Colleague lied on CV/at interview and got job - do I say anything?

[Waferbiscuit]

A member of my team, who I will call 'Dave' applied for a role as a Senior Mgr in a different arm of my organisation. I sat on the interview panel (but not the chair) so was 1 of 4 people reviewing and scoring the applications. Panel members scored Dave highly and he was invited to interview.

Dave has been in my team for 5 years in a relatively junior/asst role. He is very good and we get along well. In the last 3 months he was upgraded to a management post, which was a big jump. So to be clear he worked for 4 years 9 months in a Asst role and 3 months as a Manager.

On Dave's CV he stated that he worked as a Manager the entire last 5 years. He never stated that he was an Assistant, he just put Manager on his CV with dates covering the last 5 years. I was very surprised to see this on his CV as it suggests he's much more senior than he is. However, I didn't want to 'out him' to the whole panel as a liar (because it would have repercussions on his reputation and future opportunities) and so I asked to talk to the Chair privately about it after the interviews. Dave did well in the first interview but came in tied for 3rd so I didn't think he would progress further. However I still asked the Chair for a conversation in private.

The Chair didn't contact me despite me asking for a call a few times, specifically saying that I wanted to talk to him about Dave. And as agreed the Chair set up second interviews with different panel members. Turns out a number of people pulled out of the interviews and Dave ended up being invited to interview and was their first choice. Dave got offered the job. Dave agreed to the job, contract is signed and Dave has resigned from his current post.

I can't change that Dave has been offered the job but (a) do I say something to the Chair or (b) do I say something to Dave? I appreciate that it's a done deal but I do feel lying isn't on and doing so put me, as a panel member and his manager, in a difficult position.

What? I'm interested to know in which sector an assistant is almost a manager.

This is why men get promoted and earn more money. He's taken a punt. He'll sink or swim.

In support of this, if Dave knew OP was going to be on the panel, why would he have falsified his CV given that he couldn't foresee the OP wouldn't do anything?

The Chair of the panel seemed fairly desperate to get the role filled so even if I had been clearer about Dave's experience I'm not sure if it would have made a difference.

I suppose one question is, should I say something to Dave?

^Is the chair going to thank you for this 😣What’s the worst that can happen?! I’d probably say something to Dave!

You need to speak up pronto or it will look like you’re complicit in Dave’s lie.

I’ve chaired interviews before and this is the sort of thing I would expect someone on the panel with insider info to raise at the interview stage.

You didnt speak up at the time when you should have, as an interview panel member. You didnt. So report him if you want, but it will reflect badly on you too.

Dave didn't know I was going to be on the panel when I applied for the job. So I think he thought it was okay to be a bit wide of the mark on his cv as no one to check him.

I too can't believe you never chased chair again, emailed again for an urgent meeting, contacted HR immediately.

I would email the Chair and cc in HR, so that there is a paper trail. I would make the email detailed enough so that it was very clear exactly what had gone on.

Exactly this. I'm amazed how poorly you've performed.

that I was making quite a big claim

You weren't making any kind of claim

You were staring a fact - that he has misrepresented his role & therefore level of experience. It speaks to a lack of integrity (on his part) so you absolutely had to say it.

I'm still flummoxed that you sat there allowing the scoring to proceed without saying anything.

If he’s good and you think he can do the job then I’d just leave it now and chalk it up to experience.

Now that he’s accepted the job and resigned, what would happen? Would he automatically get his old job back or are you leaving him without a job?

I’m not defending him but he won’t be the only one who embellished their CV. Especially as it’s more of a fudge or exaggeration than an outright lie.

Move on and be more careful on the next panel.

So I did chase the chair but wasn't as aggressive about it as I should been because I didn't think Dave was a contender. He was the third choice. I didn't even think he was going to be invited to interview. In a way I thought the issue was resolved by Dave not being a good enough candidate to get to interview. The chair of the panel did not tell me about the other candidates pulling out, as I think he was too busy. At that point I would have told him about the errors on Dave's cv.

Agree with this ^^

I cannot believe that the OP said nothing as soon as Dave was out of the room - or even before when the application was being considered before the interview. I've interviewed lots of people for posts and I would have spoken up under these circumstances, at the time

Email HR tonight. Factual. Brief. Available for further clarification.

Thanks @EarringsandLipstick Everyone on Mumsnet is so quick to say how shit others are. I wonder what you would do in this situation.

Do we not all fluff up our CV? I know I try to make things sound more fancy than they are.

Good on Dave I say. Do whatever you can to get ahead in the world as long as your not hurting anyone.

No, there are zero lies on my CV.
There's no need for them.

When you interview you can't panel people who you don't think can do the job.
Because if they are on a panel, there is a chance they could get a job offer.
Last interviews I did, the chair reminded us that only those who you would need happy to see turn up Monday should be panelled.
Surely references were checked before job offer? As part of reference checking it's pretty standard to ask what role they occupied in the previous job.
This whole process was run very badly.

It was your responsibility to pull it up at interview. You shouldn’t have been on the panel if you weren’t prepared to do that.

Agree @Amara123 I did a bad job in the process but the whole thing was bad. The chair didn't keep me informed and didn't tell us what decisions were being made. I chased him multiple times and he didn't reply about something k said was important to discuss re recruitment. Just messy.

At the end of the day Dave can probably do the job but I'm pissed off that he put me in this situation and seems to think it's okay.

You should have said something at the time but you need to say something to the chair asap. No point saying it to Dave.

There are no lies on my CV, and claiming you have five years in a role you actually only have three months in is a lie.

It is a sackable offence most places to tell this kind of lie, because it speaks to your trustworthiness, or lack of same.

No @Waferbiscuit I think the processes around you were also poor. I'm not sure how much can actually be done now tbh. The chair was shoddy too. Several points where things went awry, not just you.

Is it the civil service, op?

surely the job offer is subject to references and the references will reveal the deception