Do They Hire Felons?
Chances are that if you are on the registry and labeled a sex offender, you are also labeled a felon. That’s just the way it works, two labels for the price of one. Aren’t our laws just dandy?
This brief “break-room slice of life” shows the difference between how some men and women differ when it comes to sharing and labels.
A male friend of mine was sitting in the break-room at work with several co-workers. Two women were chatting about a construction company when one woman casually asked the other “Do they hire felons?”
“Well, I’m not sure, I think they do” replied the woman, “why do you ask?”.
“My brother is getting out of prison next week, he’s a felon and will need to find a job” said the first woman.
“How long has he been away?” asked the other woman.
“Seven years” replied the first.
The two women exchanged information about the possible job lead. After their conversation ended and one of the women had left, my male friend questioningly remarked to the remaining woman , “That’s a whole lot of personal information you just put out there.”
“Well, my brother is getting out of prison.” replied the woman.
My male friend, who would never be caught sharing such personal information with co-workers replied “Yes, but’s that’s really, really personal information, I mean your brother being in prison, a felon and all…”
“Yes” replied the woman, with a smile, “but he still needs a job”.
Women, mothers, sisters, girlfriends, we’re the caretakers, it’s so natural, so much easier for us to open up to friends, family and co-workers then it is for our male counterparts. My friend has no idea what the woman’s brother was in prison for and the other woman didn’t ask. It didn’t seem to matter. It was simply one woman asking another woman if she thought a label would make a difference and could she help with a job lead for her brother.
We need to get rid of labels, sex offender, felon, registrant all of them. None of them are accurate, they offend our sensabilities, there is no one-size-fits-all label that is right for everyone.
If two women at a lunch table can get past labels and open the eyes of a male co-worker to the realization that labels don’t matter and sharing information is sometimes “a good thing”, maybe there’s hope for the rest of the world!
