This is an old advice: don’t lie on a job interview. The reasoning goes like this: don’t lie on a job interview because you’ll get caught and id impairs your relationship with your employer. They might even fire you.
This is a really good advice, as long as you’re seeking a job. If you’re an employer, then this doesn’t apply to you. You should lie instead. Here is why:
- Your employees stay around for too long and you have to do something about it.
- Everybody else does it, so that
suckercandidate already learned how to deal with it. - They expect you to do it. Do you want them to have a delightful surprise at their first workdays? Probably not.
- Suppose you’re saying good things that aren’t true, and the new guys figures it out in his first week. Say, he stays. Gosh, you already taught him a lesson. Now he knows his place.
How should you lie?
It’s easy to forget to mention something. Technically, that’s not even a lie! Like, if the German developers just don’t get along with the Hungarian developers, just don’t mention it. Don’t bring it up, end of story. Even when they ask you about the most frustrating thing about your job. Say something like ‘twice a month the coffee machine is empty’ because it’s funny. You just need to pretend a little, and you didn’t even lie.
Say good things about your team. I mean say things you wish your team had. You have good intentions so you’ll mention really good things, like the team spirit is high. This sells well, unless they ask you further questions. So you need to have something believable, like the team has coffee together – well, twice a year, but you can skip that detail.
If the candidate tells you on the job interview that something, e.g. flexible working hours is important for them, then just promise that you have it. This is especially useful because this kind of statements will prevent them from asking further questions.
Consequences
This is the part where I take the story seriously.
The candidate is going to have a good impression after the job interview. The best outcome is that you don’t hire them. In this case you made a good impression, end of the story.
If you do hire them, then you have something to worry about: your new hire will be disappointed, soon. You’ll have to compensate for that. Otherwise they will.
Hopefully, there are some actual advantages of working for you. Those can help you keep the talent. Maybe you like to be really supportive. Maybe the salaries at your company are higher than the industry standard. Anyway, if you want to compensate for the lie, that is going to cost you some time or money.
How can employees compensate? Well, they can leave the company within a couple of months. They can work less enthusiastically. They can leave bad reviews at glassdoor. They can discourage their friends from working for you. This costs you even more.
Wrapping up
Lying can help you to achieve your short-term goals. You can sacrifice your reputation if you really want to. Just keep in mind, you’ll have to compensate for that one way or another.
tamasrev 