Too Much Information

It was supposed to be a remedy for unprofessional behavior. It was supposed to be a straw stuck into the sand of the Sahara. It proved to be a backhoe dredging a backyard pond. These words may sound obscure. They're intended to be. While the heart of the circumstances need to be protected as private, it is possible to speak of them generically.

A while back, I spoke of a tempest in a teapot when some recruiter types refused to analogize a situation. There were shouts and screaming. There were put-downs, vast digressions from the topic, public and private threats. Some of the private threats came from people who purportedly hold distinctions from professional associations as well as completing work on advanced degrees. These same private threats came from seasoned professionals.

It became a concern that the words from these folk were so adamant in every regard. With the date of their advanced studies coming to a close, it seemed appropriate to contact their school and ask that an advisor go over some of the concepts that were being missed, especially the matters of harassment, bullying, and threats. A qualified human resources manager holding an MBA in HR Management from a distinguished school would not engage in such conduct.

There was first a call placed to the school main number. Without disclosing any names, there was an inquiry about the proper department to which to report the concern and request the counseling. The ethics line was not the right place to do this. Nor was the Human Resource Department.

Ultimately, the call was directed to the Registrar's office. The attendant was very patient. At this point, the name of the student was provided. The representative checked the records for one spelling of the name, then another, for one location, then another. The name was verified and checked again.

"We have no student by that name in our database," was the final answer and refusal to refer the call. "You mean for your main campus?" was the confirming query. "No, that's nationwide, for all of our campuses. There is no one in our database on any of our campuses who has ever been enrolled in our program." The news hit and fell on the floor like a lead tortilla. It took time to absorb it. "Then what you're saying is this person has misrepresented their credentials." There was silence.

The subject of the inquiry represents that they hold a PHR. They have a bachelor's degree from one very distinguished university, and are a candidate for yet another advanced degree from another very distinguished university. At this point, more questions arose. Is the PHR legitimate? Would a check with registrar's office where the bachelor's degree was earned reveal there was never any enrollment? Would the third university disclose the same situation? Perhaps these are the reasons why the person had difficulty interpreting the information, drawing analogies, and engaged in profoundly unprofessional conduct unbecoming an MBA Human Resources Manager.

What was supposed to be a request that a proposed MBA candidate receive counseling turned into an overwhelming amount of disclosure. Who was the professor at MIT who taught for more than 20 years under false credentials? And it was only until she self-disclosed that the fraud was revealed.

This is yet another reason why we should not take a reference check at face value from anyone. We are all human and not everything even a manager says is necessarily the truth.