Does the truth hurt?

When you are dismissed from your employment, what should you tell prospective employers about the reason why you left that employment?

It is a question that causes a lot of confusion amongst registrants and on many occasions, they unfortunately get it wrong.

Similarly, when that dismissal leads to a fitness to practice referral. How open should you be with prospective employers about the allegations made against you? Must you give all of the details or will just the most serious allegation do?

On a recent episode of the Netflix series “Better Call Saul” (great series BTW), the main character had a heart to heart with his girlfriend about his tendency to withhold the truth from her when he felt it was in her, or his best interests. In order to deal with this tendency, they agreed that whenever he felt the urge not to tell her something, that was precisely when he should tell her that thing.

That is a good rule of thumb when answering the above questions.

A client and a prospective client have recently asked my advice about situations they have got themselves into by failing to disclose employment from which they have been dismissed and by not being fully open about their respective fitness to practice processes. One has had the lack of disclosure found out and is on tenterhooks waiting for the inevitable axe to fall. The other has a troubling decision to make about whether to disclose their current employment to their regulator, having been asked to disclose, and knowing that disclosure will lead to eventual dismissal and potentially a further fitness to practice referral.

Had either of them followed the approach above, you can well imagine a registrant feeling that disclosing dismissal/referral would cause them some difficulty in getting employment and that perhaps they should avoid disclosing the inconvenient truth; which would have unerringly helped them to the right conclusion, that is to disclose and disclose fully.

You have a professional duty of candour, which means you are expected to know, when you come across them, the situations in when you should be candid. Don’t wait to be told, or even worse exposed. The right thing to do is actually the right thing for you to do, for your case and for your career.

Hear endeth the lecture.