Howdy HR friends!👋

Hope you’re all having a great Tuesday so far!

Today we’re pondering career catfishing. When you apply for one job, but then it turns out to be something completely different.

Scary isn’t it? For both the new hire (who’s taken a big risk switching roles) and for the company (bye bye high retention rates).

Hopefully after today’s newsletter, you come away with some fresh ideas to review your processes internally and make sure that the only catfish in your office is on “Mississippi Fish Fry Day” in the canteen. 🎣

🚦Coming up

In today’s edition

🎭 When Job Reality Doesn't Match the Brochure: Is Career Catfishing Happening in Your Workplace?

🛋️ The Break Room: Do your team members feel "career catfished" at your company? Vote in our poll!

📚 Human Readsources: Workplace health initiatives, preparing new grads for their first jobs, and how AI is reshaping workforce structures.

💭Opening thoughts

When day 1 feels like a completely different job to the one you applied for…

A huge 79% of workers report being "catfished" into misleading roles, showing up on day one with that unmistakable "this isn't what I signed up for" sinking feeling in their stomach.

This trust gap between job expectations and reality isn't just disappointing talent but it’s also undermining your (time consuming and expensive) recruitment efforts.

It’s up to us to address this disconnect by auditing job descriptions, training hiring managers on transparent communication, and implementing structured onboarding that delivers on promises made during recruitment.

Pro tip: use internal recruiters if you have them. They “get” your culture, teams and can better speak to what the actual role will look like!

For easy reading

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🧠Let’s unpick

🎭 When Job Reality Doesn't Match the Brochure

"Career catfishing" happens when the job reality drastically differs from what was advertised.

It's a two-way trust problem affecting both sides of the hiring equation. Employers misrepresenting roles and company culture, while candidates sometimes exaggerate qualifications or accept positions with no intention of showing up.

This disconnect creates frustration, wasted resources, and damaged reputations.

Younger generations feel particularly misled.

As Harper's Bazaar reports, Gen Z (34%) and Millennials (24%) are significantly more likely to engage in candidate-side career catfishing than older generations, viewing it as resistance against exhausting hiring practices.

So where does this leave us? Properly addressing career catfishing in simple terms means improving transparency throughout the hiring process.

Create honest job descriptions that accurately represent day-to-day responsibilities. The more specific the better!

Implement thorough skills-based assessments to verify candidate abilities and most importantly, maintain open communication about company culture, advancement opportunities, and work-life balance expectations.

This is where chats with future colleagues (not just internal recruiters and managers) come to the fore in the hiring process.

And it never hurts to just completely zoom out and see what you can do in HR to make new joiners feel their roles align with exactly what they clicked “apply” for in the first place.

You can read more at...

🔗 Gen Z Leading "Career Catfishing" Trend in Job Acceptance (Harper's Bazaar)

🔗 Career Catfishing: The Deception Epidemic in Hiring Practices (Monster)

🔗 Career Catfishing: Gen Z's Vanishing Act in Job Market (The Guardian)

👀Too long didn’t read

TLDR

You can break the catfishing cycle with transparent job descriptions, skills-based assessments, and honest communication about culture and expectations.

Today’s edition is still presented by

I Hate It Here

The free newsletter making HR less lonely

The best HR advice comes from those in the trenches. That’s what this is: real-world HR insights delivered in a newsletter from Hebba Youssef, a Chief People Officer who’s been there. Practical, real strategies with a dash of humor. Because HR shouldn’t be thankless—and you shouldn’t be alone in it.

Sign Up Free

🎬Lights, camera, action!

Takeaway and try

📋 Audit your job descriptions for accuracy by comparing them to current employees' actual day-to-day tasks, then update listings to reflect reality rather than an idealized version of the role. Better to lose a couple of applicants with brutal honesty than have to start the whole process again from scratch.

🤝 Create a "Role Reality Check" during onboarding where new hires can compare expectations to actual responsibilities and discuss any discrepancies with their manager in a blame-free environment.

🔍 Implement "Day in the Life" videos featuring current employees honestly discussing their roles, challenges, and company culture to give candidates authentic glimpses beyond the formal job description.

📊 Survey employees who've been with you 3-6 months specifically about expectation gaps, using their feedback to refine your hiring process and prevent future career catfishing incidents.

☕The break room

What’s your take?

📚Additional reading

Human Readsources

🩺 HR Overlooks Occupational Health Despite Wellbeing Benefits (HR News) - HR overlooks occupational health despite its role in workplace wellbeing.

📄 Leaders Find Entry-Level Workers Underprepared for Jobs (HR Dive) - Leaders find entry-level workers unprepared, mainly lacking soft skills.

🤖 Accenture Cuts Jobs, Prioritizes AI Reskilling Strategy (The HR Digest) - Accenture cuts jobs while reskilling workforce for AI era.

That’s it for today.

Thanks for reading to the end and we hope today’s edition sparked some new ideas for your workplace! 🧠

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