All of us have a right to work to earn a source of livelihood. In fact, the US Constitution also states that every individual has a right to work without discrimination of any sorts.
Furthermore, various American states have their own definition of “Right to Work” in relation to labor unions and other circumstances.
This means, every person in America has an inalienable or undeniable right to work.
However, we might sometimes find ourselves ineligible for rehire. I mean, no organization would be willing to rehire us, after leaving or planning to leave an employment. They may cite the reason that you’re ineligible for rehire.
You might assume that the organization is flouting the laws about right to work by rendering you as ineligible for rehire. However, there’re certain rules that Human Resources departments follow. These rules are legit and could actually make you ineligible for rehire.
Therefore, in this article, I will explain the 10 main reasons that makes you ineligible for rehire.
To begin with, I will explain what the term “rehire” actually implies. That would help you better understand ineligibility to rehire, as I explain.
Definition of Rehire
The simplest definition of rehire is when your employer wants to take you back for the same job that you left, sometimes at a higher or lower pay.
The other definition is getting hired for another job with a different organization, after you’ve left the services of one employer.
In both these cases, there’s something common: getting back into mainstream employment, either with the same employer or a different one.
And the circumstances that render you as ineligible for rehire also vary accordingly.
What Makes You Ineligible for Rehire
There’re as many as 10 strong reasons that could make you ineligible for rehire. Stay tuned because I’ll be explaining all the factors that play a major role in your rehire eligibility . However, there’re also ways and means to overcome the problem of being ineligible for rehire.
Here’re the top 10 reasons that makes you ineligible for hire.
1. Termination for Poor Performance
If you were terminated by a previous employer, a new one can make you ineligible for hire. This can occur due to various reasons.
One of them is the lack of skills that was necessary to perform well at the past job. In such cases, there’re no guarantees that you would be able to perform to the expectations of a new employer.
Usually, employers terminate an employee only after a prolonged period of poor performance. Before termination, you would have gotten at least three or more warnings from an immediate senior or supervisor.
That means, you got ample opportunities to step up your performance, but failed to do so for whatever the reasons.
As such, poor performance at current or previous job needn’t be a stumbling block to render you as ineligible for hire, if you’re able to outline and explain the reasons clearly at an interview for a new job.
That’s because often, employers are also partly to blame for underperformance by their employees.
2. Termination for Illegal Activities
If you were terminated for participating in illegal activities while working with a previous employer, you could be illegible for rehire under any circumstances. And there’s a long list of such illegal activities.
The first and foremost illegal activity in America is now being a member or supporting any group inimical to America and having links with any terror network around the world.
Other major illegal activities include money laundering, tax evasion, helping or abetting criminal activities, possessing illegal firearms, child abuse, assault, human trafficking, drug trafficking and other acts that qualify as a crime under US Federal laws.
An employer can deem you as ineligible for rehire if there’re pending cases against you on any serious criminal charges. That’s because you will most likely to tarnish an excellent reputation the new employer enjoys, if they hire you.
Furthermore, no employer wants to be part of any investigation for your criminal activities or illegal activities.
In certain cases, an employer can however consider you as employable if any superior court acquits you of criminal charges and gives you a clean slate. In such cases, the new employer might want to see the grounds on which you were acquitted by the court.
3. Breach of Trust of the Employer
Basically, breaching trust of an employer means you’ve committed fraud or misused your position for personal gains. And this is a very serious reason why you could be rendered as ineligible for rehire.
Breach of trust may or may not always result in criminal charges. That’s because an employer might not want their name and reputation to be soiled because of your breach of trust.
There’re several other actions that also qualify for breach of trust. One of the main ones is working part-time or as a freelancer with a rival company or any other entity.
Unless you have explicit permission from the employer to engage in part-time work or do freelancing, such an activity comes under the ambit of breach of trust. The ban on working elsewhere would generally be included on your work contract.
Other forms of breach of trust includes misuse of company funds such as expense allowances for personal reasons, misappropriation of company funds through faking bills and expenses on travel for business and lots more.
Usually, these acts are seen as breach of trust and hence, a new employer isn’t going to trust you. In such cases, the previous employer might have fired you on grounds of breach of trust. And the termination letter might clearly state that.
4. Leaving a Job Without Notice
Obviously, working at any place of choice for any reasons is your decision. However, that doesn’t automatically imply that you can leave the services of an employer without completing proper formalities such as tendering a resignation letter citing reasons for leaving and giving the notice period, as stipulated on your job contract.
In such cases, you would be illegible for rehire because technically, you’re still on the payroll of the previous employer.
It’s most likely that you’ll have no documents to prove that you’ve left the previous employer in a proper manner by giving the notice period, settling your dues and getting a clearance certificate that a new employer might want to see.
Even if you want to discontinue your job , you should know a proper way to quit job in order to be eligible for rehire.
Also if you’re on probation, it’s mandatory to give a notice period to your current employer an get it stamped and signed from the proper official.
Only when your resignation from the post as an employee on probation is accepted and your dues are settled, you become legible to take up new employment.
Generally, a week’s notice is sufficient for freshers that’re doing an internship or experienced workers on probation. Though your employer has the right to terminate your employees with immediate effect, the same doesn’t hold good when you leave abruptly.
As an employee on probation, you’re required to give at least some notice to your current employer. That’s because they might have wanted to retain your services after completion of the probationary period.
5. Engaging in Discriminatory Practices
There’re different types of discriminatory practices that you could stand accused of and hence, become ineligible for hire. For example, you might be favoring one supplier or customer and giving them preference over others.
This qualifies as a discriminatory practice. The second is by hiring persons whom you like while neglecting or wrongly disqualifying those on racial, economic and other grounds.
Generally, every employer wants to be known as an “equal opportunities employer.” This means, they provide equal opportunities for working and promotions, increments and other benefits from the company, regardless of considerations such as race, ethnicity and gender, among others.
By engaging in discriminatory practices, you’re ruining the reputation of an employer. And this is a rather serious offense against the company where you’re working, though in most cases, they might not qualify for criminal charges.
In such cases too, you will be ineligible for rehire by any new employer. No organization worth i’s name wants to have persons with a track record for discrimination against suppliers, customers or in hiring processes on board. Therefore, discrimination becomes one of the major causes of making you ineligible for rehire.
6. Working Under Influence
One of the most common reasons across the world that renders people ineligible for rehire is working under influence of alcohol or drugs.
While you might be confident of working with high efficiency and perform all tasks to the best of your abilities despite the inebriation, your employer might not tolerate that.
Furthermore, inebriated employees leave a bad impression about the company among visitors and external parties. You might also get into unwarranted arguments with colleagues or even become violent while under the influence.
Operating machinery under the influence can harm yourself as well as coworkers while at work. Hence, you could get terminated for this reason. And a new employer might deem you as ineligible for rehire, unless you take proper treatment for your addictions.
In the US though, a lot of companies allow their employees afflicted with addictions to undergo rehab treatments. They consider this as a paid leave, on lines with maternity leave given to women. If you’ve undergone a rehab, the present or new employer could consider rehiring you. However, this would be solely their discretion.
7. Failing Employee Background Screening
Nowadays, most companies do Employee Background Screening (EBS) to verify various credentials that a job applicant provides on their Resume. There’re private and external agencies that do employee background screening for the employer.
Generally, these agencies will check everything from your school and high school education to college degree, contact past bosses and supervisors and if necessary, even find out circumstances why you left or are leaving a job.
This EBS is done discreetly in a manner that it doesn’t harm an employee if they’re already working elsewhere. In such cases, only the academic records and past employment would be screened.
Unfortunately, several jobseekers tend to fudge their Resumes in order to meet the specifications of a job role, cover up long periods of unemployment and reasons for attrition. These would definitely crop up during an EBS.
Fudging or lying on your Resume is enough to render you as ineligible for rehire. However, in some circumstances, a new employer might prefer to turn a blind eye to some lies and allow you to be hired. Yet, they might later ask you reasons for fudging a Resume.
Therefore, when applying for any new job, never lie about your credentials in any way. That’s because some employers immediately reject an applicant even if there’s a small infarction on their Resumes.
They won’t seek further clarifications and the very fact that you’ve concealed important information or lied on the Resume makes ground enough to deem you as unfit for rehire.
8. Leaking Sensitive Information
Leaking sensitive information about anything to do with your employer is a serious breach and can render you as ineligible for hire for a very long time indeed.
And strangely, this doesn’t occur at topmost positions only where senior officials of an organization are privy to sensitive information. It could also occur at lower levels in the echelons of an organization where someone such as a salesperson could leak information to a rival company or even the public.
In fact, there’s a Hollywood movie titled ‘The Insider’ about a senior executive speaking about what seems innocuous information, during an interview with the CBS news channel. The company objects to airing of that interview because it contains information that could potentially harm the company- the employer.
Very often, leaks also occur due to reckless statements made to the media by persons in the lower rungs of a company’s echelons. And some executives might willingly sell such sensitive information to a rival company or even a foreign power. These are serious offenses that’re also punishable under the law.
If you leak sensitive information, it qualifies as data theft. And this becomes one of the major reasons to become illegible for rehire.
9. Redundant Skills
Any worker might find themselves ineligible for hire because they have redundant or outdated skills. This occurs when a person doesn’t keep abreast with the latest technologies and trends in the industry and allows their skills to grow older and useless. If that’s your case, you would find yourself ineligible for rehire.
Often, employers provide training to employees to upgrade their skills to meet increasing changes in technology. In fact, training employees is also one way of ensuring loyalty towards the company. Unfortunately, a lot of employers neglect this important aspect of HR and don’t invest on employee training.
The result can be a severe mismatch between your skills and the ones necessary for a new job. In these cases, a new employer can reject your job application on grounds that you’re ineligible for hire. That’s because every employer expects to hire people that’ve the latest skills and can keep pace with rest of the team.
However, there’re ways and means to prevent yourself from being ineligible to rehire due to lack of training and latest skills. Nowadays, there’re several superb online courses that’re available for a nominal fee that you could take during your spare time to upgrade your skills and learn new ones.
Though such skills might not be relevant at your present job, they would definitely come handy when you’re applying for a new one. You can show certifications from these courses during the interview to show you’re legible for the role.
10. Health Reasons
Very often, employers render a job applicant as ineligible for rehire on health grounds. This occurs mainly in jobs requiring physical labor or handling certain kinds of materials. For example, a company might term a prospective hire suffering from asthma as ineligible for hire because the job requires exposure to dust or other stuff that can cause respiratory problems.
Other employers might shun severe diabetics because they could collapse at work due to lack of insulin or high sugar levels or even vice versa.
Generally, employers deem a jobseeker ineligible for rehire only when the health of the candidate is at stake. No employer wants to risk the lives of their employees. The same holds true for persons with impaired hearing or eyesight issues.
However, in such cases, a candidate can always seek jobs where they’re legible for work and their health conditions doesn’t matter. This could sometimes require a change of career.
If that’s your case, you can request a new employer to provide you with a job where your health won’t be at risk but your experience and skills would help you serve them better.
In Conclusion
Additionally, there’re several more reasons that could make you ineligible for work. One of them is a history of sexual harassment against female colleagues, inability to maintain punctuality, consistently missing the targets and a track record of wasting time at workplaces.
Remember, a wrong hire can cost an employer anything between $4,000 to $150,000 by means of recruiting expenses, training and sometimes, lawsuits. Therefore, employers consider these factors of ineligibility before making an offer to join their organization.
