I Met with an Accident

I met with an accident while I was coming to attend the interview.

If you’ve ever been involved in the recruitment process, this is one of the most common remarks made by an interview candidate. This response comes after HR spoke with the candidate the night before and received confirmation. For me, the above-mentioned response arrived at 10:20 AM for an interview scheduled for 10:00 AM, and only after further follow-up from my HR team.

Here are some of the issue’s variations:

Calls are not being taken up at all, despite HR’s repeated attempts.

‘My father was hospitalized yesterday,’ says the candidate, bringing a family member into rescue.

Candidate accepts the offer, sends all relevant paperwork, and stays in touch with HR until the day before the deadline. He does not, however, show up on the day of his joining.

When a candidate joins, he or she may be required to attend the first day of work as a part of onboarding procedure. The person vanishes after the second day.

Even more intriguing, one candidate joined, worked for a week, and then vanished. Later, the same person inquired of HR whether he could be compensated for the one week of ‘Service’ he had provided to the organization.

If you are thinking the story got over with accident narrative, hang on.

The ‘Planned’ Toothache

Another incidence occurred a few years back during my corporate stint. I was managing a team where one of the development engineer was required to make a software release to the customer on a specific day. On the day of release, she didn’t arrive at the office until 11 AM. As time passed, I became increasingly perplexed. As her boss, I couldn’t recall her leave plan. I looked into the leave application portal just to be sure, but there was no request from her. I decided to contact her to find out why she hadn’t yet arrived at work, but the phone was not answered. At 11:30 AM, I received a text message informing me that she couldn’t attend office due to toothache. Since the release was a very important one, I reached out to other developers. After some firefighting we made the release. 

It had been a long day. I was going through the WhatsApp status around 10 PM after arriving home. I noticed that the absent developer had posted a series of images headlined ‘Catching up with buddies….after a long time…that too on a working day’ at 3:00 PM. I could tell she was having a great time with her friends in the name of ‘planned toothache’. 

Two Jobs for Extra Income

Work from home has become the new normal as a result of the pandemic. We’ve been working remotely for more than a year. As much as we hear about rising work pressure, the blurring of the border between personal and professional lives, and so on, what about folks who work two jobs? In one of my friend’s company, there occurred an unpleasant incident that resulted in the termination of an employee. The reason for this is that he is conducting freelancing work during office hours, and in an area where there is a blatant conflict of interest.

The most intriguing aspect of such situations is that the individuals involved believe their manager is unaware of their actions. The majority of them believe that by acting cleverly, they will be able to get away with it. Dealing with such integrity issues as leaders and managers is quite difficult. We have every reason to believe in teammates. However, when a specific incident (the two job issue) was reported with proof, actions were taken quickly, as such things should be treated with zero tolerance. Integrity entails doing the right thing while no one is looking over your shoulder, or doing the right thing above what is convenient at the time.

I’ve seen a lot of situations when people’s integrity has been questioned throughout the years. We see it in the media when a prominent individual in a responsible position is fired for making similar mistakes, regardless of age, position, educational degree, or other factors. I’ve wondered several times, “What makes them act like this?”

Are they the dreaded “bad guys”?

Aren’t they aware that they’ll be revealed at some point?

There aren’t any easy answers, to be sure. Here are a few things to think about.

The Significance of Appearance

This way of thinking subverts common sense. In all the cases above, it’s evident that all of them want to keep a good face on the outside while having a completely different face on the inside. When what you say and what you do become diametrically opposite, an integrity issue pops up. Setting the correct example as a leader by keeping a balanced say-to-do ratio can go a long way.

Scarcity Attitude

I’ve seen folks mistake the phrase “Make hay while the sun shines” by having a grab-it-all mentality on several occasions. In India’s present job market, a greater number of jobs are pursuing a smaller number of skilled workers. As a result, concerns such as multiple offer shopping have arisen, again choosing the path that is most comfortable for them rather than completing things the right way. This might very well be the cause of the mishap stories on interview day.

It Starts at Home

I believe this is one of the most fundamental reasons for the lack of integrity we’ve seen in people, particularly once they’ve entered the workforce. I’ve recently encountered a number of parents encouraging their children to cheat on examinations because they are taken at home. There is no reason for these folks to do such things when they are well-educated and financially doing good. It will not harm their long-term career if they score lower on a class test. Encouragement of such behaviour, on the other hand, will do more long-term harm to the youngster.

Any skill can be learned via practise. Integrity, for example, cannot be taught. To round off, here’s a fantastic video to watch.