I'm looking for summer work, and I'm noticing something odd. Every other ad in the student job boards has a "reliable vehicle" as a requirement, even for jobs that do not in themselves require driving. (I can see it for landscapers, painters, delivery people, and so on of course, but for office jobs?). I've never noticed this in fifteen years of varying degrees of job searching. Am I nuts? Is it new?

Are employers that freaked out about making sure their new employees will actually show up? And what happened to giving people credit for being reasonably intelligent adults who can figure out how to get themselves to work on their own... nevermind, I think I just answered my own question!

Of course, nobody needs to know that they happen to be talking to the engine of my "reliable vehicle" .