Dive Brief:

• Agreeing with the trial court that "resume misrepresentations by a senior human resources professional represent an infraction so egregious as to defy correction by mere counseling or other lesser discipline," a federal appellate court has rejected the claims of an HR professional who was fired the day she returned from maternity leave (Bailey v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., d/b/a Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center, No. 17-2158 (6th Cir. April 23, 2018)).
• Michelle Bailey sued Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center claiming race, age and pregnancy discrimination and retaliation under federal and state law. Oakwood told the trial court that, during Bailey’s three-month maternity leave, it discovered deficiencies in her job performance and falsifications on her employment application. Bailey described the inaccuracies as "embellishments" and argued that the reasons given for her firing were pretextual because the company failed to follow its disciplinary procedures of prior notice, counseling or opportunity to complete a corrective action plan. Oakwood was successful in getting the trial court to dismiss Bailey’s claims.
• On appeal, the 6th Circuit noted that the "timing of Bailey’s termination was unfortunate and the manner in which the decision was communicated was clumsy," but it concluded that a jury could easily find the employer's actions reasonable.

Dive Insight:

Courts continue to hold that employees out on leave aren’t immune from discipline for misconduct discovered during job-protected leave (Balding v. Sunbelt Steel Texas, Inc., No. 16-4095 (10th Cir. March 13, 2018)); (Clark v. Southwest Airlines Co., No. 17-51026 (5th Cir., April 18, 2018)).

They've done so, in part, but because the opposite conclusion would allow employees to take leave and “actually hope” their employers discover misconduct during the leave, preventing them from ever being able to take adverse action against them, as one court pointed out (Schaaf v. SmithKline Beecham Corp, d.b.a. GlaxoSmithKline, 602 F.3d 1236 (11th Cir. 2010)).

And when it comes to resume exaggeration, there are a number of actions HR can take. Screening calls can be an opportunity to discuss information on a candidate's resume that looks questionable. Background checks can help as well, but must be conducted in compliance with the law. Finally, online searches can yield a wealth of information, but HR may want to carefully consider whether to opt for that route and, if so, whether standardized best practices are in order.

These time-consuming and sometimes risky tasks could eventually be a thing of the past, however. Some experts say that new technology, like blockchain, could soon eliminate resume exaggeration altogether.