Apologies for the length or if this is not allowed but I was hoping to see if any other people in Seattle have had similar experiences or advice for what, if anything, I can do
So, long story but last year I applied to Seattle Parking Enforcement end of last year/beginning of this year, did my testing, interviews, etc over a span of a few months, all went very well and ultimately I was offered a position pending my background check. I completed my background info through eSoph, a 3rd party company Seattle uses who then contracts out to officers for the background interviews, kind of a weird and clunky system, but that’s kind of par for the course with job applications so whatever. I put in all my info, reach out to contacts etc and put in my information, I also reached out to the hiring manager I had been speaking with throughout the months long process just to ask them some questions and advice regarding my background and let them know that I am a trans woman originally from another state, and I had a different given name, as well as some previous employers that were now defunct, or are unaware/or disapproving of my transition and was assured there would be no issue, he would make sure they were informed and just to also note it in my background packet. Cool, so that’s what I did.
So finally my interview comes with the background detective from SPD, he goes back over my packet, asks some clarifying questions about some dates on very old jobs I was unsure about, and if I had any other info for a business I worked for that closed years ago(I did not). Overall seemed pretty standard, I wasn’t worried about it, until a couple weeks later I received an email stating I had been disqualified. I emailed back the hiring manager/HR person(the same guy I had initially spoken to before my background, and had been speaking with throughout the hiring process) and expressed my surprise and asked what the reasons were, bc there shouldn’t be anything disqualifying and I wanted to make sure the information used to make the decision was accurate, but received a reply simply stating I could file a public disclosure request online and nothing further. This part all happened around the first week of April this year. So I did, I requested all my information regarding hiring decisions/background for me from SPD and then a couple weeks later received a response stating they would address my request in September.
Well, I finally received the information today, minus a few things that say they were not required to provide, such as the final recommendation written by the background officer, basically there’s a law on the books saying they don’t have to provide some things bc “trade secrets”. But I did receive most of it, including responses from references and former employers(all very positive), confirmation of jobs, residences, and (and this is the important part) requests and search terms used by the background officer that was looking me up to verify my information. He misspells my given legal name in about 50% of his searches and requests. He misspells my current name about 90%. Just page after page of this guy searching for entirely different people than me (and getting results for some, again, other people with a different name than I have)
I’ve looked to see what, if any recourse I have about it, but according to the SPD website you can only dispute the results of their hiring decisions within 10 days and with the specific reasons it’s incorrect, which was information I didn’t have and that took 5 months to finally get. So am I just SOL here? I don’t know what I could do or if it’s even worth it to try, but at the same time it’s just so lazy and egregious I don’t feel right just doing nothing.
Anyway, if you managed to read through all this thank you for doing so and thank you for any thoughts, or advice you might have in advance. Also if you’ve been in a similar situation but don’t want to comment publicly please feel free to DM.
Thank you for reading
submitted by /u/DieSegenvonWael
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