I have been considering migrating away from GV for unrelated reasons, but if that sort of thing automatically makes me less attractive when looking for gigs then I'd like to prioritize actually doing that.
Longer story:
A few months ago, I posted a job for a remote US-based developer. 90% of the applicants were not in the US. Some of those who were immediately rejected re-applied with new US addresses and phone numbers, but that's another story. In the end, hired someone who was a great fit, passed the background checks, etc. The only odd thing was their phone number was GV and didn't match the location of their address. My mobile number doesn't match where I currently live and lots of people use GV, so we didn't think much of it.
About 4 weeks in, they sent me a message on a Sunday saying there was a family emergency. They would not be online during normal business hours, but would check in and would still work on tasks as they could. No big deal, I asked for follow-up on two assigned tasks so they could be handed off to someone else to finish a sprint that week.
After two days, haven't heard anything, reassigned the tasks and tried to reach out to check on the person. Phone number goes to the generic GV voicemail prompt, I leave a message. I tried calling the emergency contact, same thing. I reach out through LinkedIn & personal email, no RESPONSE. At this point, we disabled accounts and access to systems. No real reason or policy why, just seemed like a good idea.
Two days later, now Thursday, I start getting calls from a random phone number (also GV from another area of the US), but leaving no messages. Then I get texts, "This is <missing_dev> I've been trying to reach you, please call me back." I call back within 3 minutes, straight to GV generic voicemail.
A few hours later, the number calls again, I answer "Hey, this is <missing_dev>, I was trying to get some work done but it seems my accounts are disabled". After explaining the situation, they simply offered "Well, everything is good now and I'm ready to work." I tried asking some basic things like, are they okay, is their family okay, can we help with something, did you get arrested? Anything to give them a opportunity to offer something. The only response they gave was, "I'm back now and ready to work, if you'll enable my accounts." Over and over.
I explained it wasn't that simple, walked through the communication inconsistencies and asked how that would affect their reliability in the future. You will only need one guess for the response, "I'm back now and ready to work, if you'll enable my accounts."
I thanked them for reaching out and said I'd talk to HR and CEO so we could discuss (both had also reached out through personal LinkedIn, email and phone numbers to check on the person, no responses).
They were still in the 90 day probationary period, so we let them go. They were a very good developer, smart, good coding practices, but inconsistency is a killer. And yes, a GV or VOIP number will be a hurdle any future applicant needs to overcome with flying colors.
They will make excuses (and blame Covid) for why they can’t meet in person. At that point you can politely reject the candidate.
If you already hired one that you’re suspicious of, ask them if they’re willing to fly to you to meet in person. If they’re legitimate, then they’ll fly out and you’ll have a great opportunity to meet the new employee in person (a good practice in general IMO), and if they’re not in the US they’ll have a bunch of excuses why they can’t.
They will never admit to anything and when confronted with the lie they’ll continue to deny it with silly excuses or they’ll totally ghost you.
Longevity is not part of this scam. The goal is to get a couple paychecks and bounce. (1 month of a US salary is a ton of money to them)
Just curious, how do you expect someone without a job to pay for this?
How is that even remotely odd? Ever since cell phones became popular the phone area code no longer means anything. People tend to have the area code of wherever they were when they got that phone, which is often many location moves in the past.
