Cheated By an Employer In Your Job Interview? How To Deal With It

By Tabitha Makumi,
It’s an interesting twist when you find that an employer is the doing the lying during the job interview. “I wouldn’t call it as lying per see. They more like exaggerate on some aspects such as how often they review salaries or how short or long your probation period will be,” says Martin Githaiga a HR Practitioner with Corporate Staffing Services who adds that while employers do this in a bid to lure candidates into accepting their job offers, it’s unethical.

A victim of the same reached to us through an email…. “My name is Victor Omondi* and four months ago I attended an interview with a shipping company in Mombasa. During the interview I was made to believe through word of mouth that after my probation period was over, I was to receive a salary increment of 20%.

Additionally, during the interview, it was conveyed to me that my working hours were from 8.00am to 5.00pm regardless of any pending work. It’s been a month since my probation period and I haven’t had any salary increment. My working hours on the other hand have deteriorated from leaving work at 5.00pm to sometimes late at 10.00pm.

I feel cheated and while I had heard in the past and that many employers have a habit of cheating prospect job seekers, I never thought it would happen to me. What can I do in such a situation? Is there any action you can take on such employers?

In a recent discussion forum discussing the same, Daniel Ongoya a HR & Admin Manager with  a beverage company wrote that,  “Cheating on material facts, such as frequency of salary reviews by the employer is unethical and unfortunate. “ He agrees that, “It does the company no good, since the employee enters the organization with wrong information and would become de-motivated soon enough.”

He further advices that, “I would also suggest that at the time of signing the contract, the employee SHOULD ensure that all that was agreed upon during the interview and negotiations are put in writing for reference in the future.

Unfortunately, most people are so much in a hurry to get the job, that little do they even read through the whole letter of appointment before signing it.”

Richard Odipo the ICT Head at MESPT advices that, “Simple, do your home work well, ensure any work related promise is on the contract and prove your worth by delivering on the Job.

He however questions, “If this is a work related ‘promise’, why does it have be to verbal?”