Criminal Me

In my search for gainful employment, one of the many companies I have applied to is an in home tutoring provider. The pay is great but the hours are almost non-existent. The position is a way to make a bit of extra cash, but certainly isn't a good way to earn a living. But I do enjoy teaching kids, especially one and one and in small groups as I did in Kanazawa, so I figured I'd fill out all the paperwork anyway.

Wow. I have never seen a more imposing stack of paperwork and procedures. I can understand the impetus, after all, who wants there child being tutored by some freak of nature, let alone allow said freak into their home. On the other hand, making me feel like a criminal before I've even had a job interview is ridiculous!

The first thing I had to do was get fingerprinted, which was a rather intimidating process. The second thing I had to do was fill out a stack of background check papers, each requiring my full name and social in multiple places. I'm sorry, but these days I'm feeling a bit weird about giving out my social to too many people, all those identity theft horror stories have finally hit home. To add insult to insult, I have to fill out a Dept. of Homeland Security form to verify that I am eligible to work in the US. I have to show my passport to my employer, who then has to fill out their half of the form and send it in!

All of this for a job that might make me an extra 100 bucks a week. MIGHT I am honestly wondering if it is all worth it. When it was easier to work in a country where every official document is covered in oodles of Kanji than it is in the land of my birth, something is wrong.