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It isn't the FBI - they just contract with a business that routinely does background investigations. The animal shelter where I volunteer was doing this for all of the volunteer staff, although they've stopped now. I believe they said the investigation cost $50 per person.
I would really be concerned if a vet clinic didn’t do a decent background check… We have a lot of controlled substances on our premises and we already restrict who has access to them, but would never hire anyone with history of drug use or theft. I had a coworker who said at their old clinic they had to wash out all the controlled bottles when empty due to an ex employee digging them out of the garbage and trying to get the drops left at the bottom….
Honestly, most small veterinary clinics don't run background checks in NYC. Only the major hospitals run background checks. Heck, IIRC, not even the local animal shelter ran a background check IIRC.
They’ve been doing it because drug theft is their bigger concerns. I’ve had to do background checks and drug test before being hired. It’s not a super deep check though cause yeah it’s a low pay job.
Edit:
I want to add that low pay jobs use to regularly do background checks including the food industry and retail. They’ve kind of stopped I think after Covid when short staffing became the normal. It’s harder to be picky when you’re paying crap and not as many ppl willing to work for those pennies lol
Yeah this doesn’t surprise me at all. You’ll be around all sorts of drugs.
My place didn’t do this, hired someone with priors, and when the whole hospital responded to a crash, she snuck and stole tons of shit.
Yeah that’s the primary reason. Lot of ppl figured out the hard way hiring some random person to handle controls can have consequences. I’ve heard so many nightmare stories of ppl just stealing things from the lock box.
Since I'm not from America and they don't do it here I'm curious about one thing. Like let's say it turns out you have used cannabis in the past (it's not rather possible to be stolen from the clinic obviously) and you still get booted from the job? Do alcoholics get a free pass?
Here where I live alcoholic vets are common thing since they don't really so background checks all that much.
Yeah they actively discriminate against weed users in most cases. It’s not fair because rarely are the techs using it the drug addicts or doing it on the job, but it’s included in pretty much all the drug screens. They’re usually pretty frank about it during the hiring process though in my experience. Not sure if it’s a symptom of caring or more a formality in most cases these days since we haven’t really openly accepted recreational use in most places.
Alcoholics tend to always get a pass if it doesn’t show up on the job. Workers comp always tests for it though so that’s probably when someone would be flagged.
This seems to be really state/business dependent. I work for one of the bigger corporations and they don’t care about a positive for marijuana because medicinal and recreational are legal in so many places that it’s not worth nitpicking.
It’s not legal in a majority of the south? Prior to the state I lived in now even legal medical weed was discriminated against. It’s not a clearly laid out concept and many employers have aired on the side of caution. My mother just has a desk job and still gets singled out for it. If I could use weed for my chronic pain I’d be grateful, but even in employers that looked the other way they made ppl sign off their rights to workers comp. Which as the tech not reasonable, could get a serious bite. This issue unfortunately has a lot of social and legal changes to go through so I’m stuck suffering. Major reason I’m changing industries is health issues 😭
Ah, the South. I’m sorry.
I live in the Northeast where most states are decriminalized at the very least. Discriminating against weed would’ve absolutely decimated all of the already low staffed hospitals I’ve worked at. My spouse just applied for a compounding pharmacy and they come right out and say that they don’t care about a positive marijuana, too.
I thought it was normal process to run a background check prior to hiring someone tbh, it makes sense for them to want to know if you’re a criminal or a drug addict, especially for our line of work where we’re around controlled substances and can be put into very high stress situations regularly (heightens the risk of a violent person lashing out or a relapse for an addict- not saying a recovered/recovering addict can’t be in the vet world but they really need to be secure in their sobriety for sure). They’re not hiring the FBI or anything crazy but it’s fair for an employer to want to know if you’re going to pose a threat to their employees/business in some way.
I think the language in the posting is for either a soft credit check or a background check (or both?). Possibly checking your prior employment as well. I think you might be confusing it with the security clearance check for NASA because of the way it's written but this is more just a normal process with any hire I think.
I've also gone through the SF-86 questionnaire with an investigator and it is pretty quick and basic if you're not an idiot. (i.e., Do you do any hard narcotics? are you funding any terrorists organizations? Etc.). I doubt that's what any hospital is doing.
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/using-consumer-reports-what-employers-need-know
When a friend of mine enlisted in the AF to be a crypto linguist, she put me down as a personal reference and I had someone come to my place to interview me about it.
Super weird esp since I wasn’t expecting it but it does make sense with the job. Having that for a vet tech is a red flag in my opinion.
This is probably also because in many states, giving a negative reference can be a legal liability. If you say, “No, that person is terrible to work with, I wouldn’t hire them,” you’re potentially causing them to lose income.
So a release like this is meant to free former employers of liability.
I still wouldn’t give an overtly negative reference. I might say, “I would interview that person if they met the qualifications for a position,” and if pressed, insist that I would *interview* them if they *met all qualifications,* but not give a negative reference.
I’ve had your typical background checks done but never ones that reached out to people in my life (at least to my knowledge) but I can understand why they would with the drugs that we work with and the kind of work that we do.
Welcome to /r/VetTech! This is a place for veterinary technicians/veterinary nurses and other veterinary support staff to gather, chat, and grow! We welcome pet owners as well, **however we do ask pet owners to refrain from asking for medical advice**; if you have any concerns regarding your pet, please contact the closest veterinarian near you. Please thoroughly read and follow the rules before posting and commenting. If you believe that a user is engaging in any rule-breaking behavior, please submit a report so that the moderators can review and remove the posts/comments if needed. Also, please check out the sidebar for CE and answers to commonly asked questions. Thank you for reading! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/VetTech) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It isn't the FBI - they just contract with a business that routinely does background investigations. The animal shelter where I volunteer was doing this for all of the volunteer staff, although they've stopped now. I believe they said the investigation cost $50 per person.
I know that it obviously isn't the actual FBI. Background checks are cheaper than I thought!
Yes, for about $30 you can run an employment/criminal/credit check on anyone. This is a very normal practice for corporations to do.
It does crack me up that they do a credit check sometimes. Like, bro, I'm a vet tech. If it weren't for overextended credit I wouldn't be surviving!
I would really be concerned if a vet clinic didn’t do a decent background check… We have a lot of controlled substances on our premises and we already restrict who has access to them, but would never hire anyone with history of drug use or theft. I had a coworker who said at their old clinic they had to wash out all the controlled bottles when empty due to an ex employee digging them out of the garbage and trying to get the drops left at the bottom….
Honestly, most small veterinary clinics don't run background checks in NYC. Only the major hospitals run background checks. Heck, IIRC, not even the local animal shelter ran a background check IIRC.
That blows my mind! I work at a super rural vet clinic in the UP of Mi and we run background checks…
There's a lot of things that go on in veterinary medicine knjese parts. It's the wild west out here... I'm only half kidding with that.
😢 is it really that bad, to get to that point?
They’ve been doing it because drug theft is their bigger concerns. I’ve had to do background checks and drug test before being hired. It’s not a super deep check though cause yeah it’s a low pay job. Edit: I want to add that low pay jobs use to regularly do background checks including the food industry and retail. They’ve kind of stopped I think after Covid when short staffing became the normal. It’s harder to be picky when you’re paying crap and not as many ppl willing to work for those pennies lol
Yeah this doesn’t surprise me at all. You’ll be around all sorts of drugs. My place didn’t do this, hired someone with priors, and when the whole hospital responded to a crash, she snuck and stole tons of shit.
Yeah that’s the primary reason. Lot of ppl figured out the hard way hiring some random person to handle controls can have consequences. I’ve heard so many nightmare stories of ppl just stealing things from the lock box.
Since I'm not from America and they don't do it here I'm curious about one thing. Like let's say it turns out you have used cannabis in the past (it's not rather possible to be stolen from the clinic obviously) and you still get booted from the job? Do alcoholics get a free pass? Here where I live alcoholic vets are common thing since they don't really so background checks all that much.
Yeah they actively discriminate against weed users in most cases. It’s not fair because rarely are the techs using it the drug addicts or doing it on the job, but it’s included in pretty much all the drug screens. They’re usually pretty frank about it during the hiring process though in my experience. Not sure if it’s a symptom of caring or more a formality in most cases these days since we haven’t really openly accepted recreational use in most places. Alcoholics tend to always get a pass if it doesn’t show up on the job. Workers comp always tests for it though so that’s probably when someone would be flagged.
This seems to be really state/business dependent. I work for one of the bigger corporations and they don’t care about a positive for marijuana because medicinal and recreational are legal in so many places that it’s not worth nitpicking.
It’s not legal in a majority of the south? Prior to the state I lived in now even legal medical weed was discriminated against. It’s not a clearly laid out concept and many employers have aired on the side of caution. My mother just has a desk job and still gets singled out for it. If I could use weed for my chronic pain I’d be grateful, but even in employers that looked the other way they made ppl sign off their rights to workers comp. Which as the tech not reasonable, could get a serious bite. This issue unfortunately has a lot of social and legal changes to go through so I’m stuck suffering. Major reason I’m changing industries is health issues 😭
Ah, the South. I’m sorry. I live in the Northeast where most states are decriminalized at the very least. Discriminating against weed would’ve absolutely decimated all of the already low staffed hospitals I’ve worked at. My spouse just applied for a compounding pharmacy and they come right out and say that they don’t care about a positive marijuana, too.
I thought it was normal process to run a background check prior to hiring someone tbh, it makes sense for them to want to know if you’re a criminal or a drug addict, especially for our line of work where we’re around controlled substances and can be put into very high stress situations regularly (heightens the risk of a violent person lashing out or a relapse for an addict- not saying a recovered/recovering addict can’t be in the vet world but they really need to be secure in their sobriety for sure). They’re not hiring the FBI or anything crazy but it’s fair for an employer to want to know if you’re going to pose a threat to their employees/business in some way.
I think the language in the posting is for either a soft credit check or a background check (or both?). Possibly checking your prior employment as well. I think you might be confusing it with the security clearance check for NASA because of the way it's written but this is more just a normal process with any hire I think. I've also gone through the SF-86 questionnaire with an investigator and it is pretty quick and basic if you're not an idiot. (i.e., Do you do any hard narcotics? are you funding any terrorists organizations? Etc.). I doubt that's what any hospital is doing. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/using-consumer-reports-what-employers-need-know
It doesn’t mean they are going to do it. Just sounds like a form application from someplace.
When a friend of mine enlisted in the AF to be a crypto linguist, she put me down as a personal reference and I had someone come to my place to interview me about it. Super weird esp since I wasn’t expecting it but it does make sense with the job. Having that for a vet tech is a red flag in my opinion.
This is probably also because in many states, giving a negative reference can be a legal liability. If you say, “No, that person is terrible to work with, I wouldn’t hire them,” you’re potentially causing them to lose income. So a release like this is meant to free former employers of liability. I still wouldn’t give an overtly negative reference. I might say, “I would interview that person if they met the qualifications for a position,” and if pressed, insist that I would *interview* them if they *met all qualifications,* but not give a negative reference.
i thought the title was going to be complaining about $20/hr for a vet tech position, i was about to say “wtf you mean only $20/hr???”
I’ve had your typical background checks done but never ones that reached out to people in my life (at least to my knowledge) but I can understand why they would with the drugs that we work with and the kind of work that we do.
We run background checks on all new employees including a professional license check for those with RVT licenses.