Growing up, my parents owned a small business that was staffed in the production department almost entirely by ex-convicts. There was both a measure of altruism, charity, and good business in their thinking -- the convicts had done their time and needed help, and were often cheaper to hire than regulars.
My parents wouldn't hire violent offenders, and most of the people they employed had some kind of drug problem at one time or another. Most of these guys were decent, friendly, hard working, and then had absolutely inscrutable abilities to go completely off the rails from time to time. Very few of them stayed employed for more than a couple of years and many of them ended up back in prison.
I remember more than one guy getting hired, working their tail off, turning their life around and so on. And then one day going on a PCP fueled naked run through the center of town, or suddenly cashing their paycheck and immediately spending it all on cocaine while their kids went hungry. One guy went so far as to have his hand mangled in a piece of equipment so he could get his hands on legal opiates, after 10 years of rock solid employment and clean living.
On occasion, my father would also catch them involved in absolutely bizarre shenanigans. I remember one day my father came home absolutely fuming because one of his guys had set up a weekend shop (when the business was normally closed) out of my father's storefront selling both counterfeit watches and postage stamps to local refugees. How he had hit on that as a business angle and why he decided to do it out of my parent's business is a mystery that has never been explained in any meaningful way.
Money management was a huge problem. My parents were approached almost weekly for pay advances, loans and whatnot. My father often traded extra side jobs patching up the building or whatnot for the pay instead of just giving it out -- it was assumed the guys were using the early pay in some irresponsible way.
While this all sounds like an absolutely nightmare, it curiously wasn't. My father made it clear that when guys were on the job they behaved, they showed up on time and they'd be payed on time. Any deviation from it and they'd be send home and not payed for the hours they would have worked. These events were maybe once or twice a year and most of the time the guys were just there putting in their shift and were otherwise fun to have around.
You and your parents' experiences echos a lot of my own.
When Bitcoin started going up again several months ago, a few guys bought in near the peak despite my warning.
Gambling in general was weird. Like betting on how long it would take to eat something.
There's a surprising number of conspiracy theories. We've had to create headphone rules for certain topics.
That being said, hiring former convicts has been both a rewarding and challenging experience for me. If you have the time and it makes business sense, I would highly recommend it.
It's generally a polarized outcome. You either end up with a great employee or a problem. If you handle the problems, you'll always get better people by expanding your pool of applicants.
My parents wouldn't hire violent offenders, and most of the people they employed had some kind of drug problem at one time or another. Most of these guys were decent, friendly, hard working, and then had absolutely inscrutable abilities to go completely off the rails from time to time. Very few of them stayed employed for more than a couple of years and many of them ended up back in prison.
I remember more than one guy getting hired, working their tail off, turning their life around and so on. And then one day going on a PCP fueled naked run through the center of town, or suddenly cashing their paycheck and immediately spending it all on cocaine while their kids went hungry. One guy went so far as to have his hand mangled in a piece of equipment so he could get his hands on legal opiates, after 10 years of rock solid employment and clean living.
On occasion, my father would also catch them involved in absolutely bizarre shenanigans. I remember one day my father came home absolutely fuming because one of his guys had set up a weekend shop (when the business was normally closed) out of my father's storefront selling both counterfeit watches and postage stamps to local refugees. How he had hit on that as a business angle and why he decided to do it out of my parent's business is a mystery that has never been explained in any meaningful way.
Money management was a huge problem. My parents were approached almost weekly for pay advances, loans and whatnot. My father often traded extra side jobs patching up the building or whatnot for the pay instead of just giving it out -- it was assumed the guys were using the early pay in some irresponsible way.
While this all sounds like an absolutely nightmare, it curiously wasn't. My father made it clear that when guys were on the job they behaved, they showed up on time and they'd be payed on time. Any deviation from it and they'd be send home and not payed for the hours they would have worked. These events were maybe once or twice a year and most of the time the guys were just there putting in their shift and were otherwise fun to have around.