New Hire Who Shows Up Is Not The Same Person Who Interviewed For The Job, Here’s What Happened

Everett Hanmer | November 19, 2024 8:00 pm

Going through the hiring process is never an easy thing for both the person applying and for the employer.

What do you think would happen if someone completely different showed up for work on the first day and it wasn't who was hired? Here's that story!

Her Husband Works In IT

Corporate office with cubicles and people working.
Photo Credit: Damir Kopezhanov / Unspalsh
Photo Credit: Damir Kopezhanov / Unspalsh

One woman—whose story was recently shared to Reddit—has a husband who works in IT for a midsized private company.

Her husband works on the leadership team and she decided to share a wild story that she learned through updates from her husband.

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Everyone Works Remotely

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Photo Credit: Sigmund / Unsplash
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Everyone in the company was working remotely.

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They had interviewed a number of candidates for an open position on the team. Only one of the candidates made it to the final round of interviews.

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John Accepted The Offer

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Two men shaking hands
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Photo Credit: Cytonn Photography / Unsplash
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They offered the position to "John" and he accepted their offer.

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John had been working at the company for about a week when her husband started to notice a potential issue.

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It Wasn't The Same John!

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Man with two hands on his head looking at a laptop.
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Photo Credit: Oladimeji Ajegbile / Pexels
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The issue was that the "John" who had started working for them was not the same person her husband remembered interviewing.

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This was rather confusing to him. There were a few things that he noticed that were different about this "John."

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He Now Had Glasses

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Glasses on a laptop
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Photo Credit: K8 / Unsplash
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The first observation was that this man had glasses and different hair than the man they had interviewed.

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This John could not answer some questions that were talked about during the interview and were vital to the position.

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He Was In The Garage

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Photo Credit: Lost__Drive / Reddit
Photo Credit: Lost__Drive / Reddit
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John was talking about working in his garage because of his three kids and wife also being at home.

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The desk was clearly indoors during the interview and he had talked about being single. This man was also timid whereas the man who interviewed was very confident.

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Who Was This Person?

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Photo Credit: Olenka Sergienko / Pexels
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The woman's husband was convinced that this was a different person than the one who they had interviewed and offered the job to.

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Her husband wanted to get to the bottom of it.

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Could Human Resources Have Gotten Mixed Up?

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Photo Credit: Campaign Creators / Unsplash
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She asked if maybe the hiring team or human resources had given the offer to one of the other candidates.

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He felt this was unlikely as there was only one person who made it to the final round of interviews.

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Received A Text From His Boss

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Photo Credit: SHVETS production / Pexels
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Her husband had received a text from his boss "Holly" on her personal phone.

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She asked him if he thought that "John" was acting differently than in the interview process.

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The Resumes Lined Up

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Photo Credit: RODNAE Productions / Pexels
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He told her all of his thoughts about the situation and asked if she thought that candidates could have been mixed up.

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Holly disagreed as John's resume had the same work history and credentials as the person who they interviewed.

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HR Confirmed The Offer

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Photo Credit: Gabriel Benois / Unsplash
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Human resources and the recruiter confirmed that the right person was given the job offer.

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They discovered a number of other things that were odd about John, like how he didn't know Holly despite her being in on two of "his" three interviews.

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Legal Became Involved

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Photo Credit: Sora Shimazaki / Pexels
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They decided that they needed to speak to the company's legal team to see what they thought.

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They wanted to know what their options were and when would be a good time to ask John to explain himself.

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There Were Two Options

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Photo Credit: Jon Tyson / Unsplash
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As they waited for a response from legal, they thought there were two possible outcomes.

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Either John lied about his identity, or he lied about his experience. No matter what, they felt that he would be leaving the company.

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HR Was Going To Schedule A Meeting

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Legal was not happy about the situation but agreed to let HR have a conversation with John.

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They advised that they frame the meeting as though they had concerns about him overselling his abilities.

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John's Laptop Would Be Traced

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Photo Credit: Crew / Unsplash
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Legal also wanted their IT department to get involved.

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They wanted a trace to be put on John's laptop to see if his work was being completed with a different computer or any outside help.

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Would John Become Suspicious?

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Photo Credit: Carson Masterson / Unsplash
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Her husband said that the team wondered if John would take this meeting as a red flag that they were onto him.

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They thought that he would resign and say that things just were not working out to avoid any fraud claim.

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John Quit

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Photo Credit: Dillon Shook / Unsplash
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When the call started with John and HR, John got the first words in.

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All he said was "I quit" and hung up the phone. Her husband was glad that he was now gone from the company.

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Did He Take Any Data?

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Photo Credit: Markus Spiske / Pexels
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A bigger question remained: Did John take any data from the company?

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They also were not sure if they were going to ever get the company's equipment back from John.

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John Returned The Items

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Photo Credit: ​​RoseBox رز باکس / Unsplash
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The legal team was able to get in touch with John and he happily returned the laptop and company equipment.

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The interaction was apparently friendly and professional and things were on their way back to corporate. The question still remained, though, of who this man really was.

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