Guess my cover is holding ...

[Pixelated]

So I have (I assume) a job starting Oct. 4 as a cashier at Giant Home Repair/Maintenance/DIY Supply store (it's that far down the road as they are busily doing major construction on a building that used to hold a very similar type of store).

Got a phone message today saying "Your file with [Company] has been completed and checked. If you have any questions, please call [toll-free number]."

Me:

So I call the number. And am told that their query to the ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE, regarding any criminal records for "Pixelated", has come back clear ...

This ... for a CASHIER job??

Obviously all my deep-cover work for The Justin Trudeau Maple Syrup Mafia is still, well, under deep covers ...

[catcul]

You're handling money. I've had to take background checks and drug test to install computers. I've worked for three banks, two public school systems, and a hospital.

[notalwaysright]

I think a background check is really common. I don't normally even get a notification about it, it's just in the hiring paperwork that they are going to do it.

[Pixelated]

I understand that, but this is literally the FIRST time I've ever had this level of a checkup. I handled money for five years at Now Defunct Tea Shop, and did not have this done (at least, I never had to fill out a form saying I ok'd such a search). Ditto for my short time with the local drugstore. I've also worked as a cashier at a supermarket, and again, nothing like this (although that would've been somebody other than the RCMP, since it was in the U.S. ....)

[KuariKaydrith]

It may have to do with the amount of money your new job is expecting you to handle. I have a feeling that you may be dealing with contractors who plunk down a huge chunk of change whenever they have to buy something.

[taxguykarl]

Our franchise owner does background checks for new return preparers. They did that for all returning preparers one year.
But then when you consider the personal and financial info we deal with, that does make some sense.

[Android Kaeli]

When I got hired with the Warehouse, I had to do a background check and do a drug test before I got hired. Just because of the amount of money I was going to handle as a then cashier [slow days were a few thousand]. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot more companies still do these things.

[PastryGal]

Quite a few places here in Newfoundland require a background check and you have to get, pay for and bring it in yourself. I had to once for a deli worker position at a grocery store.

[Nunavut Pants]

That is bizarre. They make you pay for your own check? And you bring it in? I guess they figure people won't try to fake them or something...

[Buzzard]

"Sure, I'm a good person. I bring in my own background check. What? Don't all of them use crayon for the important words? That's QUALITY there!"
Yeah, what could possibly go wrong there?

[Pixelated]

It may have to do with the amount of money your new job is expecting you to handle. I have a feeling that you may be dealing with contractors who plunk down a huge chunk of change whenever they have to buy something.

That's something I hadn't thought of. I expect they're likely to spend even more than the most crazed customer at Now Defunct Tea Shoppe.

[Buzzard]

Back when I did security at ye olde Blue Apron's flatbed distribution center, not a single load going out was under $30k, and that's just wood, drywall, roofing, and all the crap that doesn't fit inside a box trailer well. The stuff that went in the box vans at another site, tended to be even higher. (especially with the small, fiddly bits)

[LadyofArc]

That is bizarre. They make you pay for your own check? And you bring it in? I guess they figure people won't try to fake them or something...

I deal with this in my current job.
Our mentors are required to obtain a police check themselves, however, said police check has to go to the health department as well (long story short, any mentor of students in a hospital needs to be on the health department's database which saves said mentor having to take their police check and whatnot with them all the time), so most of them have one anyway and they'll pay for it themselves (usually only about $50 and we count it as being valid for three years).

The one that's more bizarre for US however, is the requirement to get a different check - this particular one clears you to work with children, however, the website where you obtain said check CLEARLY states "If you are doing <mentor work>, you do not need a check." Yet the health department still want one, go figure. (I can understand needing said check if the student was working in particular sections of the hospital, but our students don't go there)

(The only reason I can think of for said check is because that one's subject to ongoing monitoring, while the police checks themselves are not).

The students themselves have additional requirements - both of the checks mentioned above, plus if they lived in any other country for longer than 12 months, they need to get a police check for that as well.