False information on Resume

[dlaweb]

What is the name of your state? Florida
I stated that I had a degree, which was a requirement, even though I didn't have one. I was hired and began employment prior to the completion of a background check, which later unveiled my dishonesty. However, the company was not paying its vendors, had a very poor reputation in the industry and was a terrible place to work. I resigned because of the way this company was operating. I was the 3rd person in this position in 9 months of the new divisions start up as well as 6 other estimators that have came and went due to the poor business operations at this company. Temp to hire administrative assistants would quit after 3 or 4 days due to the way in which this builder conducted itself. I received a sign on bonus and relocation bonus of $10,000 each. I signed an addendum stating that I would repay the relocation if I willingly resigned of my own will within one year. I incurred aproximately $2500 in expenses as I was staying in hotels on the west coast and living on the east coast of Florida. In my resignation letter I revealed their poor business practices, unwillingness to talk to vendors of which they are withholding at least 3/4 of million dollars. They were rotating through people in my position because they needed new vendors to provide services due to the loss of all current vendors due to lack of payment for completed work. After I resigned they uncovered my lack of a degree and are holding my last check and refuse to cover any expenses because they believe that I left because I didn't have a degree. I am back at my previous employer who knows that I don't have a degree and I have a greater responsibility for the same position. I have repayed the relocation allowance and am paying back the sign on as my intentions were not to defraud the company of the sign on or relocation bonus. I am qualified to do the work and they were already talking of me being promoted to VP of Operations after 3 weeks. Am I all in the wrong, or should they be responsible to cover the travel expenses since I resigned?

 

[BelizeBreeze]

What is the name of your state? Florida
I stated that I had a degree, which was a requirement, even though I didn't have one. I was hired and began employment prior to the completion of a background check, which later unveiled my dishonesty. However, the company was not paying its vendors, had a very poor reputation in the industry and was a terrible place to work. I resigned because of the way this company was operating. I was the 3rd person in this position in 9 months of the new divisions start up as well as 6 other estimators that have came and went due to the poor business operations at this company. Temp to hire administrative assistants would quit after 3 or 4 days due to the way in which this builder conducted itself. I received a sign on bonus and relocation bonus of $10,000 each. I signed an addendum stating that I would repay the relocation if I willingly resigned of my own will within one year. I incurred aproximately $2500 in expenses as I was staying in hotels on the west coast and living on the east coast of Florida. In my resignation letter I revealed their poor business practices, unwillingness to talk to vendors of which they are withholding at least 3/4 of million dollars. They were rotating through people in my position because they needed new vendors to provide services due to the loss of all current vendors due to lack of payment for completed work. After I resigned they uncovered my lack of a degree and are holding my last check and refuse to cover any expenses because they believe that I left because I didn't have a degree. I am back at my previous employer who knows that I don't have a degree and I have a greater responsibility for the same position. I have repayed the relocation allowance and am paying back the sign on as my intentions were not to defraud the company of the sign on or relocation bonus. I am qualified to do the work and they were already talking of me being promoted to VP of Operations after 3 weeks. Am I all in the wrong, or should they be responsible to cover the travel expenses since I resigned?

Having or not having a degree affects your legal obligation not one bit. If you had pulled this with me I would have fired you on the spot AND sued you for recovery of all monies.

 

[cbg]

They are not required by law to repay expenses. Unless you have a bona fide, enforceable contract that specifically states that they will repay travel expenses, you are most likely SOL. Whether you resigned or were fired, or who was at fault about what, has nothing to do with it.

 

[seniorjudge]

"...Am I all in the wrong...?"

Yes.

 

[dlaweb]

Obviously I knew the responses that I would get. I appreciate your input. Why is the degree so important to companies now a days, when most companies don't care if it was in bird grooming. I have heard HR people say that they feel that a person earns life experience at college. What about military experience? This is life experience. Is it because the highschools are so poor and the quality of education that a person gets prior to school? I replaced a person who worked in this position for 19 years and was very successful, but was forced out because she did not have a degree. She never had any issues with her performance, but after a public company purchased this small private one, the new HR director told her that she would never be promoted and was lucky to hold that position. Does this seem right? Shouldn't a person's performance and on the job training suffice? The majority of the students that colleges are putting out are not people with "common sense".

 

[cbg]

There is no way anyone here can know why your employer felt a degree was necessary, or if it was. There are plenty of situations in which a degree IS necessary; there are also situations where it is only preferred. There's no possible way we can know which is which in this case.

However, in this case, you were not fired because you did not have a degree. You were fired because you lied about it. It's possible that if you had told the truth about having no degree but were able to verify that you had an appropriate level of knowledge for the position, the company would have waived the degree requirement. Instead you lied. Falsification of your application is grounds for termination across the board.

 

[dlaweb]

Let me clarify something, I was not fired. I quit and in my termination letter I exposed the illegal practices that the company routinely followed. During the bidding process they handed out prices to a "preferred vendor", the accounting department would toss out the invoices of vendors and then tell the vendors they never received them. No one would answer the phones for the vendors who were calling about outstanding monies. Some vendors had never been paid, and others had 70 - 80K dollars in outstanding bills. They were told they never received the invoices, they would submit them again, in some cases up to 7 and 8 times. Obviously a contractor or supplier is not going to continue to work under these conditions, so they would walk off the job. They were going through subcontractors and suppliers very quickly because of this and because the jobs were never ready because they didn't have a process for managing the jobs either. This is only doing barely 100 homes per year. The quality was very poor and homeowners were suffering because of the high turnover of employees and contractors.

I currently handle over 2000 homes per year and deal with subcontractors and vendors without any issues like this. I know that if I would of told them that I didn't have a degree that because of my experience and knowledge that they would of overlooked this. My current employer did, even though it was a pre requisite for the job, and it wasn't until after I had asked to return that I told them that I didn't have one. But they were willing to waive this requirement because I was qualified for the job without one. I thought about telling my previous employer, but because of the lack of structure and willingness for the management to do the right thing in regards to business practices, I didn't want to keep the job, even if I did have a degree. After getting hired I learned they have a habit of starting up divisions and then closing them because they don't have any set policies or procedures for how they conduct business. I knew that they would follow the same fate, as they were already going down that path. They had never made money in the year in business or met any of the goals they had set for themselves because as they explained to me "we don't have time to plan".

 

[cbg]

You're right; you did say you resigned. My mistake.

But you appear to be trying to make the point that it was okay for you to lie because the company was involved in illegal practices. If that's what you're saying, I don't buy it. What they do is their fault. What you do is yours.

And nothing you have said changes the answer to your initial question. They STILL are not legally obligated to reimburse you for your expenses. What reason they use for not doing so is immaterial.

 

[dlaweb]

You are absolutely correct. Two wrongs never make a right. If I had been honest from the beginning I could of saved myself the headaches of learning how they operate or not. But I would of been better off in the long run. No one could have anything to hold against me.