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.

Okay everyone. Thanks for all the comments. I'm aware I should have raised this right away and I haven't handled this properly which is unlike me. I will raise with the chair now so he is aware and they can decide what to do with the information.

I would have just emailed it over to the chair.

The ship has sailed. He got the job and it’s too far down the line to raise without major fall out.

Yes you should I have mentioned something. Ideally in the email you sent the chair

Yes bad the chair didn't get back to you

But if you had put in email what the issue was they may have

Who chased up his references

Surely someone would have call your fin and got a ref for Dave and asked how long he was in the role etx

Then it would have been clear he lied

Hey @Waferbiscuit im sorry the way people have talked to you here. Do what you think is best, if you feel like it wouldn't have made a difference regardless you should just leave it. I hope you are okay

@Waferbiscuit I don't think you're fully responsible here.

1. None of this would be happening if Dave hadn't lied in the first place. Let's not forget that.

1. Interview processes normally require a panel so that collective decision making means no one person's bias/incompetence/whatever makes the process unfair. There absolutely should have been a collective discussion after the interviews to ensure everyone was in agreement as to who was going to be offered the job. You shouldn't have found out Dave had already been offered after the fact.

1. You tried to contact the chair and were ignored.

1. While I think it was an error, your decision not to say anything in front of the other panel members was clearly made in good faith as a way to minimise the impact on Dave and avoid humiliating him. As an existing employee that demonstrates a degree of consideration towards him. As this thread has shown, quite a few people 'stretch' their credentials on job apps. In most places he wouldn't be sacked for dishonesty or anything close to it and it might even be accepted. In others there may be an expectation his application would be withdrawn and a discussion of sorts to be had with him. However, I'd also expect that to be done discreetly so as not to jeopardise his future working environment. You were clearly thinking along those lines even if it all went wrong ultimately.

So stop beating yourself up and consider what you do next.

If it was me, I'd be on the phone to the chair first thing in the morning, and if that didn't work, HR. They may actually decide it's not a big deal and let things proceed. If they decide it is a problem, they can withdraw the offer. Wouldn't be the first time and as long as the job spec was well written Dave only has himself to blame. It can and should be done with only Dave and the panel/HR knowing why.

You keep making your own judgements about whether Dave would get the job, making excuses that he was very unlikely to get the job

Dave lied on his CV for an internal promotion

It doesn't matter whether YOU thought he was unlikely to get the job. He lied

You knew

You did nothing

Sort it out now and stop colluding with liars

I feel you have been bashed a bit unfairly here op. You made a mistake, it's done now and can't be undone. All you can do move forward and do what you think is best to try and rectify the situation.

What the chair does with the information is up to him. I hope you won't be punished too harshly as I feel you are between a rock and a hard place at the moment.

I would also be really bloody cross with Dave for lying and putting you in this position!!!

Hope it all goes well and keep us updated.

Am I missing something? I worked at a company for 5 years. I joined as a junior designer then got promoted to a senior designer. On my CV I put senior designer for that time period. During interview when discussing career history I'd probably mention that I joined as a junior and got promoted. But to be honest I had no idea I was doing anything wrong, I've got no idea when I got promoted, I can't remember. I'm not sure Dave knowingly lied.

If he interviewed well and was promoted to manager level then surely he was promoted because he's capable of being a manager. I think leave him alone, give him a chance, if he's not up to the job then it will soon come out.

He was an ASSISTANT, NOT an Assistant Manager, there is a difference! OP made it clear he was not in a managerial role. An assistant is a junior role and should not be mistaken for an Assistant Manager role.

Yes say something. Obviously sooner would have been better but what's done is done. If they choose to rescind his job offer due to dishonesty, the next candidate might still be available. And if they choose to keep him on, it at least gives management useful context so that they can keep a close eye on his probation period and check that he really is capable.

But to be honest I had no idea I was doing anything wrong, I've got no idea when I got promoted, I can't remember. I'm not sure Dave knowingly lied

But that's crazy

You don't say that you worked as a Manager for 5 years when it was 5 months

How is that difficult to grasp?

I think everyone lies in recruitment don’t they? He’s a brave soul to do it internally, I usually save it for external roles but he’s going to do well clearly with that sort of front. Classic example of how men get ahead of women career wise.

I really couldn’t get overly excited about this.

Agree though with others that the process sounds a bit flawed and you really should have challenged his experience in the interview.

Let it go.

It’s absolutely pointless trying to backtrack. Dave could go down any route of employment law on his side. Pointless trying to contact Chair of panel now. Honestly you cannot offer someone a job and retract that offer based on someone missing a discrepancy on a CV arguing the difference of assistant manager and manager FGS.

As stated OP should have declared conflict of interest from the offset.

One small point: you said the chair didn't tell you the top 2 candidates pulled out, leaving Dave as the next best person. Where I worked, as well as scoring against the person and job specs, we also had a final sense check question, "is this person appointable?". This was done by consensus immediately after interviews were completed. If we said yes, HR would simply work through the list of appointable people from 1 downwards, with no further reference back to the chair, hiring manager or anyone else. Sometimes you'd have 5 or 6 appointables, sometimes only the one. That would likely have been the time to bring up Dave's CV.

Also OP - absolutely not bashing you at all. It’s a classic ‘hindsight’ situation. Feel your frustration completely.

I disagree. It's easy to retract an offer.

It's fucking fraud. I'm a Doctor. Oh no, I've never been to Med School. Liar liar pants on fire. Fraud.

It’s not a medical field though is it? It’s admin where shit is fixed.

@IronNeonClasp

Nope. Lying is lying. Fraud is fraud. Irrespective of the level, dept, industry.

But it’s too late. Dave has the job. Any reflective HR intervention means HR and the 4 panel members inc OP will be held to account. Hopefully OP has all of her worries documented but an internal investigation will assume blame / point the finger…

Do you work in an organisation?

people on mumsnet are so judge-y!!!

obviously you should have said at the time, but you know that, and it doesn’t really help you now.

I think you have two options-

1, let it slide (this is what I would do). They will have judged him on a lot more than the dates he was in that role. The better candidates pulled out, he was the best candidate left in the pool, now he has a shot to see if he can do it. If he fails probation they are veeeery unlikely to look back over his application, there’s very little chance of the lie being caught and if it is, you just say you missed it.

2, if it will worry you, or if your morals tell you that you have to tell someone, then write to the chair. Say “look I’m sorry, I did try to let you know at the time but a, b, c. It may not make any difference but I just wanted to make sure you have all
the information…” and leave it at that.

good luck. It’s not the hugest mistake in the world so don’t beat yourself up.

I actually think the OP shouldn’t be demonised as done have done. Creating a paper trail around Dave would have absolutely put the kybosh on his career in the company; the OP felt she should flag the discrepancy even though he was only #3. She attempted to do so discreetly, and the Chair ignored her. As per the agreed process, she was not part of the Round 2 element, so had no knowledge of what happened next. Maybe the Chair chose to ignore the OP’s calls, and for the sake of expediency didn’t want any obstacles. Looking at the candidate, the chair, and the OP, OP is the only one of the three who has acted correctly (albeit belatedly.)

The right thing to do is to notify HR and cc the Chair saying that you are now aware an offer has been made, and you tried but weren’t successful in flagging a CV discrepancy to the Chair BEFORE THEY MOVED TO STAGE TWO OF THE PROCESS, but that you felt, as part of the original assessment panel, that the discrepancy merited noting.

that’s neutral enough, I think.

It would look badly in you if he discussed his 5 years experience in your team as a manager and you didn't contradict him at all.

If he didn't discuss it during the interview I'd honestly just let it go as it would look far worse for me than him. Not including the pertinent details in the email to the chair was silly.

I think you need to raise with HR, not just the chair of the interview panel, even if he/she is the chair of the organisation.

It's a HR issue as he's lied on his application, which is very poor judgement for an internal position. It will get out as people will talk about his excellent promotion, skipping expected grades.

Perhaps Dave was the one left standing who was at all suitable when so many of the other candidates withdrew from second interview and the job needed to be filled asap?

Plus, an internal promotion is a positive thing - I’d want to shout about that!