Fri, December 30th, 2005 - 12:41 am - By Gordon Basichis
I was reading where Thomas Jung Type Indicator is offering employers its writing samples so that the employers may bring a more diverse and better balance of personalities to the work place. As part of its pitch, TJTI offers the following…
The self-knowledge gained through understanding your “true†personality type can enrich a current career experience, or may be the stepping stone to a new rewarding work life. In an employment setting, understanding co-workers improves communication, fostering a healthy work environment. Building project teams around “The Principle of Diverse Personalities†guarantees diversity of thought, enabling work groups to creatively solve problems and innovate. Differing opinions and points of view can stimulate groups to explore divergent views, enhancing the number and range of options that a group may be willing to consider.
Having interviewed several handwriting experts over the years we can well understand how examining personalities through their handwriting samples can reveal quite a bit about job candidates and those who are presently employed. Better insight should indeed assisting in developing a better working environment. And while the handwriting test is simple enough, we can see how the final sample can be very revealing about someone’s character.
While we see the handwriting test as effective, we don’t begin to see how it can ever replace a background check. A smart employer or human resources executive may want to conduct both the handwriting sample and a background search to really understand the full personality and actual behavioral history of the job candidate. Considering the cost of firing and hiring someone else is, overall, something like seven times the person’s salary, most tangible preventative measures are cost effective. Factor in the liability issues regarding sexual harassment and violence in the workplace, drug and alcohol abuse, theft of sensitive proprietary information, and the few bucks initial outlay starts to look like a regular bargain.
Handwriting tests are not hocus pocus. In fact they are far from it and are used by most federal law enforcement agencies as a tool in fighting crime. Pre-employment background checks will tell you who and what you are looking at, before there is any damage. So if you are one of those companies that still believes pre-employment screening, in all its forms, is not worth the money, you had better think again.
Wed, December 28th, 2005 - 6:08 am - By Gordon Basichis
We found this article on Premium-Dating-Services.com while surfing during a more recent period of insominia.
The Best Way to have a Sex Affair…
Sexaffair.org is run by women to serve their sexual needs - Over 60,000 women who want to have SEX - Sex affair has over 20,000 married women who are ready to cheat plus girls from all over the US and many foreign countries. Created to give horny women what we need - sex and more sex. The women get to join sexaffair.org for free so there are many new girls joining daily….Sexaffair.org Has 3 Girls For Every Guy
While skeptical, we must admit, we haven’t seen a better offer since we won free tickets to the Mardi Gras. And that was before New Orleans was turned into a city of fetid mush. While we haven’t tried the site and don’t know if Sexaffair.org is reporting accurate information or not, we can’t help but be amused by the very concept of so many available women. We are from California, after all, where looser living was invented in the States. And then, the last time we heard of the availability of more girls than boys was in the famed Jan and Dean song, “Surf City.” But even that time tested elegy to California living boated only of a mere “two girls for every boy.” Not three.
Perhaps this website has really tapped into the motherlode of willing women, which makes Corra wonder about two things. Shouldn’t our more hapless friends be tripping over themselves to get on the site, since nearly all of their previous romantic efforts have turned into bitter tales of tragedy and failure? And what kind of women are so willing to either cheat on their husbands or put it out to total strangers? Perhaps they deserve a background check. Perhaps not. Maybe if you are the guy willing to travel the grueling airline miles to have sex with women in foreign countries you just aren’t the kind to be asking any pertinent questions.
romance
background checks
online dating
Wed, December 21st, 2005 - 6:39 pm - By Gordon Basichis
MAN DATES GAL ON INTERNET FOR SIX MONTHS — AND IT TURNS OUT SHE’S HIS MOTHER
We got this one off of Yahoo, and no one should miss this. Hysterical.
By Grace Green
MARSEILLES, France — Skirt-chasing playboy Daniel Anceneaux spent weeks talking with a sensual woman on the Internet before arranging a romantic rendezvous at a remote beach — and discovering that his on-line sweetie of six months was his own mother!
“I walked out on that dark beach thinking I was going to hook up with the girl of my dreams,” the rattled bachelor later admitted. “And there she was, wearing white shorts and a pink tank top, just like she’d said she would.
“But when I got close, she turned around — and we both got the shock of our lives. I mean, I didn’t know what to say. All I could think was, ‘Oh my God! it’s Mama!’ ”
“Mom called herself Sweet Juliette and I called myself The Prince of Pleasure, and unfortunately, neither one of us had any idea who the other was,” said flabbergasted Daniel.
“The conversations even got a little racy a couple of times.
“But I really started to fall for her, because there seemed to be a sensitive side that you don’t see in many girls.
“She sent me poems she had written and told me about her dreams and desires, and it was really very romantic.
“The truth is, I got to see a side of my mom I’d never seen before. I’m grateful for that.”
When starry-eyed Daniel asked Sweet Juliette to send him a picture, Nicole e-mailed him a photo of a curvy, half-clad cutie she’d scanned from a men’s magazine.
“The girl in the picture was so beautiful, I begged Juliette to meet me on the beach — and Mom said yes,” he recalled. “Mom says she was falling for me, too, and she just wanted to meet me, even though she knew I’d be disappointed when I saw her.
“As for me, I figured I was going to find the girl of my dreams.
“I guess that’s about as wrong as I’ve ever been.”
If there ever was a comic case for conducting a background check this has to be it. Freudians would have a field day with this, since it reeks of Oedipus and his near-century famous complex. As for the French they have to wonder if they know the art of love like they claim. The country is certain to lose a few bragging rights, thanks to the amorous Daniel.
While we find this hysterical, there is a lesson here. The lesson being, you never know who is on the other end of the Internet line, making sweet talk and dazzling you with romantic visions. It could be your mother or father, or it could be Jack the Ripper. Or maybe it’s some scumbag who has had money troubles, and he will soon be hitting on you for a couple of bucks. You warm up to the wrong con man and your resounding sexual adventure could be a little less than perfect when you discover he has stolen your identity.
As for us, finding Mommy waiting romantically on the beach for us is scary enough.
Tue, December 20th, 2005 - 3:49 pm - By Gordon Basichis
We found this recent story on Security Pipline
India Offshoring Industry Tightens Security After Murder Of HP Employee
BANGALORE, India (AP)–Police on Friday announced a series of security measures intended to protect women working in Bangalore’s high-tech industries after a cab driver hired to take a Hewlett-Packard Co. employee to work raped and murdered her this week…
The crime has shocked the city’s high-technology and back office industries, which employ 250,000 workers to do everything from writing computer programs to handle calls from American credit card users. Nearly half the workers are women…
That has long raised concerns in India, where the streets of many cities are dangerous for women after dark.
The driver, Shiv Kumar, was arrested and confessed to killing her, police said. An autopsy performed Friday indicated she was raped before being slain….Cab companies contracted to take the workers to and from their jobs were also asked to give photos and work histories for their drivers, he said….
“Many rapists are opportunists and we are trying to see how we can minimize those opportunities,” Sial told The Associated Press. “Companies will be instructed that there can be no first pickup and last drop-off of a lady.”
Bangalore accounts for a third of India’s outsourcing export revenues of US$17.2 billion (euro14.33 billion). The city’s offshore outsourcing industry works round the clock and depends on hundreds of cab companies to transport employees to work…
That’s led to a high demand for drivers and background checks are often cursory, at best…
Kiran Karnik, president of India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies, the main outsourcing trade body, described the killing as “terrible news,” and said: “We will immediately talk to all the companies so that we can improve our systems and ensure that such a crime is not repeated.”…
Many companies in Bangalore have started reviewing their transport arrangements in the wake of the killing…
It almost always takes a tragedy to get things rolling. In this case a female executive who was only trying to do her job was raped and murdered. Typically, everyone remarks about how her death is so tragic. Predictably, such a horrible event besmirched the mostly positive press on India’s attempts to modernize its infrastructure and strive for a more socially progressive society. But in these cases, what no one ever seems to want to admit is that this horrible act might have been prevented by a simple background check.
Here we have formidable companies and multinationals kicking around millions and billions. The taxi services, as the main form of transportation for domestic and foreign executives who work for these companies, have profited mightily from the increased business. Yet with all this money floating back and forth no one can find the few bucks to conduct preemployment background checks on the thousands if not tens of thousands of drivers who work for the different taxi companies. And now a woman is murdered, and everyone tells how they wish to “review” the situation.
There is nothing arcane or complex about conducting preemployment background checks. There are hundreds of companies that perform this service. Corra is one of them. We do it with the understanding that while most people are pretty decent the world is rife with assorted zealots, terrorists, criminals and garden variety sociopaths. For whatever reasons that float in their minds, these people mean others harm. They will do harm if given the opportunity. And what is a better opportunity than to gain proximity to people they are jealous of, fear, hate, or resent because of political, social, cultural or relgious differences.
The time has come when it should be deemed unconscionable for any company not to conduct pre-employment background checks. Even in foreign countries, where American enterprise is outsourced or exchanged, where diligent executives are living and working, it is incumbent upon the relevant companies to check out even their most meager of job candidates. Here we have myriad corporations spending collectively billions of dollars on all sorts of security devices, and yet some remain negligent when confronted with the most basic elements for safety. They save a few bucks and someone dies. It doesn’t make sense.
Mon, December 19th, 2005 - 12:18 am - By Gordon Basichis
I am not the only one who has noticed single women are more aggressive come the holiday season. Friends of mine have also commented that the coy and subtle practice is transformed into an overt expression of desire. Just walk through the department stores or a hip supermarket in a singles neighborhood and you will find women staring harder and longer. Even their body language is different; they mostly stand and face you, inviting and awaiting your approach. They pull it back only when men show no sign of interest.
The single women at the cosmetics and beauty counters all but pounce on you as you go walking past. They wave skin conditioners and colognes you will never buy just so you will stop and talk. Even more reserved women will flirt openly and what they take for suggestively. Attractive women start conversations on the elevator, nervous their charms won’t work before you reach your floor.
I suppose nobody wants to be alone during the holiday season. Perhaps the Christmas spirit stirs up sexual desires coupled with the distaste for loneliness. For sure, few of us want to sit by ourselves on New Year’s Eve and watch Dick Clark or MTV bring in the New Year from distant places. All those candles, the incense, the eggnog, and the fireplace would seem to go to waste without someone to share them with you. Friends and family can only provide so much comfort, before you grab your coat and head back out into the cold, snowy weather or like us to the empty streets of West LA.
The holiday season works its charms on nearly all of us. We want to be intimate and it is a real let down when there is no one to be intimate with. I wouldn’t go as far to say that come holiday season most of us are desperate for companionship. But I would say this is the season when we are most vulnerable. If a soppy commercial can compel us to buy some sentimental piece of junk, we are just as capable of investing our emotions, given the right approach even from a less than perfect stranger.
You can’t change the world, and you sure can’t change what affects you during the holiday season. All we can do is try to be careful. At a time when you are feeling romantic and your guard is down, you can make the kind of mistake that will haunt you through the coming year and longer. There is no end to the amount of embarrassment and distress the wrong guy can cost you. The wrong man to warm the bed may go after your money or steal your identity. He doesn’t need much more than a chance to rifle through your wallet or to log on to your computer.
So if you should be lucky enough to meet somebody new, be careful. When Mr. Possible starts knocking your email or carrying your bags from the store, realize that con artists are awfully good at what they do. Realize, too, that your heart may be getting ahead of your head. Take a moment and spend a couple of bucks to run a background check on Mr. Christmas. It is one way to help to start the New Year without a major headache.
Sun, December 18th, 2005 - 2:08 pm - By Gordon Basichis
This article ran recently in the Stamford Advocate
Connecticut News
FedEx sued after employee alleges molests boy
STAMFORD, Conn. — FedEx Corp., famous for fast deliveries to millions of homes, failed to properly conduct a criminal background check before hiring a sexual predator who allegedly molested another boy, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Paul Sykes, who worked in a FedEx Kinko’s print shop in Fairfield, solicited customers there for a computer repair business he ran called “Facts and Fantasy,” according to the lawsuit. He allegedly molested an 8-year-old boy during a visit to repair a computer.
Neal Rogan, the boy’s attorney, said the incident raises troubling questions about a company with widespread contact with the public….Rogan said. “… you absolutely have a duty to do proper criminal background checks.”
Sandra Munoz, a FedEx spokeswoman, said the company conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates. A check of Sykes, who has been fired, did not reveal a criminal history, she said….”
FedEx, formerly called Federal Express, reported revenue of $24.7 billion last year, while a criminal background check costs $25 and takes about an hour, the lawsuit states. Rogan noted that a company spokeswoman was quoted in a local newspaper in October saying the company did a criminal background check on Sykes before he was hired but no record was found.
“That person is either lying or Federal Express is wildly incompetent in how they do the background checks,” Rogan said.
Munoz noted that the company has more than 250,000 employees. “Obviously the background checks we do have been very thorough,” she said.
What happened here? While we have no doubt that FedEx dutifully conducts background checks on all its job candidates, someone inside appears to have dropped the ball. Had it been a lesser company than a FedEx, we would question the veracity of their claim to have peformed a pre-employment background check on Sykes. Increasingly we hear about a fair amount of companies who seek to cut corners by neglecting to conduct pre-employment screening. Naturally, when confronted, they swear they did run a background check on the candidate in question, but the background check revealed nothing. In some cases, when pressed further the spokesperson for these lesser firms will admit the alleged pre-employment background check was conducted on a free research site. We can’t admonish employers enough that not only do you get what you pay for, but all background checks are not created equal.
Wading through the “he said she said” on this issue is a matter we will leave to the courts. The fact that FedEx couldn’t produce a record of its background check on Sykes opens up a range of possibilities, the more possible being individual employee incompetence as opposed to negligent hiring. Lord knows, good help is hard to find, even with a background check. Ask anyone in business, and between the spelling errors and alphabetical misfiles you have to wonder if Americans and their native language have reached a critical discord.
Meanwhile a young boy may suffer permanent psychological and emotional damage from the alleged advances of Mr. Sykes.
Perhaps it is best for some companies to not be so dependent on the automated background checking systems. Perhaps the weakest link is their admin who in this day an age may have a variety of language difficulties, may give half an effort for his minimum wage and mess up on the spelling or some other aspects of a candidate’s application.
We at Corra suggest it is often better to call, fax or email the order and allow the pros to conduct the actual background check. Not only does this create a better interchange between client and service provider, but this practice might cause more clients to review their present standards for background checks and work with the service provider to customize a new standardized background check that would better fits the client’s needs. The client may even have to pay a little more for the service but he makes it up in labor allocation, expediency and the kind of accuracy that helps prevent lawsuits and other liability claims. And bad press, like this.
Fri, December 16th, 2005 - 1:47 pm - By Gordon Basichis
The following article ran in -USA TODAY-
Background checks split matchmaking sites
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
A debate among online dating companies over whether their websites should be required to say whether they do criminal background checks on clients has spilled over into state legislatures, a reflection of the websites’ rising competitiveness.
True.com, a Dallas-based online dating service, started the ruckus in July 2004 when it began touting its criminal background checks and wrote proposed legislation that would force online dating sites to say whether they conduct such checks. The proposal has been considered by legislatures in California, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, Florida and Michigan, but none has passed it.
In Illinois, state Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, says he is having a similar bill drafted that he intends to introduce in January. “It seems like a common-sense thing,” he says. “Internet dating isn’t the same as going out to a social gathering. You can meet a large number of people very quickly. There aren’t any types of precautions. … We have to do as much as we can to protect people from predators.”
True.com’s competitors, including Match.com, say the legislation is a marketing ploy designed to upstage them and boost True.com’s standing among singles’ websites. Match.com spokeswoman Kristin Kelly says the rest of the industry is “united against” background checks, in part because such checks often are incomplete and can give clients a false sense of security.
Such information is available from other Internet sites that specialize in offering background checks, Kelly says. “We just don’t think the checks are ready for prime time. The information contained in the system is incomplete.”
Her sentiments were echoed by the International Association of Dating websites, a group that represents more than 50 online dating services. It says that criminal background checks are too costly for most online services, and that True.com’s proposal unfairly singles out dating sites from other matchmaking services such as personal ads.
We at Corra see this running dispute as a battle between the Myth Makers and the Marketing Mavens. The Myth Makers have established websites where they offer you anything from a nice date to marital bliss. Online dating sites , as well as dating clubs, run personality profiles and compatibility tests to make sure your needs, wants and romantic proclivities align in the firmament of the dating universe. All this is to increase your chance of harmony in a secure and viable dating environment.
Once you sell this myth to your members it is most difficult to turn around and acknowledge that while we assure you of the possibility if not probability of a compatible mate, please be aware of the few creeps who snuck in under the radar and who may want to con you out of your money, steal your identity or do you or your children bodily harm. This is a reality check on the initial presentation and and a tough one for the thematic paradigm of harmony and compatibility. In other words, it’s damn difficult to offer “Here you will find the man or woman of your dreams, although he or she may be someone with a criminal record” and still keep the myth.
On the other hand the Marketing Mavens are pushing for state legislation that will mandate background checks for online dating clubs and websites. Once again someone with an agenda enlists a host of presumably well meaning do-gooders to protect the people from themselves. As in most cases when do-gooders try to mess with the natural order of things–which in the romantic arena translates into illogical choices and impulsive decisions–they often tend to make things worse.
Corra specializes in pre-employment and online dating and singles dating background checks. We believe in this day and age it is necessary. We especially believe it’s the case if you are a professional woman with material assets and something to lose. It is, after all, common sense to spend a few bucks to protect yourself from one of the mutltitude of creeps out there who finds his way to your email address and now wants into your house. But this, we believe, all comes under the category of common sense. Corra does not believe background checks should be mandated into law. Instead of imposing new laws that often don’t work or are difficult to enforce, we should be instilling in singles at least a modicum of reality. Education builds a smarter society, where with new laws they often just add to the confusion. Give people the facts, and then let them decide for themselves.
Wed, December 14th, 2005 - 5:55 pm - By Gordon Basichis
We found this on the WSOCTV.com site
Human Resources Company To Bring 900 Jobs To Charlotte
POSTED: 6:41 pm EST December 14, 2005
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hewitt Associates Inc., one of the world’s largest human resources and outsourcing firms, announced expansion plans Wednesday to bring 900 new jobs and $8 million in investment to Charlotte.
“These 900 new jobs at Hewitt will require the knowledge, talent and skill that our North Carolina work force is known for,” Gov. Mike Easley said in a statement before he addressed local business leaders in Charlotte.
the article goes on to say…
The combination of a strong talent pool, competitive work force and facility options, as well as a highly supportive local and state government, and strong business climate made Charlotte the clear choice for Hewitt,” said Matt Shaul, a Hewitt associate.
Hewitt’s decision to expand to Charlotte was made possible in part by a state Job Development Investment Grant, the governor’s office said. The grants come as payroll tax deductions from new jobs created.
Despite projected layoffs and General Motors, Time-Warner, and a fair share of the Real Estate industry, there are signs that more companies are hiring on local and regional levels. As logic would have it and quotes would bear true, these companies are seeking areas where the employees are smart, skilled and qualified for the new age dynamics of the modern industry. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when aggressive state and local governments accomodate the wants and needs of prospective employers by offering incentives.
This is all good news. While some companies lay off workers and try to renovate or modernize their business models, other companies demonstrate they know just what they want. More often than not these are the companies whose demands are met by willing towns and cities. We have no doubt that most companies are being more specific about their desires and show less tolerance for a workforce where more than the odd fellow or gal has a drinking or drug problem, is illiterate, incompetent or prone to questionable workers’ compensation claims.
Since many of these companies are new to the neighborhood, we hope they will have the good sense to conduct pre-employment background checks on everyone they hire. Pre-employment background checks assure more discriminating selection and that should result in a better workforce. A better workforce promotes the advantages of increasing the labor pool instead of putting focus on the economic and logistical hardships.
Hopefully, 2006 will show a new effort to hire the American worker, and the American worker is uniformly someone we are proud to hire. We think this would go a long way in redirecting a more positive approach to labor and industry in this country of ours.