I was reading a fascinating and hot-tempered discussion on LinkedIn that prompted a bunch of questions, as well as some of my own.  The question was about an applicant who received a job offer, but the company was trying to determine whether or not to rescind the offer. 

It turned out that she lied about being currently employed and three references from her previous employer verified the lie.  The truth came out when a past supervisor was asked to confirm her end date and it showed up in a standard background check.  The applicant’s explanation was that she was the sole breadwinner with three children who had been unemployed due to a layoff 7 months earlier.  She was desperate for work and knew (thanks to articles like this one from CNN) that many companies were taking the stance that they would not consider applicants who are currently unemployed, even if it was through no fault of their own.  In addition, her references were “glowing”, her skill set was strong and everything else checked out.   

Many participants in this discussion are HR professionals and the opinions were flying.  Here are some intriguing questions that were generated:

Is there room for compassion and empathy in HR? 

Should HR put the human back in human resources or is it all about policy?

Just because you have the legal verbiage in place to rescind the offer, is that the right thing to do?

Does any kind of lie mean someone is a liar or can there be exceptions due to circumstances?

Has HR created the need for applicants to lie by discriminating against the unemployed?

Are HR personnel more risk-averse than business managers?  Shouldn’t the big picture be assessed before deciding and shouldn’t that decision be a risk/benefit assessment?

What about the times HR lies to applicants?  (Everyone is happy here. We give reviews on time. We always give an annual raise of 3-5%.)  Should an applicant be judged so harshly if HR routinely does the same?

Isn’t the fact that her previous employer was willing to lie actually showing how valuable she was?

Would not rescinding mean HR has to change their hiring criteria or can these things be handled on a case by case basis?

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the many debates that took place in this discussion.  What do you think?  Have you ever hired someone who told a lie to gain employment? Do different types of lies mean different things?  Or is a lie a lie and does it mean the person is not trustworthy?  Do you automatically fall back on policy in a case like this?  Do you think companies have created this problem by refusing to consider the unemployed?  Is it black and white when making hiring decisions or is it HR’s responsibility to consider circumstances and motivation for lies?  As the economy has changed does HR need to make new accommodations?  Share your opinions and experiences in the comments.