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Comment by GoToRO | Hacker News Reader

It's always something toxic when it comes to US companies. I had to do multiple background checks. In Romania they are unheard of.

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Were the background checks for a remote job? That would makes sense. Employing someone several thousands miles away in a foreign country requires a certain amount of due diligence, especially to keep the (tax) authorities happy.

Customer was from US, my company was from Romania. They were forced to do what the customer wanted.

It's hardly a US company. Most people working there are from India.

I’ve never had a background check for any US job I’ve had, other than a government contractor, so this is not universal. I don’t even think it’s normal. Maybe my sample size of 15 or so is just non-representative, though. I don’t tend to apply to the sorts of firms that specialize in bureaucracy.

>I’ve never had a background check for any US job I’ve had

How would you know? That said, I suspect I have not as the first one was out of school and the few other jobs I've had were all from people I knew.

I signed a release when the employer did a background check on me. And was provided a copy of it. The latter I think is state law here, the former I think is also law but I’m not 100% sure.

I can believe it's a state law--or even a company just doing it as a matter of CYA policy. I assume it's pretty easy to run a background check without someone knowing though. And of course it's quite common to provide reference although I don't know how commonly companies contact them--I suspect not often.

Same here. Discovery channel made me sign a release. It’s like whatever, free way for me to check myself as they’re required to give you a copy.

I would be surprised if you worked at a financial or healthcare company and did not have a basic background check done. It could just be the type of jobs you gravitate towards. It's not really bureaucracy, but a financial company doesn't want to hire someone who already has a financial crime conviction.

Doubly so for Florida.

This reminds me when I was contracted by a certain huge US company to write a driver for their new hardware. They… wanted me to take a drug test. It took them three months of me silently ignoring their emails (they had a deadline to meet) to figure it out.

Funny. Most US companies behave much better than companies outside the US. That's why Romanians looking to be hired by US companies and not vice versa (no attempt to offend you or any other Romanian, just stating a fact). This company sounds like a shitty one, the US of course has those like any other country, but it's usually the US ones that get more publicity when things like this happen.(also when good things happen, it goes both ways)

> Most US companies behave much better than companies outside the US. That's why Romanians looking to be hired by US companies

No. The reason is compensation.

I personally would take better comp over benefits any day.

Higher comp beats "nice to have" benefits, but it doesn't beat a non-shitty work day every day.

I don't know how much you'd have to pay me to accept to be treated like a child or a slave for eight hours a day, but it's going to be a _multiple_ of what a reasonable boss can get me to work for.

If by "behave better" you mean "pay more"... it's probably be correct.

But when comparing overall US & EU working conditions, it's a very lopsided contest. US employees seem to be abused by European standards: at-will employment, no maternity leave, workplace surveillance, unpaid overtime for salaried employees are illegal pretty much everywhere - even Romania.

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