Myth: My employer gets notice of my bankruptcy

As a general rule, your employer will not get notice of your bankruptcy. However, if you owe your employer money, your employer must be listed as one of your creditors and therefore must receive notice of your bankruptcy. Even if you do not owe money to your employer, the filing of a petition in bankruptcy is a public record that anyone is free to look up and inquire about. Also, for whatever reason, the media deems the filing of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy to be "newsworthy" and regularly publishes the name of people who file in the newspaper.

If you are filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 13 you may be asked (or required in some jurisdictions) to have your monthly payment to the Trustee taken by payroll deduction. In that case your employer will get notice of your bankruptcy.