Computer Graphics with Photoshop - Should I fire this guy because he bought his degree from the internet?

Author

Should I fire this guy because he bought his degree from the internet?

ZergZergLOL@gmail.com

2006-01-16, 6:14 pm

Hey guys, I posted this on another board and the verdict I got was to
fire him. Since I've been lurking here for a while I thought I'd post
it here for some more advice.

A couple years ago I hired a guy named Thomas as a senior tech for a
small data center I run in California. He always seemed like a pretty
competent worker. Thomas had great personal skills, came into work
on-time, and pretty much completed projects better than any of the
other techs in our facility. He seemed like a pretty intelligent guy,
actually. On occasion I've even had dinner with his wife and young
daughter who's going through chemo. I generally consider Thomas a
friend.

The other day I invited him to my house to hang out and have a few
drinks. At one point in the evening we were shooting the shit and
talking about the worst things we've ever done in our lives. I
regaled him with a tale about how I stole expensive clothes from
department stores as a teenager and he told me about how he once sent
explicit pictures of his cheating ex-girlfriend sodomizing a toothbrush
to her parents. I laughed and passed him another drink.

I guess he was getting a little too tipsy because a little later he
related a story about how he got his college degree in philosophy. We
don't require college degrees, but we generally hire and give greater
pay to candidates with the degree over the candidate without one.
Thomas said that he bought it off the internet for $450 from some
website called "The Transnational Council" for something something. He
wrote the domain http://www.tcge.org on a napkin and said that he had
listed the degree he got through them on the resume he sent my
secretary two years ago. I've heard this website discussed on some
other message boards before. Apparently they represent universities who
grant degrees based on previous college credits, work history, and
military/life experience. Now I don't know what to do. Company policy
is to terminate people who lie on their resumes, but he doesn't seem
like that bad of a guy. The website he got his degree from looks like
what they're doing is pretty unethical since there's no coursework
involved. But I guess the degree is technically legal. Should I fire
him because he bought his degree from the internet instead of attending
a regular university?

What he did was pretty crooked. I think I'll decide to go ahead and
fire him over this. If you were his employer what would you do?

Johan W. Elzenga

2006-01-16, 6:14 pm

<ZergZergLOL@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote:

> What he did was pretty crooked. I think I'll decide to go ahead and
> fire him over this. If you were his employer what would you do?

I would fire you for posting spam in this group. Your real intentions
are to advertise this website, otherwise you wouldn't have known it so
well and posted the full URL.

--
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl
Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/

John Grossbohlin

2006-01-16, 6:14 pm

<ZergZergLOL@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
news:1137446399.006387.33240@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hey guys, I posted this on another board and the verdict I got was to
> fire him. Since I've been lurking here for a while I thought I'd post
> it here for some more advice.

> I guess he was getting a little too tipsy because a little later he
> related a story about how he got his college degree in philosophy. We
> don't require college degrees, but we generally hire and give greater
> pay to candidates with the degree over the candidate without one.
> Thomas said that he bought it off the internet for $450 from some
> website called "The Transnational Council" for something something. He
> wrote the domain http://www.tcge.org on a napkin and said that he had
> listed the degree he got through them on the resume he sent my
> secretary two years ago. I've heard this website discussed on some
> other message boards before. Apparently they represent universities who
> grant degrees based on previous college credits, work history, and
> military/life experience. Now I don't know what to do. Company policy
> is to terminate people who lie on their resumes, but he doesn't seem
> like that bad of a guy. The website he got his degree from looks like
> what they're doing is pretty unethical since there's no coursework
> involved. But I guess the degree is technically legal. Should I fire
> him because he bought his degree from the internet instead of attending
> a regular university?
>
> What he did was pretty crooked. I think I'll decide to go ahead and
> fire him over this. If you were his employer what would you do?

Unless you limit the "degrees" you accept to the those issued by
institutions accredited by the traditional accredation organizations, and
mention this upfront in the application process, I don't see where the guy
violated company policy. The policy as written is flawed in that it is
incomplete...

You would also be doing the company a disserve to fire a competent
employee--though that never stopped management before! ;~)

John

Harry Limey

2006-01-16, 6:14 pm

"John Grossbohlin" <grossboj.nospam@nospam.earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:LZUyf.8336

You have just replied seriously to someone who has spammed over 10 other
newsgroups with the same spurious story designed to get you to visit and
read a website, you also posted the spam message itself with the link
intact! and ironically you have 'nospam' as part of your email address!
Well done!!

John Grossbohlin

2006-01-16, 10:17 pm

"Harry Limey" <harrylimey(at)Lycos.co.uk> wrote in message
news:43cc22d0$0$1477$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net...
>
> "John Grossbohlin" <grossboj.nospam@nospam.earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:LZUyf.8336
>
> You have just replied seriously to someone who has spammed over 10 other
> newsgroups with the same spurious story designed to get you to visit and
> read a website, you also posted the spam message itself with the link
> intact! and ironically you have 'nospam' as part of your email address!
> Well done!!

Oh well, one cannot know all the spammers personally!

The topic caught my attention as it showed up shortly after I had a similar
discussion with academic and business associates...

John

NowhereMan

2006-01-16, 10:17 pm

<ZergZergLOL@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
news:1137446399.006387.33240@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hey guys, I posted this on another board

It's an advert for the poster's own company. Me thinks Guido is gonna visit
this perp and break his legs. Real Soon Now.

Harry Limey

2006-01-17, 6:14 am

"John Grossbohlin" <grossboj.nospam@nospam.earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:19Xyf.719
> Oh well, one cannot know all the spammers personally!
>
> The topic caught my attention as it showed up shortly after I had a
> similar discussion with academic and business associates...
>
> John
You are right there John, and after all those sort of posts are designed to
be credible, sorry for the overdone irony!!

Harry

Kingdom

2006-01-17, 6:16 pm

ZergZergLOL@XXXXXXXXXX wrote in news:1137446399.006387.33240
@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

> Hey guys, I posted this on another board and the verdict I got was to
> fire him. Since I've been lurking here for a while I thought I'd post
> it here for some more advice.
>
> A couple years ago I hired a guy named Thomas as a senior tech for a
> small data center I run in California. He always seemed like a pretty
> competent worker. Thomas had great personal skills, came into work
> on-time, and pretty much completed projects better than any of the
> other techs in our facility. He seemed like a pretty intelligent guy,
> actually. On occasion I've even had dinner with his wife and young
> daughter who's going through chemo. I generally consider Thomas a
> friend.
>
> The other day I invited him to my house to hang out and have a few
> drinks. At one point in the evening we were shooting the shit and
> talking about the worst things we've ever done in our lives. I
> regaled him with a tale about how I stole expensive clothes from
> department stores as a teenager and he told me about how he once sent
> explicit pictures of his cheating ex-girlfriend sodomizing a
toothbrush
> to her parents. I laughed and passed him another drink.
>
> I guess he was getting a little too tipsy because a little later he
> related a story about how he got his college degree in philosophy. We
> don't require college degrees, but we generally hire and give greater
> pay to candidates with the degree over the candidate without one.
> Thomas said that he bought it off the internet for $450 from some
> website called "The Transnational Council" for something something. He
> wrote the domain http://www.tcge.org on a napkin and said that he had
> listed the degree he got through them on the resume he sent my
> secretary two years ago. I've heard this website discussed on some
> other message boards before. Apparently they represent universities
who
> grant degrees based on previous college credits, work history, and
> military/life experience. Now I don't know what to do. Company policy
> is to terminate people who lie on their resumes, but he doesn't seem
> like that bad of a guy. The website he got his degree from looks like
> what they're doing is pretty unethical since there's no coursework
> involved. But I guess the degree is technically legal. Should I fire
> him because he bought his degree from the internet instead of
attending
> a regular university?
>
> What he did was pretty crooked. I think I'll decide to go ahead and
> fire him over this. If you were his employer what would you do?

He's a good worker, great personal skills, he's on time, completed
projects better than any of the other techs in our facility. He seemed
like a pretty intelligent guy.

Ok he was too stupid to keep that story for himself.

You now know the guys a little loosed mothed and little low in ethical
morality but could you get a better worker? will it cause you any
inconvieneince or incur costs to replace him.

Ok if the guy were pretending to be a doctor I'd fire him but as a tech
and a competent tech too, nah! I'd let it ride. It's probably not even a
crime.

--
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

Kingdom

2006-01-17, 6:16 pm

"Harry Limey" <harrylimey(at)Lycos.co.uk> wrote in
news:43cc22d0$0$1477$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net:

>
> "John Grossbohlin" <grossboj.nospam@nospam.earthlink.net> wrote in
> message news:LZUyf.8336
>
> You have just replied seriously to someone who has spammed over 10
> other newsgroups with the same spurious story designed to get you to
> visit and read a website, you also posted the spam message itself with
> the link intact! and ironically you have 'nospam' as part of your
> email address! Well done!!
>
>

Don't think so, I tried to visit the page and it through up a 404 not
found!

--
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

Andrew Morton

2006-01-17, 6:16 pm

Kingdom wrote:
> Don't think so, I tried to visit the page and it through up a 404 not
> found!

Was that a genuine 404 response or was it to hide the fact it was trying to
load malware onto your computer?

Andrew

Harry Limey

2006-01-17, 6:16 pm

"Kingdom" <kingdomof@REMOVEXXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
news:Xns974E9B261DEF4kingdomofremovehotma@194.117.143.38...
> "Harry Limey" <harrylimey(at)Lycos.co.uk> wrote in
> news:43cc22d0$0$1477$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net:
>
>
> Don't think so, I tried to visit the page and it through up a 404 not
> found!
>
> --
> Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

Kingdom

I have always thought of you as quite a sensible fellow, and here you are
showing how misconceived my perceptions were!!

KatWoman

2006-01-17, 6:16 pm

"Harry Limey" <harrylimey(at)Lycos.co.uk> wrote in message
news:43cd24f1$0$1463$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net...
>
> "Kingdom" <kingdomof@REMOVEXXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
> news:Xns974E9B261DEF4kingdomofremovehotma@194.117.143.38...
>
>
> Kingdom
>
> I have always thought of you as quite a sensible fellow, and here you are
> showing how misconceived my perceptions were!!
I believed it was real too, almost gave a serious reply.
I thought Kingdom was female?

Kingdom

2006-01-19, 6:14 pm

"Andrew Morton" <akm@in-press.co.uk.invalid> wrote in
news:434i00F1lqi2fU1@individual.net:

> Kingdom wrote:
>
> Was that a genuine 404 response or was it to hide the fact it was
> trying to load malware onto your computer?
>
> Andrew
>
>

Nothing at all installed or detected and my security is very good.

--
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

Kingdom

2006-01-19, 6:14 pm

"Harry Limey" <harrylimey(at)Lycos.co.uk> wrote in
news:43cd24f1$0$1463$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net:

>
> "Kingdom" <kingdomof@REMOVEXXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
> news:Xns974E9B261DEF4kingdomofremovehotma@194.117.143.38...
>
>
> Kingdom
>
> I have always thought of you as quite a sensible fellow, and here you
> are showing how misconceived my perceptions were!!
>
>

Hee hee, worst fears confimed ;7)

--
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

Kingdom

2006-01-19, 6:14 pm

"KatWoman" <JolieXPrincessXKatanaXXX@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:v6ezf.178$z8.118@bignews3.bellsouth.net:

>
> "Harry Limey" <harrylimey(at)Lycos.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:43cd24f1$0$1463$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net...
> I believed it was real too, almost gave a serious reply.
> I thought Kingdom was female?
>
>

Must be my feminine side showing through but no I'm all male.

--
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.