When I worked in another industry, we hired a lot of people. The hiring process was pretty regimented and included full background checks and drug screens. There is one story where I learned to ask a new interview question I would previously never had cross my mind.

One night, an employee called me at home. This particular level of employee had two levels of management between her and me, so I was wondering what was so serious that she felt it was ok to call her boss' boss' boss. As she rambled on I imagined the ass-shredding I was going to give her immediate supervisor. When I got past my confusion of how and why she thought it would be ok to call me and ramble on the phone at night, I cut her off. I asked her if there was something related to work that she needed to share with me. I assured her that our policy is not to retaliate against anyone bringing something to our attention.

She paused, and said, "I don't want to lose my job. I like my job." Again, I assured her that our company policy protects employees, thinking I was about to get some dirty news about something, I listened intently for her reply. She said, "I killed someone and I was thinking that since it didn't show up in my background checks I should be able to keep my job, right? I like this job."

That's right. We'd hired a murderer. Murderess, excuse me. Her supervisors did receive a call that night. I put those managers on a conference call with human resources and by midnight we had gotten over the shock and fired the murderer. I never let those two managers live that down, either. Anytime they questioned my hiring skills all I had to do was say, "Uhm, I'm not the one that hired a murderer."

I don't know how that conviction and jail time got through our background checks, but it did. It reminds me that just because there are systems in place to prevent things, like hiring a murderer, sometimes people mysteriously get through.

The story in today's Statesman about the nurses aides reminded me of this story. As an employer, we relied on the tools available to us: Drug screening, background criminal checks, references and state licensing status. None gave us any indication that we'd hired a murderer.

What if this employee had done something to an external constituent? Hell, what if she had tried to murder me! Our company's name would be in the headlines and we would have all been blamed for hiring a murderer and our statements to the press about following all the rules would have sounded like lame excuses.