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I’m not sure what exactly you put on your SF86. I assume you put the reason as inappropriately representing company. Investigator will ask about it and they will go talk to your former employer. Former employer may or may not go into detail. I assume you have been employer since then or had someone else corroborate you and your character. What would your current coworkers say?
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I put the truth on there and didn’t try and be vague. We did not “lead a swinger lifestyle” as that link says. It was a one time thing that we abandoned after what happened. And yes, I am a college professor now and will get raving reviews about my character from my current job. Even my old job will give those reviews. It was just the policy that led HR to terminate.
Have you reviewed the Adjudicative Desk Reference? You might want to take a look. On the subject, I don’t think this will negatively impact you since engaging in this paricular lifestyle is not illegal. As for blackmail, it depends. Certainly, it helps that your wife, presumably, willingly participated.
Excellent read Compsci36,
9 Iron, honesty is the best way to mitigate this. By disclosing this in detail, embarrassing as it may seen, if a person attempted to blackmail you…you can tell them to go ahead and publish. The government already knows all about it. Would there possibly be some residual blowback to you? Maybe. But by getting out in front and speaking to it I think the issue is mostly resolved. Obviously you would need stop pursuing the lifestyle somewhat if you are able. Some argue that simply pursuing multiple partners or conquests (mutually agreeable ones) is no different. But a deep read on what CompSci posted shows it can and has caused issues for clearances. Obviously someone you work with was also reading those want ads and reported it. Not too long ago Craig’s List stopped all of those ads as prosecutors were successfully going after sites like that for aiding and abetting prostitution. Though much of that may have been pure fantasy…at least some measure was involved in prostitution and all the ills associated with exploiting women, juveniles, slavery, etc.
I think you have mitigated it if you stopped pursuing this.
In my view, the issue here is the lack of discretion, not the act of looking to add someone to your sex life. The biggest risk for blackmail would be the loss of your wife, not your job. Since she was part of what you did, I don’t see that as a problem.
Even in the reports linked to by Compsci36, the cases that caused issues really involved infidelity, not just “swinging”.
It’s not necessarily true that someone at your company was reading the ads and saw yours. There are services that will regularly search all over the net for mentions of your company name. This is done to help protect the reputation of the company by making sure that they are aware of where they are being discussed and what is being said. I would imagine that personals ads would be one of the places monitored.
Now . . . You say that you and your wife stopped pursuing this after what happened at work. Let me just say that if you decide to continue (no matter what your job) discretion is EXTREMELY important in both the placing of ads and in the information exchanged with those that you meet. Think about it . . . Your ad said where you work. You go meet someone at a bar and decide that they are not for you and you part ways. They don’t know where you live but they can park outside of your office and wait until they see you. Trouble, in many forms, can clearly result.
The reason that craigslist and many other sites dropped their personal ads is that congress passed a law making on-line ad sites responsible for the content of the ads placed. Ads soliciting illegal activities, openly or not, could be used in prosecution of the owner in addition to the poster. Craigslist and other sites didn’t want the expense or the responsibility of policing the ads.
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Yes there is nothing more to this than what you read. No underlying “suspect” behavior or anything other than two people who wanted to try something, as unorthodox as it may have been, that had an unintended consequence at work.
Appreciate your straightforward discussion on the topic. This is truly how many of us learn. We closely follow a case to see how it is resolved. I see this much as former teachers who previously had risque photos somehow slip out. We can act prudish and attempt to deny we are sexual beings but humans in general participate in this stuff. Teachers have lost jobs due to school boards considering them a distraction. Some teachers greatly regret the photos or a past relationship sharing them wrongly. Others…celebrate it. If it is public knowledge I don’t believe there is a blackmail risk. But they may call it a violation under expectations or some catchall as the military did for Article 134 of the UCMJ. If they could not find a specific violation…they could launch charges under a catch all personal conduct charge.