Should we fire the EXCELLENT EMPLOYEE who lied on his job application? (license, average)

[Jason_Els]

Bottom line: As an officer of the company you have to weigh if the benefit of his presence outweighs the liability of his lie.

Great employees are tough to find and replacing an excellent one can cost you a lot of money down the road.

What I would do:

Review the background check and see if there's anything else he's done that's questionable
Review his work record and then do a brief cost/benefit analysis, ask HR how much replacing him would cost and add that to your budget figures. Determine the total cost of termination versus the total cost of keeping him. Be sure to include projected productivity as well.

If he really is valuable and has acted ethically at work, gets along with others, and shows promise then I would keep him, particularly if he's young. His temerity shows ambition. Motivated employees are also hard to find.

I don't believe in draconian, "zero tolerance," policies. I have seen them in action in other companies I have worked for and I've seen good people thrown out for the silliest reasons imaginable. While this isn't a silly issue, I think we need to realize that employees aren't robots and sometimes make mistakes.

Another issues is that because you can't discuss the reasons for his dismissal with other employees, his coworkers would see a great guy who does great work getting sacked for some mysterious reason and the effect can be to alarm his coworkers who may then seek to jump ship or believe the company made a bad decision. The loss of morale could result in lower productivity or even more personnel issues.

What you cannot allow is for him to get away with it. Talk to him about why he did what he did. It's obvious he REALLY wanted this job so that should be a good sign in itself. Give yourself a nice long conversation. Turn on all your BS detectors and use the wisdom of your years in business to determine what the right thing is to do. Listen to your gut and your brain.

My view of running a business is that the more employees realize that they're not just cogs in a machine, the more and better work they will do. My first real job I had a great boss. We did market research and had to approach, qualify, and interview people for all kinds of things ranging from paint colors to maxipads. It was daunting work. Some days you did well, others people practically spit on you. My boss however, was always supportive, always was fair and flexible, and made us feel like we were a small family who depended on each other to get the job done. She listened to suggestions, trusted us to do our jobs and encouraged us to take pride in our work. The effect on productivity was stunning. We were continually the top ranked office in the company.

Other places I've worked were full of policy drones who couldn't care less what anyone thought, by-the-book, and robotic. These were depressing places where everyone did the minimum just to get by and couldn't keep people for very long. Don't be one of those managers.

If you decide to keep him then follow HR-established reprimand procedures for severe infractions but do tell him that you are keeping him because of his performance at work and if continues to do excellent and honest work, then there's no reason this event couldn't be discounted in the future.

Barring anything unforeseen, I'd give the guy a break, if the interview goes well, but just this once and then don't hold it over his head. If it works, great, you've kept a good employee. If it doesn't then you're faced with replacing him later rather than now.

[deerislesmile]

I'd ask him to explain it anyway- just because I would love to hear the answer on this one!, and then tell him that you would take it into consideration and meet with him in a week (or day..hour?) to discuss further action.

[jhlcomp]

Your superstar employee should be fired. Why? Because of what he did. And, right now, what you may be seeing is a superb acting job.

We had such an employee - he could walk on water, was available 24/7, we just couldn't believe our luck, and then one week we started seeing some subtle changes and then within a month everything unravelled. The star employee was an alcoholic, had numerous DUI's, etc. Then one night, from a bar, he called my husband and I at home. He was totally smashed and virtually incoherant as he lambasted us. My husband and I were shaken to the core. Superstar employee then informed us that he was taking off for 4 days and he would be into work the following Monday.We collected ourselves, drove to our office at midnight - had the locks changed. Then my husband secured and changed the passwords to all of our remote servers which Superstar employee had access to as well. Once everything was secure, we called Superstar employee and fired him.

[Padgett2]

Reminds me of a great employee we once had. Great personality, very capable. His was a hard worker and we felt we were lucky to have gotten him. It was when he asked to get off to go to court that we found that he had fudged a little on his application. He also forgot to mention that he was suing a previous employer for discrimination. Nope, we didn't want to risk that. We walked on eggs for the next few months until he found a job that paid more.

You want to be able to be comfortable around an employee. It's worth a lot not to have to check behind him and fret about what he might be doing that you don't know about. I think I would worry about those government contracts too. They wouldn't be happy about having someone like him working for you if they knew it.

[emjbulls]

If he went through such an extensive lie, what it shows is someone with no moral compass.

If he doesn't see this kind of behavior as wrong, what about stealing from the company? What about not doing projects and lying about his contribution? What about if he lied that much to a client? Can you risk someone who is not ethical in your organization?

[Sgoldie]

There are a couple of possibilities here.

He may have been trying to fill in the blanks on an employment application that didn't leave any room for answers other than a previous paycheck shown. He knew he could do the job and that HR wouldn't even consider him if he hadn't had a similar job elsewhere. He may have been unemployed for a long period either thru his own onus or no fault of his.

Or, he might be covering something else up, like having been in jail or fired from a previous job for a reason he doesn't want known.

Since he has been a good employee for longer than a short period of time, I'd sit him down and tell him you have every reason to fire him. But, I would instead condition his further employment on a thorough background check for which he would agree in writing with no promise of outcome.

[Hungry For Cheese]

I would sit him down and tell him you found out. Make him take a drug test on the spot and have a very thorough background check performed. Ask him why he lied and if he is hiding anything.
Maybe he is young? I mean I can understand a young person needing to impress in order to get a job. But at the same time is does show what he is capable of doing. I would do what I mentioned above, give him a week off and sit down with the head honchos and have a meeting and possible vote.
I am real 50/50 on this.
GL

[Dingler]

I and some other managers sat him down and had a long talk. He came clean but begged for his job.

He claimed that he had chosen some bad fits in the past and had been fired twice due to a poor fit. He had no references so he was unemployed for almost a year. His job search being honest had been fruitless. He was broke and desparate so he decided to lie. His past had really turned him into a better employee because he told him self that if he ever got another job in his field again he would be the model employee, which is what he is.

As a Human Resources professional I can relate to his problem. I see many bad managers eat up and spit out their employees just because they have a different personality. I see the results of a bad fit all the time and the end results are not pretty. I can also see how in a competitive job market people who were fired from two jobs in a row can have an almost impossible time getting a job. But...........

We let him work through the week and a decision will be made on Friday.

[Lisa_from_Debary]

Originally Posted by Dingler

I and some other managers sat him down and had a long talk. He came clean but begged for his job.

He claimed that he had chosen some bad fits in the past and had been fired twice due to a poor fit. He had no references so he was unemployed for almost a year. His job search being honest had been fruitless. He was broke and desparate so he decided to lie. His past had really turned him into a better employee because he told him self that if he ever got another job in his field again he would be the model employee, which is what he is.

We let him work through the week and a decision will be made on Friday.

I personally would want to know what really happened at the two jobs where he was fired. I was fired one time and I feel I did nothing wrong...I think a reasonable person would think the same if they heard the story...the office manager quit the same day she thought it was so unfair...however that is not always the case...unless you investigate why he was really fired then you won't know what happaned there.

[DawnW]

Ah, well, now that I know more of the story.....I would be leary.

I have been in the same line of work for 17 years and I only have had ONE horrible boss. I was not fired but I did leave and I will never use her as a reference. She is so moody I don't really know what she would say if they caught her on a bad day! But it is fine because I have several other great references.

So, the fact that he has NOONE really to give him a great reference......that would concern me.

Dawn

Originally Posted by Dingler

I and some other managers sat him down and had a long talk. He came clean but begged for his job.

He claimed that he had chosen some bad fits in the past and had been fired twice due to a poor fit. He had no references so he was unemployed for almost a year. His job search being honest had been fruitless. He was broke and desparate so he decided to lie. His past had really turned him into a better employee because he told him self that if he ever got another job in his field again he would be the model employee, which is what he is.

We let him work through the week and a decision will be made on Friday.