Carroll 1 Nick Carroll Professor Ashlyn English 1102 October 24, 2013

The Prestonwood Country Club is a huge part of Cary, North Carolina. It gives people all over the area a place to socialize and do recreational activities such as Golfing, Swimming, tennis, fitness classes, dining, and much more. There are many different things to do here to entertain everyone. The pool contains a big pool with two diving boards and a slide, a kiddie pool with different water activities, and a lap pool. Heading over to the golf course they have 3 18-hole courses and a driving range so you can never get bored. They have 9 tennis courts that offer lessons for everyone. Inside they have an upstairs restaurant held for big occasions like Sunday brunch. It is a large high-end buffet with no one picking at food with his or her fingers. Downstairs is where you come to the Red Fox. It is Located in the main clubhouse, our Red Fox full-service a la carte restaurant serves lunch and dinner fare six days a week (Tues. - Sun.) in a relaxed, but elegant ambience. This English-style pub, rich with leather and dark woods, features an array of dishes from creative appetizers to satisfying entrees. An extensive wine selection is displayed in handcrafted cabinetry lining the walls. (Red Fox dining) I attached a video clip at the end of the paper to get an aerial view of what the Country Club is and looks like. My main topic will be exploring the Red Fox and its employees. I started my investigation with two interviews with employees I know on a very personal level. I interviewed Ian Callahan first a bus boy now server at the Red Fox. Asking him about some of the cooks I was very shocked. My first question to him was what are some of the cooks

Carroll 2 like? Responding with a chuckle he said, Different, Many of them are from out of state due to being fired from other jobs. One cook spent time in jail for assault in Texas and had to move here to find work. He also explained that one cook had gang tattoos on his arms that he has kept a secret from the managers. (Callahan) My next interview was with Daniela Bun a hostess here. I asked her about the managers. She told me that one of the managers was a heavy Marijuana user and would come into work high. On the managers break they would go and smoke before returning. I then proceeded to ask her about some of the workers. One girl is currently in the process of beating a lawsuit. She received a felony for shoplifting and has been in and out of court since. (Burn) Now I am all for people getting back on there feet after making mistakes and having encounters with the law, but like the guy whos been hiding his gang affiliations thats not right because he was not honest with his employers. Obviously Mr. Callahan telling this info and it getting spread around can make me and other customers uneasy. If the man was honest when he first got hired I am sure Mr. Callahan wouldnt even know they were gang related. Now getting a job with any type of criminal record can be very difficult but many places are willing to help you just need to know where to look. Cookout, a very popular fast food restaurant, is very well know for helping felons get back on there feet. Many places will not be as courteous as cookout. When reading an article I that found a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management that shows 92% of employers conduct background checks on certain people who apply while 73% conduct them on all people who apply. This can be tough since 65 million adults or 1 in 4 have criminal records in the United States. People do criminal background checks for many different reasons. They do it to promote workplace safety, protect company property, and protect vulnerable populations from abuse and predatory behavior. (Geurin 2) It can also prevent liability to customers and others. In

Carroll 3 some states they allow lawsuits that allows employers to file against owners for hiring people with violent past and the owners new of it before hiring them. In certain highly regulated occupations, state or federal law may require employers to reject applicants with criminal records or with certain types of convictions. If you are applying for a position as a police officer, prison guard, or security screener, for example, government employers might be obligated to disqualify those with certain convictions on their record. (Guerin 2) The problem some background checks is employers could be discriminating against people who have decade old convictions, mismatch info like mixing up people, sealed records or expunged records, or even reports not filed correctly. All of these can cause a problem for people attempting to enter the work world once again. (Guerin) When applying for a job there are many things you can do to help your chances of success. If you are on probation talk to your probation officer for help. Depending what state you are in he or she can help you find jobs that are willing to interview you. He can also have you sign up for non-profit programs that specialize in job applications, resume writing, interview skills, and interview attire. Make sure to be flexible because getting a job can be difficult and any job can help you right now build a working background. When you show up for your job interview dress to impress. Go in there with confidence and in business working attire to show them that you are serious about getting back out there into the work world! And make sure, it is a must, that you always tell the truth. Do not try and hide your background and be straight up with them lying can cause more problems in the future. Dont forget when you apply be knowledgeable and know your rights. Make sure you carefully read the application and know what the employer can look up about you. Do not put anything on the application that it does not ask for. Again be honest. (Doyle)

Carroll 4 In 2010 researchers sent out 25 young men with fake resumes to different jobs. On some of the resumes they put that some of them had minor drug possession. It was shown that the men with the possession charges were 50% more likely to be passed on for this job. Now 50% less likely to get a job can be very difficult putting some ex criminal getting caught in the cycle called Catch 22 (Muhammad 3). This is when an ex criminal cannot get a job making them that much more likely to become a repeat offender. With more than 2/3 of employers doing background check there is not much room to hide so maybe before jumping right into applying for a job work your way up. Most communities offer people programs like jump start to get you back on your feet and like I said earlier talk with your probation officer. A very informative and educational article I came across was The use of Criminal Records in employment decisions. It starts off by talking about ex offenders attempting to get a job. This can cause a problem for many people because a huge portion of the population has some sort of criminal record especially the male portion. Researchers have found that by a person late 20s early 30s they have stopped committing offenses making them pay for poor decisions in the past. One good thing is in wealthier countries like the USA, Canada, and Australia have past a legislation prohibiting discrimination against offenders. Some of these laws are so powerful it can hide an ex criminals records for future employers. This can be a very good law for some people. A study showed that 1 in 3 males in California had a criminal offense between the ages 18-29, in New Zealand it was 1 in 4, and Australia it was 1 in 10. So one third of Californias male population had a run in with the law making it very difficult for 33% of the population for find a job. It doesnt get any better for the male population. It was shown that males out number females ten to one in

Carroll 5 property crimes and five to one in violent crimes. Now when it comes to common crimes for people they mostly consist of very minor offenses such a small amounts of drugs or having liquor underage. A great question is Should such minor offenses be allowed to permanently and adversely the ex-offenders future employment opportunities? (Lam and Hardcourt 2). What do you think? Personally I feel such miniscule offenses shouldnt affect a person for the rest of there life. At one point everyone was young making dumb mistakes, I sure have, but why should someone miss out on huge job opportunities because of an underage drinking ticket? The right to be treated equal is often seen as a negative right meaning not discriminating for any reason. This right is usually for people of minority but when applying it to ex-offenders should it be any different? Is discriminating against them a necessity for the safety of others? This is why it can be so difficult to advertise the right to have ex-offenders treated equal. Why trust someone with a criminal record to watch of the money? Or close up shop at night? Employers have an obligation to their customers and employees. So the safety and service of customers is a huge thing. Owners can be held liable for anything that happens to a customer. For example a family care owner was held liable when an employee abused a child. The court decided that since the employer gave the power to the employee to watch over this child, that the employer was at fault resulting in a lawsuit against the owner of the store. Another problem occurred when an employer hired a doorman with a strong criminal record. The doorman had gotten in multiple altercations finally resulting in the police being called. When the police did research they found the employee neglected to do a background check on the doorman making it a negligent hiring (Lam and Harcourt.) I have no problem with doing background checks but most background checks will just say they have misdemeanor or a felony not going into

Carroll 6 depth of what the crime is. So people who have committed arm robbery and people with small amount of weed shouldnt be discriminated against the same. One of the best articles I read was the last one. The title was Functional Criminals. When I first started reading I thought it would be about psychopaths who could hide their identity in the work world. When reading further it was about people in the work world performing criminal acts. So I thought how does this related to ex-offenders getting back into the work would? Maybe the main concern for employers is not about giving people a second chance but getting rid of active criminals inside of their businesses. (Von Hoffman) There is an extremely famous quote that says once a criminal always a criminal. I think this is very potent quote that just gives ex-offenders a bad wrap. I believe that you shouldnt put people who made smaller dumb decisions as teens or young adults under that quote. On the other hand people such as Bernie Madoff should be. Madoff, the man responsible for running the biggest ponzi scheme in USA history started this scheme as early has the seventies. (as a young adult.) He should have gotten out of it when he could have, possibly being forgiven. Instead the man lost billons of dollars of peoples money mostly for personal use and is now spending the maximum sentence of 150 years in jail. That is the sort of person who deserves to be under the quote once a criminal always a criminal. After reading all of this information and really going into depth on ex-offenders and how small things can affect them, I thought wow the Prestonwood Country club is actually doing a good thing helping this man with gang affiliations. Should he be flaunting he was in a gang? No, but at least he has been given a second chance. It really amazes me reading all of these statistics like how 1 in 3 men in California have a criminal record, but since most of

Carroll 7 these offenses are a such a young age it cant be that big of a deal. Mostly the charges were small offenses, but even these small offenses can damage your future. Another thing that really got me thinking was the article functional criminals it was not what I thought it was going to be about at all. I really do believe in second chances and thats why I really like all these programs helping ex-offenders. Hopefully soon we can get some of these laws straightened out and help good people who made poor decisions as young people get back on there feet and provide something positive to this world.

Carroll 8 1.Callahan, I. (2013, Oct 5). Personal interview. This will be an interview with a current employee. He was a bus boy and now a food server. He has worked here for a couple months now. 2.Burn, D. (2013, Oct 5). Personal interview. Employee at the red fox. She is a seasonal worker due to college. Has worked as a hostess and has been there for about a year. 3.Our Red Fox Dinning Prestonwood. Jonas Club Management, 2013. Web. 3 October 2013. http://www.prestonwood.com/Amenities/Dining.aspx Talks about the Red Fox and what it is. Shows some pictures to get a feel for what it looks like. 4. Guerin, Lisa. " Getting Hired With an Arrest or Conviction Record." NOLO. NOLO. 03 12, 2011. Web. 3 October, 2013. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/getting-hired-with-arrestconviction-record.html Talks about the difficulties of getting a job with a record. Goes into depth on how it is a struggle. 5. Prestonwoodcc. "Prestonwood country club- where cary comes to play." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 5 Mar. 2012. Web. 3 Oct. 2013. 8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DSM_B-eDlw Online video of what the Country Club is made of. Gives a very good visual view 6. Doyle, Allison. "Job Searching With a Criminal Record." Job Search. About.com, Web. 03 Oct 2013. http://jobsearch.about.com/od/employmentlaw/a/criminalrecord.htm. It shows the lists of jobs you can apply for with a criminal record explaining how to go about doing it and why you could get the job. 7. Muhammad, Dedrick. " American Money: Job Hunting With a Criminal Record." BET. BET, 6/18/2013. Web. 3 October, 2013. http://www.bet.com/news/national/2013/06/18/americanmoney-job-hunting-with-a-criminal-record.html Talks about job hunting with a criminal record. How to go about job hunting with a criminal record. 8. Helen Lam and Mark Harcourt Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 47, No. 3 (Oct., 2003), pp. 237-252 http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/25075141 Talks about business ethics and how a criminal record can affects these things. 9. Last name, First name. "Bernie Madoff Bio." Bigoraphy.com. A and E television networks,2013. Web.24 Oct, 2013. http://www.biography.com/people/bernard-madoff-466366 Talks about Bernie Madoff the biggest criminal in the stock market. He had the biggest ponzi scheme in America.

Carroll 9 10. Nicholas von Hoffman Grand Street, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Winter, 1987), pp. 213-219 http://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=au%3A%22Nicholas+von+Hoffman%22&w c=on&fc=on Grand Street talks about functional criminals and how you can still function with a criminal record.