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The company that I work for is pretty poorly regarded, and only offers unfulfilling, boring, low-skill projects. It gets candidates to join by lying about the role and saying that they'll work on interesting projects, and then after they start revealing that they lied and they'll be doing data entry forever. We depend on them not being able to go back to their old job and not wanting to quit with nothing lined up. We also do all our negotiations verbally as "sure, after your 6 month probationary period is up you can have a 20% raise", but no one ever gets this. We tell them that this conversation never occurred when they ask later on.

I'd like to be able to somehow let candidates know during interviews that I'm being forced to lie to them. What are some good ways to do so?

Matthew Gaiser
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Butternut
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    So you want to lie to them and then tell them that you were forced to lie to them? How about just be truthful with them from the start? – sf02 Jul 14 '21 at 20:37
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    @sf02 OP may not interview alone? – Matthew Gaiser Jul 14 '21 at 20:46
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    Is refusing to interview candidates a viable option? Possibly coupled with attempting to find a new job for yourself so you don't need to be in this position anymore? – Thomas Owens Jul 14 '21 at 22:00
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    You may also want to consider if this is a company ethic you can live with, or you want to find another company with hopefully better ethics. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jul 14 '21 at 23:36
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    why don't they just recruit people looking for low skill data entry work?? – k-- Jul 15 '21 at 04:35
  • How would your company deal with a new employee who's smart and, after being verbally promised a raise in 6 months, promptly sends an email to their managers summarizing the discussion? Then, if (when the time comes) the managers "tell them that this conversation never occurred", the employee can respond, "If I hallucinated the conversation, why didn't you reply to that effect when I sent this email 6 months ago?" I guess it wouldn't faze managers devoid of integrity, but it would at least enhance the cognitive dissonance. – nanoman Jul 15 '21 at 05:25
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    Why are you working for this company if they are this awful to their people? – Erik Jul 15 '21 at 06:49
  • @Erik possibly for a chance to get back at the company for an interesting post on /r/malicouscompliance – Tschallacka Jul 15 '21 at 08:06
  • Is this verbal negotiation before or after they've accepted the job? If it were before, I'd probably try to subtly mention in an interview that they should really be asking for any such agreement to be in writing, preferably on the contract, before accepting. Personally I consider verbal negotiation agreements to be worth less than the paper they're written on, and a company refusing to put a promised raise into writing would be an immediate red flag. –  Jul 15 '21 at 08:50

2 Answers2

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You have a couple options

  1. Anonymously email them after the interview. Make a new email and send them an anonymous email warning them that the company is lying.

  2. Put bad reviews on Glassdoor. Won't help all of them, but many will read the reviews and not go to the company.

  3. Take them out for lunch/a drink and let them ask more candid questions.

  4. Warn them through a colleague who has left the company, so the information is credible but the warning cannot be traced to you. That colleague can reach out on LinkedIn or something.

Matthew Gaiser
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    2 and 4 are really good suggestions. 1 doesn't quite work because "how do I know you are who you say you are without you telling me your name?" and then once you've told them your name then it can be traced back to you and you could get in trouble, and 3 is good but not always practical depending on the format of the interview. – Ertai87 Jul 14 '21 at 21:11
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  • Find a better company to work for
    • – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine Jul 15 '21 at 03:36
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    Comment on point 2: I work for a large organisation and some of the reviews on Glassdoor are horrible. I do not recognise those at all. Point being: in a large organisation, it's possible that some parts are terrible whereas others are terrific. This information is usually missing on Glassdoor (for good reasons), which limits the usability. – gerrit Jul 15 '21 at 07:12
  • @EJoshuaS-ReinstateMonica That! Because not only is the OP in an uncomfortable and unethical position -- they are likely being lied to as well. It's a toxic environment. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Jul 15 '21 at 07:13
  • Sometimes a bad review is good - some people think they can improve the company when they see a bad review. Others might see it as - it has a bad review so many people will be put off. If they make a try, they might get the job because nobody else wants it. – cup Jul 15 '21 at 07:38