He Paid Bail With the Company Card [The Bad Hire Ep. 7]

00:00:00 Ever made a bad hire? Had an interview spiral into chaos? You're not alone. These stories can be hilarious, shocking, and sometimes downright painful. Welcome to The Bad Hire, the podcast that pulls back the curtain on hiring going wrong. I'm your host, Ken Monroe, and I work with companies every day to help them hire smarter and avoid costly mistakes. Each week, we'll dive into real stories from HR leaders and recruiters and talent pros who've lived through the worst of the worst, from nightmare interviews to first-day disasters. You'll hear it all, because behind every bad hire,

00:00:41 there's a lesson worth learning. All right, well, welcome to the show. This is The Bad Hire Podcast, and welcome, Emma. How are you doing? Good to have you back. Good, how are you? I'm doing great. And, Lindsay, it's your first time on the show. Welcome. I'm excited to have you here. I think you've been in the industry, in the recruiting industry, a really long time, and probably have stacks of bad hire stories, and a bunch of wins, too. So tell me a little bit about your background. Where did you start? You've been a long time ago. I had to throw it back like 20 years. But, yeah, I started in kind of the agency space and evolved through, you know, industrial manufacturing, corporate, and a little bit in between.

00:01:22 Okay. And so you've been in sourcing, run a full desk, been over in corporate. I happen to know that you've been involved in a ton of big integration projects, putting in HRS systems and talent acquisition systems. So, you know, you did that, I think, globally over... I did, over a number of years, and, you know, led great teams, you know, bringing in great talent, you know, running everything from the sourcing, the screening, the hiring, all the onboarding and, you know, background checks. Right. So suffice to say, tons of recruiting experience. So some of these stories will probably ring true to you.

00:02:03 So just before we get started, though, to remind everybody, submit your stories. We'd love to read them. We've got a contest going this season. It's $10,000 to the winner of the contest. You submit your stories online at thebadhire.com. Check out that page and then submit your story. We'll read it. Our producers will look at it, and the best story of the season wins $10,000. So we look forward to reading your stories online. If we get your story, we like it, we may reach out to you. Our producers will reach out to you, see if you want to come on the podcast, tell your story or others, and just hang out with us for the day as we shoot the show. So submit your stories. All right. So let me get started.

00:02:44 I've got the first story. You ready? Yeah. All right. Here we go. All right. The boss goes into the office of one of my dad's coworkers to discuss some kind of technical issue. They disagree about the proper corrective measure. It escalates into a screaming match, and the boss fires the coworker on the spot, tells him to take off his stuff and get out. The coworker comes back the next morning, just like nothing happened. So nobody's really sure what's going on. And since the boss had to go out of town for a meeting, they can't get hold of him to ask, hey, should he be here? He doesn't seem to be causing any problems though. So they just kind of do their thing and leave him alone.

00:03:26 The coworker keeps coming in and doing work. And a couple of days later, the boss walks past his door and does this kind of like double take. Hey, didn't I fire you? Without looking up from his desk, the coworker replies, you can't fire me. I have too much work to do. The boss thinks about this for a minute, shrugs and walks off. The dude kept working there for another couple of years after that. It's like an HR nightmare. He was just like, whatever. Right, just come back. Okay. You're fired. Uh-huh. I'll see you tomorrow. He didn't really mean it. Yeah. He was just kidding. It was spur of the moment. Yeah. I guess, I wonder if he ever,

00:04:09 I assume they didn't have the screaming match again after that. So, I don't know. Lesson here, persistence. Sometimes beats policy. Maybe he forgot that he screamed at me yesterday. Right. The boss went out of town. I don't know. I think, you know, my kids are like that. I think they just ignore me and, you know, take their keys away from them or something. And they're like, right. I'll just grab your set. Yeah. Just take your car. Oh my gosh. All right. So, next. I worked at a company that was going through layoffs. Oh, geez. All right. I was in HR sitting next to the girl who checked the anonymous HR tip line.

00:04:50 That's the third-party company, you know, where employees could call without being identified to report HR issues. Turns out a manager had been feeling down about the layoffs and decided his team needed a morale boost. He piled. This doesn't sound like it's going in somewhere. He piled them all in a company van and took them to a strip club. Nice. Nice. Classy. Right. There you go. As one does. Yeah. Including two women. Oh. Okay. I bet they were comfortable. The women said they were uncomfortable. Yeah. There we go. And wanted to leave.

00:05:30 He said, find your own ride home. This was literally one day after the sexual harassment training was completed. Say that course was a fail. Yeah. That doesn't sound like it was very successful. He did not listen. Much like the first guy who didn't listen to the firing, that guy didn't listen to the The top of people not listening. The sexual harassment training. Yeah. So safe to say he failed like management 101 class. Hope he was on the list of layoff terminations. I don't really hope that, but. Yeah, you do. Yeah. You have deserved it. Oh my gosh. All right. Last one and then I'll pass it off to Lynn. So I think she's got a couple.

00:06:11 I work for, um, I work for a company that produces. I work for a company that produces munitions. So background checks are required. You cannot have a felony and work around firearms. I always ask if there's anything in their, I always ask if there's anything in the background that would make them unqualified to work around munitions. Well, every recruiter does that, right? Is there anything in your past? You want to tell me about it? Have you ever been? In your hands? You ever run a live someone? Yeah. You know what you say? It's a joke. Oh, yeah. In hopes that they'll disclose something. I remember that one story you read, they were in an interview and he was like, oh, it'll be fine. Like as long as you have it on the lives of somebody, it'll be fine. And the person said, but what if I have? That's right.

00:06:53 I do remember that. I forgot. Oh, I hate my job right now. Yeah. Dang. All right. I always ask if there's anything in their background that would make them unqualified to work around munitions. Answer is always no. Until the background check comes back and they forgot they have prior felonies. I'm interviewing a candidate and ask him if he would pass a background check. And he tells me yes. And not even. That's that's kind of like a check the box rule, isn't it? I mean, like you're really not supposed to ask that question. Right. You make the conditional offer and then you do it. So asking the question actually is illegal in probably 25 states.

00:07:35 Um, he then proceeded to bike his weight. I'm interviewing a candidate and ask if he would pass a background check. He tells me yes. He then proceeds to hike his leg on my desk. He's going to pass a background check and show me his ankle monitor. Lovely. I can ask him if he has any felonies. He proceeds to say no. I give him the benefit of the doubt and finish the interview. I send the link for the background check and he completes it. Three days later, I see he's on parole for SA on a minor. Serial, serial stalking and a bunch of other things in other states. People. Please be honest when interviewing.

00:08:19 Most recruiters are not going to risk their jobs by not doing a thorough background check on an applicant. Be honest and we'll not waste each other's time, she writes. All right. You said he did show his ankle monitor? Yeah. I don't know. I felt like he was semi telling the truth. Kind of. Like, was he joking when he said no? No. This is just an accessory. It's not real. Jewelry. I know you thought this was a monitor. It's just something I wear. I don't know. But that's happened. That's happened. To you? No, not to me. Yeah. But I've heard stories from our own customers who didn't do certain types of searches and someone showed up first day of work with an ankle monitor for a federal charge and they did not search, you know, in their background check, they weren't searching federal records.

00:09:10 And they're like, why is, you know, you guys missed a record? And we're like, no, you didn't search that. That was your choice. And then they come back. Somebody shows up with an ankle monitor. You know, what always happens is they show up with an ankle monitor and that story quickly goes to some VP or executive VP who then lands on top of HR and- Because it's all the whispers in the office. So. That's interesting. Yeah. That's why recruiters double check. It's funny. You know, because recruiters always should double check because honesty is sometimes not- Rare. It's a little rare. It's a little rare. Mm-hmm. I think applicants lie. All right. Before I pass it off, the bad hire is sponsored by B-Checks.

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00:10:35 I'll pass it off to you. You've got- Some good ones. Okay. Yeah. Some good ones. I heard you talking about one earlier today, and I was like, okay, this could be a good one today. All right. So a VP at my company caught wind that she was going to be fired. Her secretary told her that the higher-ups were on their way. The VP told her secretary that she was going to the bathroom. After waiting for 30 minutes, they had someone go and check the bathroom, and the VP had never gone to the bathroom. She went home to avoid being fired. Oh. Does that work? Can you just- I don't- Can you just like- It's kind of like being invisible. It's kind of like the first guy who just ignored is like, I'm not going to be here for this. You can't be fired if I'm not here.

00:11:16 Yeah. You can't be fired. Yes. Yes. Now I'm going on medical leave right now. That's probably, right? Actually, I'm sick. Yes. I have to go. Yeah. So Lindsay's heard like a thousand different- Little excuses. A thousand different- I'm a medical- I'm in trouble? No, I'm on medical leave. Yeah. All right. So another good one. It says, I hired someone that ended up accidentally using the company card to pay for his bail bond when pulled over for driving under the influence. The position required driving all over the state, and apparently this person also had a suspended license. So the employee was charged with that also. And we didn't find out until the charge was on the credit card.

00:11:58 Oh. And had to investigate further. Sorry. How do you accidentally use the company card on something like that? Because you're broke. You don't have any money. Yeah. You just like, you got to pay it. You're like, hopefully they don't see it. I can see pulling it out at the grocery store by accident. If it's the same color or something like that. Yeah. But that's kind of like intentional. That happens. That's intentional. Our staff, sometimes someone uses the card inadvertently. This is all I got. Yeah. Like, oops. Oops. I paid my dentist $1,000. Whoops. You know. Yeah. That's happened. It's like one guy, the story you told that he took the company card and went to a hotel and paid for a bunch of room service. Do you remember that one? You have like a great memory for these stories. I have all this. It's sparks of memory. This reach back. It reminds me of other ones that we've read.

00:12:40 Other things not to do. Well, it's kind of interesting because, you know, in a survey that we did, we surveyed people and asked them, would you tell your employee if you got arrested? And like a six in 10 say, yeah, no, I wouldn't do that. Yeah. And every company has a policy. And we have that Chex 365 product that does continuous monitoring. And so you find out when someone's been arrested. You don't just. See it on your credit card statement. Your credit card statement is not a good monitoring system. Yeah. This comes a little after the fact. Right. All right. So last one. I once had a candidate for an intermediate level analyst brag during an interview that he used to work other jobs and play poker while working his primary position.

00:13:26 For example, for about two weeks before he was caught and got fired from both of his jobs, he would take long lunches. No one knew where he was between 1030 and 130. It's a long lunch. That is a long lunch. It turns out he had gotten a job making pizza next door at the pizza restaurant. He was working there during the rush hour for lunch. He also bragged about playing poker at work constantly. This was, I guess, in the late 2000s when online poker was still in boom or popular. I think it still is. Yeah. I was like, I think that's still a thing. He bragged these things to me as if I relatively young professional at the time would think that that was cool. Multitasking at the finest.

00:14:07 And again, like he thought it might have demonstrated his ability to multitask very well. And either way, we did not extend him the offer. Wait, this was. This is for a recruiter. And this is a candidate that shared this story. No way. Okay. So I was thinking this when you were telling the story. I was thinking that I knew someone in my. So this is a recruiter. Yep. And because the recruiter saying because I'm young, he thinks he can share this cool stuff with me and how he multi. Oh, that's funny. I think that, you know, we've got that bond. Bring common. You know, this isn't the real boss. It's the gatekeeper to the boss. Yeah. This person. Yeah. He's going to think I'm cool because I can multitask. I've got lots of skills. I can make pizza for you. Lots of skills. I can win you a lot of money.

00:14:51 Good time. So Emma, what's your stories look like today? I normally have really good ones. Yeah. Ken always says that I have good ones. Yeah. Okay. Ready? Yes. Okay. My bookstore wasn't exactly known for strict management, which meant we had some real characters on staff. Take this sweet lady, late 50s, early 60s, we'll call her Darlene. Honestly, at first, she was just kind of forgetful. One of those employees who can never quite remember how to do things, but harmless enough. Until one day, she decides it's time to show off something she keeps in her purse. Not a picture of her grandkids.

00:15:32 Not her new lipstick. Nope. Her gun. On the sales floor, customers around, staff around, gets the most normal thing in the world. Just pull it out. Stork. Right. Hey, check this out. That's it for the first one. Yeah. I know. Not as exciting as the one. Maybe one of the recruiter questions, do you, I don't know anything. Do you have concealed carry license? Do you intend to use it in her store while you work here? Because we really prefer you to. Maybe you should apply for a security role if you want to carry a gun. Oh, so what you need to send the bookstore for, but. You know. It's crazy out there.

00:16:14 Yeah. Okay. Here's my next one. Back when I was running my welding shop, I had one of those moments you just don't forget. I walked in one morning and there's this huge pool of blood under one of the saws. No one around. No one was around. I followed the trail through the shop, splattered in the office, out the door, and across the parking lot. It looked like something out of a crime show. Yuck. So I hopped in my truck to see if I could find whoever it was. A few minutes later, there he was, my brand new employee, riding his bicycle down the road. He had a bloody t-shirt wrapped around his hand, pedaling like it was no big deal. Turns out, he'd cut his thumb clean off.

00:16:56 And the wild part, he stuck it in his pocket and decided the best way to get help was to pedal 18 miles to the hospital. Phones don't work. Yeah. Yeah. Don't call 911. Don't call an ambulance. I'm going to pedal 18. An ambulance. I drive a bicycle. Yeah. I'm just, that's really shouldn't do that. But I'm just imagining holding on to the handle. Off balance. Leaning to the left. Yeah. Oh, that's sad. His first day on the job. A little sad. I would say, I would say that that hire is suspect if that guy's not sharp enough to, uh.

00:17:42 Pun intended right there. Solid. Yeah. 30. Yeah. I'm going to take a 40 minute drop. I'm going to take a 40 minute pedal. 40 probably take longer than that. How long would that take? It would probably take a couple hours. My thumb is just decaying. Right. And the boss is working. That is where I tell you, keep the, bring me some light hire. You always do this to me. Guns and blood and guts. Guns and blood. That's what you think. You want to hear your craziest story. Okay. That is crazy. That was a bad hire. Yeah. And it clearly not good. It hired him. Clearly not good with us all. Doesn't understand safety measures and not bright enough to call 911. I'm, you know. Lots of concerns there.

00:18:22 Yeah. Yeah. I'm ready for my last one. I am. Okay. This one is not as gory. Okay, good. I love the wholesome, good hearted stories. We can all agree. Good. Lack of violence coming here. Back when I worked at Jimmy John's, we had this one delivery driver who was, let's just say, not the brightest. He literally drive home with the car topper still on top of his car more than once. On our busiest day of the year, $1 sub day, he got sent to deliver food just half a mile down the road. Except 45 minutes later, the customer calls asking where her order is. By the time he finally shows up, we've already made a replacement.

00:19:02 The owner quietly pulls him aside, doesn't yell, and I'm thinking he's actually going to get away with it. But then a cop walks in, points right at him, and hauls him outside. Next thing we see, he's face first against the big glass windows, getting handcuffed. Turns out, he'd gone miles out of range, hit two cars, fled the scene with the Jimmy John's sign still on top of his car, and on top of that, cops found illegal substances in his vehicle. Lovely. Never saw him again after that. Yeah, super good hire. That's what you call firing without firing. You just, you don't even have, you just, cops took him away, I don't have to fire. I guess you still have to fire them legally, I guess, but, I don't, you don't have to say it.

00:19:43 You don't have to do the hard conversation. You're just like, bro. How would you do that in these, or when you say, where am I going to send that last paycheck? To the jail? Yeah. Which block will you be in? Yeah. Do you want that in commissary credit, or? That's all mine for today. Oh my gosh. All right. Well, that's, that's, that's kind of a wrap on episode seven. Huge thanks to everyone. Thanks, Lindsay, for being here. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you did awesome. And remember, we've got $10,000 to give to a winner, so make sure to go to thebadhire.com, check out our website, submit your stories. We'll read them on air, if they're any good.

00:20:26 And I would just like to say, Emma, please keep positive. No more. I'll do my best. Thank you. But we'll be back next week with another show and look forward to seeing you again. Thanks for tuning in to The Bad Hire. Don't forget to follow, rate, and share the show. It really helps us grow the podcast. Got a story of your own? We'd love to hear it. Visit us at thebadhire.com to submit your story or connect with me on LinkedIn at Ken Monroe. Until next time, remember, don't make your next hire the bad hire.