This Is Why You Don’t Lie in Interviews [The Bad Hire Ep. 25]

00:00:00 She thought she hung up the phone. She did not. So every applicant named Kevin received an acceptance letter. What? Everything seemed great. Then her background check comes back. Oh, okay. This is The Bad Hire, the show with the best stories about the worst employees. We fired him, of course. People are crazy. It's like an HR nightmare. Right? One bad hire stole all of it. Crazy stuff. She got what she deserved. Oh. I'm your host, Ken Monroe, and every week we dive into real-life stories from the wild world of work and what can happen when the wrong person gets the job.

00:00:41 These stories aren't just crazy. They're cautionary tales about lessons learned the hard way. Let's get started. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Bad Hire. That's the show where the best stories about the worst hires are bad interviews. So today I'm with Emma and Corey. Hey, guys. How you doing? Fantastic. How about yourself? Good. Corey was on here last... Corey was on here the last show and everybody got introduced to him as the guy who screens the talent for the show. Oh, the guest. Guest... What do you call it? What do we say? Guest coordinator. Guest coordinator.

00:01:22 Yeah. There we go. Love it. He is a coordinator. How did our first episode go? Was it good? Oh, it was phenomenal. Awesome. Yeah, yeah, fun. Yeah. Good. And we were just... We were talking about how, you know, how many people we have in the... It was like 80 people in the pipeline of just like... I've asked to be on the show and, you know, it's... I told him, well, Corey's the man. He's going to be the one that gives you a call. He's going to be... He's going to reach out to you, schedule it, and get you booked on for a segment, I think. Yeah, so... Yeah. He did good. We're doing good. We are. Our views are...

00:02:02 How are our views to it? They're doing pretty consistent, aren't they? Yeah. They're growing? They are. They are. Oh, nice. That's good. Good job. Thanks. Puba, I don't know. We've told people before you do all the social media, right? Yes. I think last week we talked about it because... Remember when we had that story, I was like, oh, how much of this do you do? Oh, yeah. And then you asked me, oh, how much of the socials do you do? Yeah. All of it. All of it. Oh, my gosh. All right. So, listen, you know the drill. We're going to tell some stories today about bad hires, bad interviews, whatever it might be. But we want the stories to be yours all the time.

00:02:44 And so we need you to submit the stories, do exactly what you're doing, reach out, go to our website, thebadhire.com, and complete a form that says, hey, I'm interested in being on the show or submitting a story. We'll filter that through, figure out a way to get either the story or you onto the show. And then at the end of the year, when we're all done, we're going to look back over all the stories and we're going to pick the very best one. And, you know, whether that be a like super sad story or fun, redeeming, whatever. I think there's all kinds of stories that we hear. And then we'll give $10,000 to the winner. So I'm excited about that. And so $10,000 could be yours.

00:03:25 Just have fun. Send us a story. When does the contest end? I think at the, at the end of one year. So we'll do it, you know, all the way through to the. Oh, okay. You know, we've got plenty of time, people. Please send them in. Right. Please, please send them in. Send it in. Yeah. We're actually, you know, if we can, well, we'll have another, we'll have another segment, video segment today. We'll see. So we'll see how that goes. All right. We got to, we got to figure out how to be really great at that. But I've got a story here and I'll, so I'll kick it off. We had an interview and then made an offer to a young woman for an admin assistant job.

00:04:11 Everything seemed great. Then her background check comes back. Oh, okay. The two D, the, with two DUIs and an illegal substance conviction. Dang. Dang it. It'd be like that, you know. There it is. Yeah, for real. Yeah. Sometimes it's, well, we'll see what she had to, you know. During the interview, I had told all the candidates, there'll be a, there will be a criminal and driving record check. Is there anything I need to know? Oh, it's a deadly question. Is there anything you need to know? We get those stories a lot. She looked me dead in the face and said, nope, nothing.

00:04:54 We get those stories a lot where people were there in the interview and like, oh, like we have to run this. Is there anything I should know about? And every time they're like, oh no, you're good. And then it comes back. And then it comes back. And then it comes back. And then it comes back. And it's always like the most off the wall thing too. Right. It's like, oh, arson charge or something, or something crazy like that. And beforehand they're like, oh no, I'm good. I'm clean. So she's asked, is there anything we need to know? She looks her dead in the face and says, no, nothing. Yeah. And then, so HR calls her later to withdraw the offer. Probably for two things, right? They could probably look past the DUIs, but the look at them straight in the face and lying. It's an issue, right? Yeah. Tell the truth.

00:05:35 That might be a red flag. Yes. Maybe. It's a bigger red flag than the DUI probably. So a little later, she calls back and leaves a voicemail asking if there's anything she can do. HR tells me, you need to come listen to this. So I go into, HR comes there and says, hey, you need to come listen to this. I guess it's the voicemail. So I go into their office. We hit play. This is what happened. After 30 seconds of asking if there's anything she can do, she thought she hung up the phone. She did not. So then on the voicemail was a solid 10 minutes of her screaming at her dad. Her dad was saying, what did you expect was going to happen during the background chat process?

00:06:18 Oh, my God. She's losing it and screaming angrily. So it seemed to us like, you know, like a dodge bullet for them anyway. So thank goodness for background checks. That's so funny. Oh, I feel, don't you feel bad for that dad? Just, oh. I know. Just, you know, your daughter yelling at you. Just freaking out. Do you think she would have got that job if she was just honest? I think there's a chance, right? I mean, I'm a big believer in second chances. And I think most people, if you give them some context and you can say, you know, she just started out with, yes, I have two DUIs.

00:06:58 Yeah. And a substance abuse. And that was a terrible part of my life when I didn't have my priorities together. And since then, here's what I've done. Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. And so today I'm looking to, you know, take another step forward. I'm hoping you could help me with that step. I feel like I definitely would have helped her out a lot if she was just honest. Right? But as soon as, you know, so you're looking at, is this going to, you ask, you look at that on the background check report and you go, first thing you do is go, is this going to be a problem? And then you look and go, well, she lied about it. Right? It just, I mean, no context, didn't tell the story, didn't try to, you know, shape it in any way.

00:07:39 And it's just hope they don't see it. That's not really a good strategy. I was just about to say, like, it also just goes to show, like, there's a lot of people that, like, don't know what will show up, if it will show up or if it won't. Right. You know, like they get the charge and they're like, oh, they're not going to see that. Like, it's gone now. Yeah. Like, whatever. But. Whew. Well, key takeaway is hang up the phone after a call and don't get a dad. Please make sure you hang up and also don't lie. Oh, God. She was probably so furious, you know, and just so distraught over it that she was just like. Yeah. Just, yeah, went out of her, didn't, didn't it. I don't know. Feel, feel bad for her.

00:08:20 Yeah. Good luck on the next one. Before we dive back into the chaos on the bad hire, this episode is brought to you by B-Checks. Hiring shouldn't feel like rolling the dice. Background checks should come with great tech, seamless integration, and customer service that delivers. That's B-Checks. Lightning fast results. Unmatched accuracy built in fraud prevention. We help you hire the right people. Now, B-Checks plugs into over 100 HRIS and ATS systems. So your background checks run smooth, fast, and backed by top-level service. Protect your team. Protect your reputation. Protect your sanity. Go to B-Checks.io.

00:09:00 That's B-C-H-E-X.io. All right. So we got a, we got a Riverside to react. Well, we have, we've got a segment here with, I think it's Michael Smith. Yeah. And did an interview segment with, with Nathan. So let's take a look. When I first came out of college, I went to work at a Wall Street bank and this Wall Street bank, they had a management training program. The idea was bring you in, train you up and you'll manage, you know, groups and stuff. And it's on the operation side, not the glamorous. So we're down there working away in the basement of the bank, but they would put you in charge of a group. So I had a group called Bond Redemption. I had a staff of 35 people.

00:09:43 And I mean, these folks were just working, pounding away every day. Well, I had this one young lady who just quit coming to work. She was very nice when she'd been there, but then she quit coming to work and I make calls and all those kinds of things. Can't find her. Can't find her at all. The HR lady's like, here's all the things you have to do. So I'm going through an endless list of all these documents I have to get together and things I have to document going forward. It did all that. I'm just sweating bullets. Cause I'm like, I got to get rid of this person. I'm going to destroy their life. She actually came eventually. Long story short, ended up firing her. Fast forward to about six months later, I was up at one of those branches and lo and the hole behind the counter is the lady I had fired six months earlier.

00:10:25 I was nervous, but she came over to me, gives me a big hug. Oh, you know, how you doing? How's things? How are these people? Turns out she went on a Coke bender for about three weeks. You know, she party, party, partied. She comes back to work, confesses that that's what she was doing. The bank goes, not a problem. What we're going to do is we're going to put you in a rehab program. And then brought her back, gave her the job at work, changed her life. You know, meanwhile, I'm over here going, I've ruined this person's life. You know, so it actually is probably the best thing that ever happened to her, I guess. Oh my gosh. It's actually a really good story. I love it.

00:11:05 I love hearing great stories of, of redemption. And I love how Michael is like, in there, he said, I'm going to ruin her life. And you're like, you know, when you hear that, you're like, what is it? Is he like, is he going after her? Yeah. Coming to work for him? Sounds very ominous. Yeah, it did. Really, it did. But he's really saying. Yeah. It's like, oh no, I don't, I don't really want to fire her. I feel bad. I feel terrible. Yeah. What a good dude. You know, he's like, she's making his life hard because he's, you know, trying to manage with people and he's chasing her around and, and he's, he's worried, you know, about, about her and, but what a good story.

00:11:45 And, um, I love that about the, I love that about the bank, you know? Yeah. Um, some, you know, HR organizes a way to try to intervene for people and, you know, some people, some people are worse than their bad, you know, some people are worse. Everyone's worse. Everyone's better than their worst moments. Right. You know, and so, uh, I think that's very cool. Yeah. That was a good one. Great story of, of, uh, redemption, I think. And, and, and, and how a company can actually be an advocate for an employee. I think that's cool. Yeah. All right. So Emma, what's up? All right. Uh, word is you have a story today.

00:12:27 I have two. Oh. They're kind of short though. So I mean, whatever. Okay. Here's the first one. During an interview. I asked a woman, one of my favorite questions. Tell me three things that are out of your comfort zone. She thinks for a second and goes talking to people, using computers and phones and learning new things. Folks, this is a call center job. You spend all day talking on the phone, all day on a computer, and you're constantly learning new systems. She knew exactly what the job was. We had talked about it on the phone, like beforehand, before coming into the interview, all of that. She also had zero experience in the medical field.

00:13:09 And this was a medical call center. So really like, like double, like double whammy there. So she already knew there would be a steep learning curve. And at that point, I stopped the interview and said, I don't want to waste any more of your time or ours. And then I asked her, why are you here? And she goes, it's required for unemployment. So I told her, in our state, you don't actually have to interview to meet that requirement. Please don't waste people's time like this in the future. And that's, that's the end. That's the end of the story. That's hilarious. That is, that is a, like, just a conundrum where you're required to go, but they really

00:13:49 don't want a job. You know, it's like, she's made up her mind clearly she didn't want to. Or, um, or she, or she's got to go regardless of who's going to interview her. It's like, it's not what I want, but I have to get an interview in. Yeah. You know. I just think it's so funny when we get stories like that of people that like apply for the job and they are completely like not qualified for it at all, or like don't like any of the requirements of like what you have to do for the job. Yeah. My question is how'd she get there? Yeah. Right. She must've written on her resume, you know, like the perfect resume. Yeah. Remember that one? Well, we read this story one time of this person that applied for, um, this one specific

00:14:32 job of how they're like scared of the dark or something, but the job was for a night security car position. It was, it kind of reminded me of that a little bit. Emma's like the, Emma's like the story malt. Right. Like she remembers every, you know, she's like, remember this story? And I'm like, no, don't remember that. Cause we've looked at such any, but she does. She remembers like, she's like, got this like perfect memory. All right. So you got another one, don't you? Yeah, I do. Let's try it out. All right. Here we go. Years ago, I was overseeing admissions for a highly competitive university department. We received an enormous number of applications for very few spots. Every decision mattered and the process was tightly controlled.

00:15:15 One year an assistant we had recently hired was tasked with sending out acceptance emails. Somewhere along the way, they accidentally filtered recipients by first name instead of acceptance status. So every applicant named Kevin received an acceptance letter. What? Every applicant named Kevin received an acceptance letter because when they sent out the emails, you can filter them by different things and they filtered it by first name instead of the status of their acceptance. So if your name's Kevin and you failed the thing, it turns out you got, you got accepted anyways because of this mistake made by the. I mean, someone broke it in our acceptance. I'm not sure, but since it was highly competitive, they had a bunch of applicants.

00:15:59 And so I'm assuming there was quite a few Kevins. I don't know. It doesn't say. But I really, I realized the mistake almost immediately after the email went out. There was no recalling them. So I stepped in and sent a follow-up explaining the error, clarifying everyone's actual status and apologizing. Thankfully, all of the Kevins were incredibly understanding. Some even. Because you're all still hoping to get in. Maybe if I'm nice. Some even responded with jokes. It was embarrassing, but it turned into a teachable moment about systems, safeguards, and the importance of double checking before hitting send. Yeah. Dang. Yeah. Good story. Always check before you hit send. I mean, there are worse things you could send.

00:16:42 Than accepted. Yes. There are definitely worse things you could be sending. My guy tells me there's already been a story. Sometime we've told previously, she's going through her database right now. Oh, I already have one in my brain. So yeah, I just didn't know if you wanted me to bring it. Who sent something. I just didn't know if you wanted me to bring it or not. Yeah. Or Kevins. I know. That's. I bet there's a. I actually bet there's a ton of stories of. There definitely are. People who. So sorry to all the Kevins everywhere. All right, Corey. Emma. Thanks. Yeah, really. Good stuff. All right. So about 35 years ago, I was training a brand new midnight security officer at a large Hilton hotel. It was his fourth night around 3 a.m.

00:17:24 And I was walking him through the fire alarm system. We were all at the pool station and I had it open to show him how to replace a glass rod if I ever, or if it ever got activated. I explained how the whole thing worked and asked if he understood. He nodded. Oh boy. Here's where I messed up. I nodded back and tilted my head toward the exposed switch, meaning got it, not touch this. But I didn't say a word. He looked confused, looked at me again, and I nodded one more time. And I gotta stop nodding, man. Why do you keep nodding? Why is he just nodding and not saying anything? I keep nodding myself every time you say it. I'm not nodding. Like you're the trainer. So next thing I know, he flips the switch.

00:18:07 Fire alarm activated. My stomach dropped. I immediately radioed the switchboard to report a false alarm, but it didn't matter. The system was hardwired, hardwired to the fire department. Minutes later, five fire trucks came screaming down the street, lights and sirens blazing. I watched my trainee sheepishly explain to the fire captain what happened, then led a full crew of firefighters to the pool station. The captain told us he'd never seen someone activate an alarm during training in over 30 years. Thankfully, the system was too stage, so the hotel alarms never sounded and the guests

00:18:48 weren't evacuated. So I guess that's good. Yeah. Though plenty of the people asked about the fire trucks the next morning. I didn't fire him. And in fact, he stayed for years and eventually became director of security. But from that, from that night on, I learned to, I learned a very important lesson. When you're training someone, never communicate with nods near a fire alarm. I was just about to say, like, I wouldn't even call it a bad hire. That's just bad on your part. Yeah, really. I was still there nodding at him. You're a bad trainer, dude. He's just like, you guys like reach it towards it. He's like. I'm sure the other guy was kind of confused. Like, is he really telling me to pull the alarm? I'm really confused right now. But also, he probably should have spoke up and said, do you want me to pull this or no?

00:19:30 But I mean, whatever. You got to be careful when you're two stoic dudes that are. What's up? You know. Just smile and wave. You know? Just smile and wave. Imagine you're the people inside, too. They're like, fortunately, it didn't, like, go off through the whole building. Oh, yeah. But, you know, you're laying in bed and you look down. There's, you know, five fire trucks down below your building. You know, all these firemen running around your leg. Like, don't worry, guys. It's not even drill. It was just. Right. It's not. It's just. It was literally just an accident. Yeah. I don't know. That's funny. That would probably get me up. That's funny. It's a good story on training. I guess, in training, right?

00:20:11 Yeah. Well, that's it for today. So, you know, hey, thanks for listening to The Bad Hire. We love it. We love doing it. It's fun. And we really love your story. So, send them in to thebadhire.com. Get a chance to win $10,000. Would be really cool. And you'll get a chance to meet Corey when you fill out the form. He'll reach out to you and schedule that you'll be on the show like Michael was today. So, we appreciate it. All right? Like, share, you know, repost, whatever you can do to help us get the word out on The Bad Hire. We would appreciate it. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye.