White Lie on App

MrCreosote

Interviewed a young man for a teller position whose previous experience was in restaurants. Unfortunately, he said that he left his last job due to scheduling problems and wrote that in app. I called the restaurant and was told that he was actually fired because they had a "secret shopper" in, who ordered a drink and wasn't carded. The "secret shopper" was old enough to drink, but the restaurant was cracking down on carding and had a zero tolerance policy in place, so he was let go, even though he did the rest of the job well and had no disciplinary record.
Hiring manager wants him. I think that because he lied on his application, and to me during screening, he should be ruled out. Any thoughts?

Gillian

Agreed. He would have been better off explaining the real reason then explaining why he forgot to card the customer. I expect that there isn't the need to card a customer and he would have passed your screening.

Leslie

It may seem harsh but look at it this way. I work for a company that does extensive background checks through the state gaming agency. Lying about termination would immediately get your application tossed. People need to understand they've got to be truthful. You know, one white lie leads to another.....

cebudragonlady

Truthfully, you can tell him that you were unable to verify the stated
reason for him leaving his last place of employment - as your reason for not hiring him . And leave it at that.

HRsage

If it's one thing I've learned doing this job and doing recruiting is to listen to my gut. I wouldn't hire him, especially not for a teller position. What if someone wants to cash a check and doesn't have an id? Oh no big deal, here you go. Banks have policies that are even more strict than restaurants and he couldn't even follow those, and then he's going to lie about it. If he would have been truthful about it, that would've helped, it might have shown that he learned his lesson. By lying, he is showing you he's trying to hide something and that it wasn't that big of a deal to him. I'm sure you'll be able to find someone else to fill the job soon enough.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Its too bad he wasn't honest.

But now that he has been found out, I wouldn't hire him becaus:

1)he has lied to you
2)at least one reference has indicated he has trouble following company policies (zero tolerance rule on carding).

At best he is not too bright and has an integrity problem and at worst he ignores rules and lies to cover his patootie.

Paul

ps. can you say "patootie" on this forum Christy?

System

Paul, you're in the clear with patootie.

I'm no expert on this topic, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents worth. My mom works in a bank where they've had to fire a couple of employees who weren't detail-oriented enough to make sure the person who was withdrawing $$ from an account was actually who he said he was. The real customer and the bank lost a lot of money because they didn't follow proper procedures in identification verification. Seems like the reason your prospective applicant got fired at his previous job is highly applicable to being a teller. Having said that, if he hadn't lied on his application and you could have addressed this issue in the interview, you could have gotten a better feel for how to proceed. But I'd say, since he lied on the application, he blew it.

MrCreosote

Thanks everyone, for confirming what I already knew in my heart of hearts. The hiring manager has come around, and I just dropped the rejection letter in the mailbox.

HS

In this case, I'd say go with your gut and not hire him. If it wasn't for a teller position, maybe you give him the benefit of the doubt (embarassment or whatever he felt) and say something to the effect of, "I'm about to verify your employment (even though you did already) and I wanted to be sure of 'x' (state the thing that has a discrepancy - in your case "I wanted to be clear on your reason for leaving. Or, "When I speak to your boss, he will be able to verify your reason for leaving?").

I find that if you give them a second chance, those who may have been embarassed by saying 'I was let go', will tell the truth. Those who still continue to lie, obviously you'd move on to another applicant.