Comments on: What would you do? You find out a valuable employee lied to get hired

By: Barry Nixon

Barry Nixon — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:55:18 +0000

Good people are hard to find and to simply have an automatic reaction I believe would be a mistake. I agree that the offense should be taken seriously and that some type of disciplinary action should be taken, however, keep in mind that the ‘time should fit the crime.’ Also from my observations of many employers they are not squakly clean in applying the honesty test?? When the Fnancial manager overstates the earnings did they get fired? When your Sales VP overlooked a post dated sale for the quarter so the numbers would be on target was she fired? You get my drift. If we fire with no exception for not telling the truth then yes, the person should be shown the door, however, if we are like most companies our record in this area is not stellar. Keep in mind that “a foolish consistecy is the hobgoblin of small minds.”

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:36:46 +0000

We verify, verify, verify. Before hiring we would have known if he had a college degree. Never-the-less, if we subsequently learned of a lie on the application, we would terminate the individual.

Frank
HR Director

By: Susanna

Susanna — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:39:48 +0000

I feel that if a degree was required to obtain the position in the first place then it should have been verified during the pre-employment screening process, otherwise, it shouldn’t be an issue after the fact. If the employee is doing well and is an asset to the company then leave well enough alone and bite the bullet for not doing your job correctly in the first place. (If you were responsible for verifying the resume/application.)

By: Mel

Mel — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:27:35 +0000

I guess it comes down to whether or not it will have an impact on the company to take action. I was with a firm where an Exec VP allowed our proxies and website to claim he had a degree when he never really finished. I knew he did not but it was not my place to make it known. It was brought to the attention of the CEO at one point and he was not fired or forced to resign but was demoted. It happened again a year or two later with a President that came from an acquired division that had a resume problem. I think it lends itself to a double standard. If the company wants to keep the person they likely will…if not they will use it as a reason to let them go. I believe it is best for all concerned if the resume is honest. I don’t see bragging about accomplishments to sell yourself to the hiring manager as a problem. Misstating degrees or outright lies are not a good way to start a potential relationship and should be avoided.

As for Joe above, keep on plugging and try not to be so bitter toward hiring managers. When supply is up they have to go through a lot more applicants and can be a lot more choosy. I was out of work for about 3 months last year and wondered if it was ever going to end. Luckily I got a new position just as my severance was running out.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:24:18 +0000

I have been out of work for a year now. I have had a few interviews and was offered a job four weeks into my unemployement for a chineese company that wanted to hire me to outsource manufacturing jobs to China. After a lot of thought I decided NOT to accept the position (it wasn’t that great to begin with) because of moral reasons – hat outsourcing jobs overseas only benefits the corporporations and has partial caused the problems we face today.

Since then – Bupkiss. I still wouldn’t have taken the job but now I’m always being faced with the statement of – “you mean you haven’t worked in a year?” click the phone goes dead.

Never mind if you are qualified for the job. Never mind if you have relationships within the accounts that the job is selling into. Never mind that last year sold 3 million dollars into that same account.
You haven’t worked for over a year when companys aren’t hiring and the country is in the toilet.

Well let me tell you – Honesty DOESN’T PAY.

And, by-the-way, 90% of the companys in America lie about the job, the compensation, the health of the company, the boss….. Screw ‘em.

I’ll just learn how to rob banks.

By: JVN

JVN — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:00:04 +0000

William,

I would write a letter to the HR Manager that essentially says the same thing you just wrote here. Acknowledge your mistake and make it clear you are not disputing your termination, but bring the disparity in treatment to their attention. Part of what gets companies in trouble in court is inconsistent enforcement of policies. If your former employer’s HR department is worth their salt, they will at least look into the situation.

There may be extenuating circumstances or missing pieces of the puzzle that justify the difference in treatment (like maybe the VP was honest on his app and with his boss, but pretends to have a degree when dealing with peers and subordinates, which still would point to some kind of issue, but not falsifying records). Still, I know if I received an assertion by someone that one of our VPs had falsified his educational record, I’d at least check it out.

By: William

William — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:53:04 +0000

I just lost my job because of a stupid mistake like this. I agree that the employee should be terminated. However, I just found out that an upper level executive at my company also lied about finishing his college degree and continues to. I think this is such a double standard. I am not in anyway trying to justify what I did. I deserve the punishment. However, I feel all the employees should be judged equally. Is there any recourse I could take to bring this to the HR Depts. attention to have this executive investigated?

Thank you kindly for any advice.

By: Tom D.

Tom D. — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:55:07 +0000

What does the employment application say about untrue applicant statements? If you have language that says that false, incomplete or misrepresented infomation will result in discharge, you better terminate or give up the option on similar cases to come as well as invite disparate treatment charges. If the policy statement says … IS CAUSE for discharge, then I would consider whether the information in question had a bearing on the hiring decision.

If a three year period of previous employment was overstated by four weeks, the correct information wouldn’t have changed the employment decsion, to say nothing of the plausibilty that the wrong information was given intentionally.

Less clear, is applicant for a warehouse worker’s position who said he/she graduated from college, only to find out later the person went only one year. If the job only required only H.S. or equivalent, MAYBE you could rationalize retaining the person.

Having said all that, the employee in question would have to be very valuable to assume the risks of retention.

By: Shayla

Shayla — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:13:18 +0000

Long story short, one was claiming mileage for the same trips that the other one was claiming mileage for (they were also related). The problem was that one of the employees had not completed an expense report for 3 months and all employees are suppose to submit an expense report every month. After a very long investigation, it was found that the employee who submitted all of her expenses at one time only had about 2 inconsistences with who drove whereas the other employee had about 5 or 6. They interviewed other people who actually rode in the car with them and could day who drove. The one employee was terminated for dishonesty based on the evidence that was found during the investigation and the other one received a final warning but later quit. The reason that she only receive a final warning was because she could have clearly forgot since she submitted her expense report for 3 months at one time, but the other employee submitted hers on a monthly basis.

By: JVN

JVN — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:59:59 +0000

Shayla,

I’m curious why both of the two who claimed mileage are gone. Surely the one who actually drove was entitled to mileage? Was the driver in on the false claim of the person who rode with them?