Should I fire this guy because he bought his degree from the internet?
Hey guys, long time member with a new account here.
A couple years ago I hired a guy named Thomas as a senior tech for a small airport 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. I’ve even had dinner with his wife and young daughter on occasion. I generally consider him 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 www diplomaforge dot com and listed it on the resume he sent my secretary. I’ve heard this website discussed on these forums a few days ago. Apparently they represent universities who grant degrees based on “work history” and “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 might decide to fire him over this. If you were his employer what would you do?
Comedy addendum: what is the most hysterical way of firing someone?