Why Should Anyone Hire a Criminal? | The Fifth Quarter Ep. 7

Three men who met in federal prison, came home, and are rebuilding money, reputation and relationships in public. This episode asks two questions that do not have comfortable answers. The first is when prison actually leaves you. Not the day you walk out, but the day it stops running in the background. The second one we turn on ourselves: would we hire someone with our own conviction? We start with what never fully left. Brad has been home four years and still froze in a gas station cooler because he heard a set of keys. For Ross it is whistling, because whistling was how the compound passed word that the officers were coming. There is the regimen from solitary, the locker that held everything you owned in the world, the coffee and the morning news, and the way a room full of talking is now unbearable. Then we make it uncomfortable. Hasan plays devil's advocate and asks the question an employer is actually thinking: you committed a crime, so why should I take the risk on you when I have other applicants? Ross does not flinch. Brad answers it a completely different way, by hearing the insult first and working out why the man said it before he says anything back. Both answers are worth sitting with, and they are not the same answer. Along the way: whether you would hire someone convicted of your exact crime, who stays off limits no matter what, why sounding educated and being educated are not the same thing, and why a clean record on the surface is not proof of a clean person underneath. We close with our RSA of the Week. RSA stands for rational self analysis: you take a mental snapshot of what set you off before you act on it. Ross gets a text about school clothes that reads like a setup. Brad has an employee cancel a Saturday shift the day after committing to it. And Hasan gets a drunk phone call at two in the morning from a friend driving for DoorDash, who rang to argue with the man who showed him the math. That math is in here too. 215 dollars for a twelve hour day and 238 miles driven works out to 17 dollars and 38 cents an hour. Take out what the IRS says the car costs you to run and it is 3 dollars and 78 cents. As Ross puts it, that is waiter money without the tips. If you have ever wondered what actually stays with you after the sentence, and whether anyone will take a chance on you once it is over, this one is for you. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:08 Welcome back: what this show is about 1:58 When does prison finally leave you? 2:28 Ross: I never let that place consume me 3:29 Still tripping off keys 5:48 Whistling, and what counted as contraband 6:40 Brad and the prison food plan 7:59 What your family notices when you come home 8:41 Everyone left RDAP talking the same way 9:37 Habits from the hole 11:20 Why a lot of talking gets on your nerves now 14:13 Your whole world in one locker 14:57 Nobody locked their locker 15:54 Coffee and the morning news 17:11 Going out now just to be outside 17:39 The woman at the bar 18:40 Prison taught me I am not that significant 21:12 Coming home drained: it is count time 22:44 Ross, the pastor, and listening 23:55 Asking a friend for honest feedback 25:49 Most people who ask for advice want a yes man 28:05 Growth stopped being about proving it 28:30 Eleven months in solitary 29:33 I do not want to be right, I want to be understood 31:40 The power of thought 32:16 Would you take it back? 36:16 Would you hire someone with your own conviction? 38:00 Would you hire someone convicted of your exact crime? 38:31 Hiring as a leader: listen for who they are now 44:24 Who stays off limits 45:15 Sounding educated is not being educated 47:03 Prison forces you to learn people 49:04 Why I lean toward the second chance 50:31 Devil's advocate: why should anyone take the risk? 52:24 Ross: I almost want you to doubt me 54:18 A clean record is not proof of a clean person 55:35 Same question to Brad 58:42 The luckiest thing that can happen to you 59:35 RSA of the Week 1:00:57 Ross: the text about school clothes 1:04:48 Do not read into texts 1:06:53 Hasan: the DoorDash call 1:07:32 17 dollars an hour, and what is left after expenses 1:08:47 4 dollars an hour is the new slavery 1:09:17 The drunk phone call 1:12:16 Brad: the employee who cancelled 1:13:35 Demand thinking, and giving grace THE GAME ISN'T OVER, THERE'S ALWAYS ANOTHER QUARTER. New episodes every Thursday, 7 PM ET. Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon and iHeart: https://open.spotify.com/show/033M3vG... #TheFifthQuarter #HiringFelons #SecondChances #Reentry #FederalPrison #LifeAfterPrison #CriminalJustice #RDAP #GigEconomy #ComebackStory