What would you do if you suddenly got laid off from work? Maybe panic a bit? Wallow in self-pity? Find support in friends and family? Start looking for a new job? It’s a horrible thing to go through, especially if you have bills to pay and people depending on you. But it happens often. Around 1.5 million Americans are laid off every month, according to some statistics.
One person’s world was turned upside down when they lost their job via a short Zoom call. Not knowing what to do, the person spent the next few months in denial. Keeping up appearances and pretending to be gainfully employed. They treated the layoff as a dirty little secret, going as far as creating fake LinkedIn posts. Everything changed when a recruiter spotted their lies.
Losing your job unexpectedly can come as a huge shock, and you might not want anyone to know
When it happened to this person, they spent the next few months acting as if they were still employed
“Don’t go out of your way to mention it, but don’t outright lie”: a hiring manager’s advice
It turns out the employee isn’t the only one who has been in this situation. A quick Google search reveals that lots of people reach out for advice about whether it’s okay to pretend to still be employed after losing your job.
One post on Ask a Manager reads, “In the interview… They directly asked if I was currently working at my last company, and I panicked and said yes. (My after-the-fact justification is that I am working a bunch of side gigs to make ends meet while I look for something permanent and full-time. But, still. I lied. And I feel terrible about it.)”
The person writes that after getting laid off, a recruiter had advised them not to tell the hiring company that they’re unemployed while interviewing for a job. But they feel guilty.
In response, a manager warns the poster that they could easily be caught. And should that happen, it would be a “deal-breaker.” The expert goes on to explain that when the recruiter said “Don’t tell them you’re unemployed”, it most likely meant “don’t go out of your way to mention it, but don’t outright lie.”
In other words, you advise the manager, and you don’t need to proactively announce it, but if you’re directly asked, “Are you still at your last job?” you need to tell the truth. However, she adds that what’s done is done and there is no point in coming clean now, as it will probably just create drama.
“It’s true that employers sometimes are biased toward people who are employed,” says the manager, Alison Green. “But that’s usually a case of more extremes, like they’d prefer to hire the employed person over the candidate who hasn’t worked for the last three years. Someone who’s been unemployed for a month? That’s barely likely to register.”
“When you are out of work for a long time… The question in an employer’s mind is not whether you have forgotten something, but whether you ever knew it to begin with,” adds recruitment expert, Jeff Altman.
