It isn't only candidates who stretch the truth

Dear Bob ... Why do people lie during job interviews? I'm not talking about job applicants - their motivation is obvious. But on many different occasions I've seen interviewers tell flat out lies about the company they represent. In one situation not too long ago, I was on the wrong end of a chewing out for giving an applicant an honest response to a question about whether long work hours were required. My

Dear Bob ...

Why do people lie during job interviews? I'm not talking about job applicants - their motivation is obvious. But on many different occasions I've seen interviewers tell flat out lies about the company they represent.

In one situation not too long ago, I was on the wrong end of a chewing out for giving an applicant an honest response to a question about whether long work hours were required. My answer was, not always, but we do have crises and year end is always a crunch. The other interviewers painted a rosy picture of a company that fosters a balanced life that just isn't the case in our company.

We did, by the way, end up hiring the guy. He stayed until the third mandatory weekend during the year-end close, then resigned in disgust leaving the rest of us in the lurch.

Should I have misrepresented the situation, as my boss insists? Is that my obligation as a loyal employee?

- Lost the thread

Dear Lost ...

I think you know the answer. The outcome makes it clear.

Here's the longer version: Many hiring managers are so intent on hiring the "best" candidate that they lose sight of a more important reality - that there is no such thing as best, only best fit. And part of best fit is a fit with the company culture and style.

Instead, they get caught up in the desire to make a hire, and like many unscrupulous sales representatives, say whatever is necessary to close the sale (it is, after all, selling no matter which side of the hiring transaction you're on).

Here's what they forget: The most important time to recruit employees is after you've hired them. Which is to say, while making a good hire is important, keeping a good hire is far more important. So if you won't be able to retain an employee once you've brought him or her on board, don't make the hire at all.

It will be an expensive mistake.

Does that mean you have to expose every wart in the company in the interest of fair and open disclosure? Of course not. Every company has flaws; every company has strong points (or at least most do). As a hiring manager, present the strong points as favorably as you can; present the rest in a favorable light, understanding that favorable will vary from one candidate to another.

So in the situation you describe, some candidates will be delighted to have a job where the crunch is known and scheduled. They'll see the long weeks and weekend work as less important than the opportunity to build their career.

Which makes them far more valuable than another candidate with better qualifications, but who has no interest in going through all that again, having already graduated from this particular rite of passage.

- Bob

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