hired at the government agency baffles me. What’s more, he was leaving us for a higher power position at a different government post.
Dude gave me massive ick. .
29points
#15
Well when I had government clearance, I did one for a man who was on the most wanted list. ATF and FBI came the next day.
29points
#16
Not in HR, but we Googled his name and up comes his photo in a news story about him and his wife in a fraud court case. He interviewed great, but we knew he would never pass a background check after that search.
Did not disqualified, but up popped her page for dominatrix services with her photo in a skimpy leather outfit with a whip. Interesting side gig.
Did not disqualified, but up popped her page for dominatrix services with her photo in a skimpy leather outfit with a whip. Interesting side gig.
28points
#17
A lady ran for tax collector in my township, she was trying to unseat a long term incumbent. When I googled here I found she had committed tax fraud and been found guilty.
She was running on a campaign of integrity.
Luckily she didn’t win, she lost very badly.
She was running on a campaign of integrity.
Luckily she didn’t win, she lost very badly.
28points
#18
This isn’t me, but a former coworker….
Lives in an area with lots of Italian-American immigration 100 years ago.
Another guy from his town, same first and last name, but not even related, is a low key criminal, lots of minor arrests for things like thefts.
If you google law abiding coworker you will get all the news stories about the other guy with his same name committing crimes.
Eventually he owned his own business and it was clear those were different people.
Lives in an area with lots of Italian-American immigration 100 years ago.
Another guy from his town, same first and last name, but not even related, is a low key criminal, lots of minor arrests for things like thefts.
If you google law abiding coworker you will get all the news stories about the other guy with his same name committing crimes.
Eventually he owned his own business and it was clear those were different people.
27points
#19
A guy we had interviewed looked pretty good on paper, but had a big resume gap that he was definitely lying about. We just got a weird feeling about it so a coworker and I googled him and found an article about how he had severely assaulted his ex-girlfriend while she was holding their month old baby.
This was a job where he could have been working with non-verbal autistic people. We ended up passing on him, and let other agencies in the area know about him.
This was a job where he could have been working with non-verbal autistic people. We ended up passing on him, and let other agencies in the area know about him.
27points
#20
About 20 years ago I was interviewing candidates for an assistant position. It came down to two options, both with similar credentials and not much adult-life work experience--so I googled them to see what I might find. One was featured in an article about helicopter parenting; her mother was quoted in the article as saying she had called her daughter's employer and complained about the very standard hours they worked, and she felt entitled to involve herself in her daughter's work life. We immediately round-filed that resume and hired the other candidate.
25points