And even with background checks, a lot of times they frequently only care about stuff that would be directly against the company, like theft.  I've definitely worked with people who had violent crimes on their record that HR didn't care about.

Employment background checks often only care about stuff like theft though. If he’d been charged with shoplifting gum, they probably wouldn’t have hired him.

The problem is that McDonald's is notorious for micromanaging their franchises. They just focus on branding and purchasing and don't care about HR issues.

Yeah, let that franchise switch paper goods suppliers and the hammer comes down, but sexual assault is "we can't possibly keep an eye on everything!"

I’m with you on everything except being “more forgiving” of McDonalds. If they want their name on the franchise and selling their food there, then they need to be a hell of a lot more proactive about shit like this. They can’t just say “well, it’s a franchise so it’s not our problem” and wash their hands of this. They…

If you are going to run a place of employment where co-workers under the age of 18 are going to be a regular thing, background checks NEED to be part of the regular hiring practice. If all or nearly all of your employees are adults, then background checks are pretty much optional, but when you are filling your payroll…

They literally saw his behavior and didn’t fire him and call the cops.

McDonald’s has a huge problem with this. I believe there is a huge lawsuit about sexual harassments. As far as McDonald’s Corporation feels franchisee’s are on their own with how the deal with sexual harassment and believe they have no liability. I believe they are facing a $500 million lawsuit.

I believe in second chances. Strongly. And that people should be able to fuck up and given the opportunity to rebuild their life and show they can be more than one mistake.
That leniency ends with child molesters.
The penalty for failing at that second chance is too high.

Every place I’ve worked at since 2003 or so has had mandatory sexual-harassment training. It’s astonishing that a corporation as big as this didn’t have this training in place until recently. Even if you’re just looking at it from the corporation’s perspective, that’s a massive liability. They don’t even get to say…

The part I tripped over is that he was allowed to plead to “statutory sexual assault.” Then I read the article and it made more sense. “Garner also pleaded guilty plea to charges of corruption of minors and selling obscene materials and indecent assault on a child less than 16 years old.”

The minute he made a lewd comment to a 14 year old he should have been fired. He kept harassing her because management ALLOWED it to happen, allowed him to get away with it. The harassment escalated because no one put an end to it. He was emboldened. The harassment never should have been allowed to continue in the…

Not enough “outrage” to sue for punitive damages?

I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out the guy was hired because he has some kind of personal connection to the managers or even the owners, or as a favor to someone. 

Seriously. This is one of those stories that goes from bad to worse to holy fucking shit how can so many adults in this situation fail this girl?? He was harassing underage girls at work, how was he not fired immediately after the first complaint? Regardless of the sex offender registry. I don’t even think sex…

As I understand it, it’s a financial model to hire young employees at a low wage as much as possible, because it keeps the costs low.

If you see a grown employee behaving at all inappropriately with a 14 year old and don’t fire them immediately, what the fuck are you doing??

Once I was at a restaurant that had a young hostess, she was likely barely 16 (it’s often an entry level job for someone new to work). As we were eating I saw another employee…

The “real fuck-up” is definitely still the rape but that’s splitting hairs as I totally agree with you. If you see a grown employee behaving at all inappropriately with a 14 year old and don’t fire them immediately, what the fuck are you doing??

What a fuck-up by the franchisee and McDonald’s. The attention is on the guy being a sex offender, but the real fuck-up here was that they basically ignored him being a massive creep even before the rape not just to his subordinates, but to underage subordinates at that - something you should not tolerate even with…

That happened to me too!!! I woke up one morning to a note on the kitchen counter and all of his stuff gone. I knew my ex-husband was cheating on me but it wasn’t until several years later that I found out he identified as “queer” (his label choice). As a straight white woman you can imagine I was dumbfounded, but it…