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aworkman2

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? I live in PA and was fired for taking $40 from a job I worked at ten years. I am starting a new job and was hired by my resume. I did not fill out an application and was not asked any questions about pending criminal charges. I did not disclose this information. I did list my previous employer and their phone number for the new employer to contact them. I accepted the new job and start soon. What do I do if this comes up and my new employer finds out? Should I have told them even though I was not asked?
 
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ecmst12

Senior Member
Well, whether you tell them now or later, they can fire you for it if they like. But at least you haven't been dishonest (so far).
 

commentator

Senior Member
Hopefully, they will not check your former employer, will not find out, and will go on and put you to work. If this happens, and then they later without your ever having told them about the circumstances of your termination, (because you weren't asked) terminate you, you should file immediately for your unemployment. Because you did the new job to the best of your abilities and were released through no fault of your own. (Not your fault they didn't check the reference, not your fault they didn't ask you about this before hiring you.)

If they call to check reference before you are put to work, and then come back and ask you about the circumstances under which you left your last job, of course at this time you are obligated to be honest with them. Or if they call you and say they have changed their minds about putting you to work, you don't have much recourse.

Of course, if hired, you should be doing the new job to the best of your abilities, and never repeat the behavior that got you terminated on the past job. You may have received another chance from fate. Use it.
 

swalsh411

Senior Member
You couldn't be charged with any crime if that is what you are asking. If they ask, and you lie, and they find out then they could fire you and you might be ineligible for unemployment, but at least you would be gainfully employed until then. So it's a gamble between being truthful and not being hired, or lying and risk them finding out at some point in the future and then terminating you.
 

commentator

Senior Member
Not volunteering negative information about yourself or your circumstances that was not asked for is not misconduct, and will not get you ineligible for unemployment. If OP had lied on an application, which usually asks only "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" not "Did you ever steal from your employer?" then he might have done something wrong. But if they don't ask, it certainly isn't up to him to tell.

I once had a little woman client who was going around applying for jobs and on the application she was putting as reason for leaving her last, very long term place of employment..."fired for stealing." She thought that even though this accusation was false, and she was approved for unemployment, (it was simply an ugly trick to get rid of an older worker used by the former employer) that she had to report that to prospective employers to "be honest."
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
You are not required to volunteer any information that they do not request. If they don't ask, you don't have to tell. No blame attached to you for that.

However, if they ask a question to which an honest and literal answer* would mean revealing the charge, then tell the truth.

Many employers are willing to forgive a single mistake, especially if the employee is honest about what happened. What employers don't like is being lied to.


*By a literal answer, I mean exactly that. Too many employees see a question on an application (I know you said you didn't fill one out - this is an example) that starts, Have you ever, and assume that means 10 years or so. It doesn't. It means ever. If the employer only wanted to know about the last ten years, he'd have said, Have you in the last ten years.... Treat each question literally, take it at exactly face value, and you'll be fine.
 

swalsh411

Senior Member
However, if they ask a question to which an honest and literal answer* would mean revealing the charge, then tell the truth.
I don't agree with this advice in all cases. One has to weigh the chances of telling the truth and not being offered a job against the chance of choosing to lie and risking that the employer will find out somewhere down the road and then fire you. If given the choice between some income and no income what is the better option? Having said that, this is really not a legal issue since it's generally not illegal to lie on a job application.
 

eerelations

Senior Member
IHaving said that, this is really not a legal issue since it's generally not illegal to lie on a job application.
Nobody here said it's illegal to lie on an application! Where did you get the idea we said that?

And I disagree that lying on an application is not a legal issue just because
it's not illegal to do so - most OPs don't want to know whether it's illegal to lie on an application form, they want to know whether they can be fired for doing so - and that most certainly is a legal issue.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
I didn't say it was illegal. But sorry, I don't advocate lying. I know from past experience, on both sides of the desk, just how easy it is for information to fall into an employer's lap, often when they aren't even looking for it. Good thing for me I hadn't lied about anything in my history when, for example, my new boss turned out to be my father's next door neighbor, or in another case when by a series of mergers and spin-offs my old boss from one job turned out to be my new boss in another one.

On the other side of the line, I've gotten information about past and current employees, without looking for it, from vendors and brokers who worked with me and with them and volunteered it. "Oh, you're the new HR manager at XYZ? I know someone who works there; do you know Claudia Jones in Accounting? She went to work there after the incident at ABC." Ummm, what incident would that be? She didn't mention anything of the kind. And yes, that is a real-life example.

Any given industry is a small world and getting smaller every day. Far too easy for employers to learn information about their employees to take the risk. You might have an income for a short time, but after you get fired for lying, you either have to lie AGAIN, or then explain to a prospective employer just exactly WHY you lied. Digging the hole deeper. Much easier to be honest in the first place.
 

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