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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?

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  • 2
    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, 2021 at 20:37
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    @sf02 OP may not interview alone?
    – Matthew Gaiser
    Jul 14, 2021 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, 2021 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, 2021 at 23:36
  • 12
    Why are you working for this company if they are this awful to their people?
    – Erik
    Jul 15, 2021 at 6:49

2 Answers 2

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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.

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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, 2021 at 21:11
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    5. Find a better company to work for
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Jul 15, 2021 at 3:36
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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, 2021 at 7:12
  • @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, 2021 at 7:13
  • 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, 2021 at 7:38
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Frame challenge:

How about getting out of this hellhole by finding a company that lives up to its promises?

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    This kind of advice gets said too often on this stack, but in this case, I totally agree with it. This is highly unethical and personally, I'd not want anything to do with such a company.
    – Dnomyar96
    Jul 15, 2021 at 5:39
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    He might like his job and his direct colleagues. If he's not unhappy, there's no reason to leave and he can do more good by staying and warning candidates. If he leaves, there'll be nobody to tell the truth.
    – Jemox
    Jul 15, 2021 at 7:27
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    Or even (@Echox) barely tolerate the job/team, but be faced with worse alternatives if they go for another job, e.g. a commute/relocation/shift pattern that's incompatible with their family situation in any other job with a salary they can live on. Or in some countries, if the job market is high risk, they might be better off staying on with a few years in service because they'd lose built up entitlement to redundancy pay - if they took a new job and the company finances weren't up to keeping them on after probabation, they'd get nothing
    – Chris H
    Jul 15, 2021 at 8:14

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