The last several weeks we’ve been working with a candidate (we’ll call
him Bob) with whom I sent to a client. I’ve been endeavoring to fill this position for many, many months. This client, a very good one I might add is on the extreme end of being “selective “when it comes to hiring its management talent.
When I uncovered Bob, it did not take long for me to come to the conclusion that he was simply the most talented manager I had ever sent to my client and I knew they would be thrilled. He was interviewed several times by my client and they were more than thrilled--- they were ecstatic !
Back when I first interviewed Bob, and in my subsequent conversations with him, I’d ask Bob a very simple question: Are you currently employed ? He answered “Yes.”
During the several interviews my client had with Bob, he would be asked, “Are you currently employed? “ He would always answer, “Yes.”
Early last week we are at the offer stage and preparing to fly him to my clients corporate HQ to close the deal. My client does a background check going back 15 years on Bob. Everything he told us about himself and his stellar work history was absolutely true……except for one little thing:
· With all the opportunities Bob had, he never conveyed to me or my client that he had in-fact resigned his position with his company. He never gave us any “indication” of such as he always spoke as if he was still reporting to work every day, though he never actually said it in those words.
Sure enough, when the background check was returned, it was only then that we discovered that he did in-fact resign from his well paying position !
When Bob was confronted with this newly found information his response (paraphrased) was, “Ok, I should have told you I resigned, and for that I am sorry. I am embarrassed about it, but I didn’t lie to you or your client as when I resigned, I still had 3 weeks paid vacation on the books and therefore I was “technically” still employed there.
When I talked with my client, they said, just as I had to Bob, “You had plenty of opportunity to tell us you resigned, but you didn’t and now your credibility is greatly in question. Had you just told us the whole truth, it would not have been any big deal.” Then the client stated that this deal is in all probability good as gone.
In Bob’s mind he truly believed he was employed by that company due to the fact he was still on paid vacation. “Technically” Bob would have been correct. Obviously though, the way he went about playing word games with us in the end robbed him out of a $ 94,000 starting salary BEFORE bonus, immediate benefits, a chance to enjoy a paid relocation to a part of the country that he and his wife always wanted to move to and lastly belong to a company that has never had a lay-off.
We all recall Bill Clinton’s infamous comment, “It depends what you mean by sex.” In Bob’s mind he believed, “It depends what you mean by currently employed. “
Although Clinton was impeached, he for all intents and purposes got away with being less than truthful. The former president probably was embarrassed; although remorseful is something we’ll never know. In Bob’s case, I believe he is both embarrassed and remorseful, but Bob is no Bill.
Mark J. Haluska
Founder and Executive Director
Real Time NetWork
