Claiming degrees you dont have

[51daystoChristmas]

Hi, I have a colleague who is claiming to have degrees she doesnt have. She has two degrees on her email signature that don't match the ones on our company CVs that go out to third parties which is what led me to noticing. So I did a bit of checking and on LinkedIn she has a completely different degree listed, with the university name. So I emailed the university which is in Australia, that information is on public record there, and they confirmed that degree and date. She works on winning business for the company so I think any sort of fraud would be really bad for the company, she's worked here for 10 years though. She has recently been promoted, and is good at her job. I'm in a different team and it makes no difference to me, I was just wondering if I should let anyone know as they've just won a really public facing project. What do you think?

You sound extremely naive , in fact this post says more about you than it does about your colleague.

HR won’t be beat pleased with this information and they won’t be best pleased about your actions.

I come from a family whose present generation is awash with degrees, PhDs and post docs, and none of us feel the need to sign off emails with them. That's what's weird!

That said, if you can't be honest about your qualifications, what else might you be telling porkies about?

yup, also
OP: should I do something about this
MN: No
OP: ok going to flounce then.

Right now, the only thing HR can evidence is that you are stalking this woman. If they have this evidence from the horses mouth, imagine how much evidence they could find about you from others. You are treading a thin line.

I think you should have or someone relevant in HR should have a quiet & pleasant word with the colleague to ascertain why the discrepancy is showing up. There may be valid reasons. If not, the colleague should gently re-do her list of degrees for use now on to avoid future embarrassments both for her and for the company. There is nothing sacrosanct about degrees but they need to be stated as clearly as possible. No shame if you don't have one, more or any. She's doing a good job by your own account.

If it has the potential to negatively impact the firm, or violates your company code of conduct I would report it anonymously to HR. They can decide what (if anything) to do with the information. I work in a regulated industry and we actually have a duty to report this sort of information because unqualified people could cause massive lawsuits or in the worst case, harm or death to our customers.

I’ve had to prove my qualifications with every role I accepted as part of the hiring process. Literally send HR certified copies of my degree certificates.

Presumably your company has done their due diligence as part of hiring? It’s a very standard thing. As is looking at someone’s LinkedIn and cross checking details.

That said, universities do get it wrong sometimes. One of my universities claims I have a dental degree. 😂 I do not. I’m not a dentist. I don’t even had a clinical degree of any sort, not a medical doctor or a nurse or a dental hygienist. I don’t have degrees in or work in a field in any way even close to dentistry. I’ve tried to correct it. But somewhere like 20 years ago, someone ticked a box in the registrar’s office and they are really resistant to unticking it because I can’t actually prove that I don’t have a dental degree oddly. So I would take any public records released by a university with a big grain of salt.

Big companies never bother checking unless it’s a legal requirement.

My last one did. I had to bring in my degree certificates. They sacked a couple of people for claiming to have qualifications they didn't have. I've had to provide HCSE certificates before, two, despite having two degrees I wouldn't have been allowed to start without English and Maths GCSE...

I think it would be reasonable to ask HR if the qualifications you use at work need to match what you say you have on LinkedIn, or at least a subset. You're not obliged to be on LinkedIn though, and I don't suppose there's anything to stop you putting a complete pile of dung there - presumably ex colleagues and employers could notice, but I suspect in reality, most wouldn't do more except say something like, "remember Chris who used to work here, who was awful - you'll never believe the LinkedIn profile..."

Jesus Christ, you contacted her university in Australia? You're fucking awful.

Keep your beak out, for God's sake.

I think you sound like a busybody. Feigning concern for the company doesn’t convince me otherwise. How very petty and odd to actually email the uni. 😆

Why are you bothered? Maybe she has another degree you don't know about and isn't on company CV because she did it recently? And what business is it of yours anyway?

Even if you are correct, you have personally taken steps to run a background check despite not being asked to do this for your job role - that sounds like misconduct itself to me.

I’m not familiar with data laws in Australia, but I know with 100% certainty this is not something you would be able to do in the UK without the consent of the person you are checking out (this consent would typically be captured during job application process). I’m not sure how well the loophole ‘well it’s public information there’ will serve you in a complaint against yourself.

In your situation I would probably forget what you know unless you find a watertight way someday of exposing this without needing to share what you did!

Weird stalkery boot licking behaviour OP. Would laugh if you lost your job for crossing some very clear boundaries.

Absolutley bonkers to start emailing your colleagues university to check her qualifications when that was not in your remit and she's good at her job. I mean comparing her signature qualifications with her LinkedIn is intrusive enough.

Christ for all you know she copy and pasted a colleagues signature to make her own and forgot to change the qualification line to her own. I copy and pasted a colleagues signature when I first made mine for work (although luckily updated everything but an easy mistake to make) if you're that concerned just talk to her privately. Absolutley no need to start professionally shit stirring with HR.

If there’s multi million pounds involved chances are integrity is out the window to begin with lol

On a serious note, it would matter if it’s a job that can have serious impact and life changing consequences (ie someone passing as a doctor). Anything beyond that, that doesn’t have any real impact, should be no one’s business.

You won't get any thanks if you tell. They will think you are a snoopy sneak.

No. We are not allowed to know how the stalker knows absolutely for sure about the degrees the stalkee doesn't have. We are only allowed to know, and in full sad detail too, about how the stalker knows about the degrees that the stalkee does have.

These are the rules and if you weren't all AI bots, you would already know this. 😂

You don't like this person do you? Your actions are those of a very jealous person.

I agree with everyone saying that it’s probably more ambiguous and not a lie. I have a BA which is titled a BA Journalism by my uni. However, I did psychology as a double major and everything a BA Psychology student does in the actual psychology relevant subjects I did too. So if I told you I have a degree in Psychology you would say I’m lying but I’m not!

If it looks like deliberate fraud I'd report it. But it would be strange to say one thing to your employer and put another on your LinkedIn profile, one of them being made up, as there's a high chance that your employer will look at your LinkedIn profile. I once knew someone who had lied about their qualifications when they applied for a job. They had lied about the university they went to and lied about having a postgraduate degree. Their employment was terminated when the employer found out. I think it's very common, as lots of employers don't check.

The woman has been working for the company for over 10 years, leave her alone! She is good at her job and got a promotion. Maybe you wanted that promotion that’s why you are looking for a reason to bring her down. I’m sure this will backfire on you one way or another.

This person has worked at the company for 10 years!! Is good at their job and by all accounts the company is happy with her performance given her promotion.

It seems the degrees or qualifications are not required or essential for the role - if they were I am sure they would have been verified at the time of her hiring.

It is not your job or within your purview to go investigating other employees as you see fit!! This really is an overreach on your part OP, and this could really end up blowing up in your face. Given the facts you have outlined I don’t think this is quite the smoking gun you seem to think it is.

In your shoes I would leave this well alone!

you sound jealous of their capability to do the job- did you miss out on this promotion to them?

@51daystoChristmas - Are you okay?

I can't fathom out why you care so much, do you have a connection to the owner of the business or are you the owner?

Are you the fraudster?

This is a weird thread. The internet is alive with loonies today lol

I can guarantee that if this individual is the account lead in a competitive tender of significant value making a marked dent in the Q3/H2 number for the team, division, or geo, leadership would prefer you leave this individual alone, have her win the business and enjoy the commission.

Conversely, your motivations may be questioned by leadership which may be to your professional detriment.