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D
The Birch show all right, Friday, give me the recap here before I play the audio of Frankie.
E
He called up and his issue was was this. He filled out his resume to get this new job a few months ago and he exaggerated, lied, lied by making.
C
Stuff up completely lied, stretching the nevermind, he lied.
E
So within his industry, in a different city, there's this big, very prominent, not big, but a very prominent firm. And you know Every. Everybody within his particular industry knows of this firm and the work they do. And if you have that on your resume, it's a very good thing.
D
So it's like seeing Harvard on a resume. Like, whoa, you work there, dude. Sure, you can work here.
E
His logic was, I'm gonna put it on my resume and say that I worked there. And if they call for a reference, well, I don't have the job now and I won't have it in a week, so no big deal. But if they don't call for a reference and end up getting the gig, he's like, well, then I got a job. So he puts it on his resume and submits the resume, and they do an interview with him, and sure enough, he is hired. And last week, during a staff meeting, the guy says, oh, I got, you know, five things on the agenda. One, two, three, four, and most exciting, you know, number five. And Frank, this is gonna be very exciting to you. The vice president of your old firm is now coming here to work.
A
Yay.
D
The vice president from Liar, Liar and Liar.
E
And I'm sure you know him. And Frank's like, oh, yeah, of course. And then called us Friday morning because the guy was scheduled to start yesterday, but there was a good chance he was gonna be in the office Friday, you know, setting up his email, looking at his desk, doing all that pre job stuff.
C
So Frank, he was in panic mode and he called us.
E
Yeah. So he was going to. He was wondering what to do, and people were amazing. Like, people, shockingly, were wanted to tell him just to blow it off. Like, just to go about your day, go about your business. It'll all blow over. Do what you gotta do, and maybe nobody will notice.
D
Okay, We've got Frank locked and loaded to find out if he actually kept his job. But here's some of the phone call that was taken on Friday.
F
Basically, I worked for a very small industry. A year ago, I got this job, and the way I got it was I lied on my resume, okay? And I said I worked for another more prestigious company within the same field, okay? And I figured, well, if they call and check the reference, then they're gonna say they never heard of me and I'm not gonna get the job. If they don't call, well, then I have a better shot at getting the job and I'll never have a problem. And, well, the other day we were in a meeting and the boss was talking about that we were gonna add some people to. And he said, you look at me. And he said, frank, I Think you know this guy? And I was like, oh, what do you mean? You said the name? And I was like, I don't know. And I go, well, how would I know him? He says, well, you know him. He was in your division at your old company.
A
No.
F
And I'm like, uh, oh, no. So I don't know. I mean, I tried to think of some extra lie I could put on top of this one to make it. Cause I haven't met the guy yet.
D
Oh, wow.
F
I mean, I don't know him at all.
C
He doesn't know me, that's for certain. That this guy would have worked in that same division at the same time you were supposed to have, right?
E
Mm. Okay, I gotta be honest with you. I think you're screwed. Hey, Kai.
F
I was gonna say that maybe he should just ride it out. Possibly the guy will recognize that he doesn't know him, but he'll feel too uncomfortable to say anything. So I think he should ride it out and then if they find out, then come clean and see what happens.
E
Tiffany?
F
Yes. He should definitely not turn himself in. The best thing for this guy to do is to become buddies with the new guy.
E
Yeah, right. Hey, John.
F
Yeah? What I think you should do is get the guy's number and he hasn't started work there yet, and take him out to lunch and then just explain it to him and just say, you know, if they ask you if you know me, you say, well, I may be, but I don't really remember him, and let it go. It's.
E
Yeah, but if you're the new guy, do you want to get wrapped into a lie before you even set foot in your house?
F
If he says he doesn't remember him, that's normal. He may not remember him.
E
He doesn't remember him. He never worked there. Hey, Mark.
F
Hey, guys. I own a small business and I would fire this guy on the spot.
E
You think?
F
Absolutely. I've had this before. I had a guy who I caught him in small lies and then I caught him double dipping on his expense account and had to fire him anyway. So I think this guy's bound to do more things down the road. He's got to go. I'm sorry, Frank, you're fired.
E
Hey, Frank, you there?
F
Yep, I'm here.
E
Well, you know what? Everybody who doesn't matter says that you should, you know, just keep your mouth shut and try to ride it out. But the one guy who's in a position to actually fire people or hire people says he would let you go immediately. So just like, every time we put somebody on, we're really of no help. But maybe we gave you some additional perspective.
F
It really seems like I'm gonna have to try to figure out some way to keep this job.
D
All right, here we are, harping it back. Hey, Frank, you there?
E
Yeah.
C
Frank the Tank.
D
Frank the. Frank the Tank. Frank the Tank. Frank the Tank.
E
I've never seen old school and. Or Jen just told me what that was from.
D
It's the greatest movie.
F
I love that.
D
Hey, Frank. Okay, the Rundown Man. What happened? I mean, did this all go down on Friday? Did it happen on Monday? Where? Where yet?
F
Well, it. It happened Monday because I didn't say anything Friday because, well, I had a terrible. It was eating. I was totally eaten up by this thing. I figured I needed a couple days to think about it.
D
Hey, Frank, hold on one sec. For us, okay? Sure, sure. Is this too sketchy, or should we go on continuing to talk to him? Does it sound too bad? What do you think?
E
I could understand him I could understand.
C
But it was kind of frustrating.
D
All right, go ahead, Frank. If this gets too bad, we're just gonna have producer Tracy give us the update.
E
Okay?
D
Go ahead, man.
F
So, you know, I just had a terrible weekend, and I decided that I had to come clean. And Monday was the day I decided to do it. First thing, I went right into the boss's office, and I told him exactly what I told you guys that, you know, I had never worked at the other firm that I said I had worked at. And he said, I know.
C
Really?
F
The boss said he already knew. And, well, that took me by surprise. I said, well, what do you mean you already knew? And he said he had found out two weeks earlier. And that's why he said that thing at the meeting about the guy. So he was trying to see how far I'd take the line.
C
So there wasn't a. There was not an employee from this old company ever coming to work for your new company?
F
Yeah, exactly.
D
It's a shocking twist.
C
He was testing him.
F
He was testing me to see. And the reason was he said that he had found this out, but he really liked me as an employee. But he had found this out, and he wanted to see if I could be trusted anymore. And I came clean. And, well, he thanked me for coming clean, and I still have my job.
C
Wow.
F
Incredible.
C
Well, I said, on the introduction integrity scale over there.
D
Goes up. Goes up. I think for the. See, I had a different take on this than Jeff did. Like, Melissa gave me the example. If I would have found Out. I mean, we've been working together now for three years that Melissa had no radio experience at all. And she's been on the job for three years, and she's done just a great job. If she came to me now or I found out about it, would I fire her? And. Absolutely not. To me, at least in radio, it just kind of felt like to me that she was just trying to create a break for herself and she got.
F
Her foot in the door.
E
Is she taking away a break from somebody who truly worked for and disrupted?
C
But, you know, the thing is, I think that's a moot point right now because the boss is the one that created this scenario. The boss is the one that was in control of this. And the boss made the decision in the company, you know, and he decided to keep Frank.
D
Dude, did you dodge a bullet, man? Wow.
F
Yeah.
C
Well, good thing you came clean.
D
Yeah. That's unreal.
C
Yeah.
D
Yeah.
F
I mean, I just have to say that I think my boss is a great man.
D
I bet you do.
F
You know, I didn't mind the loyalty test. I shouldn't have lied in the first place. But he even said that he never would have hired me if I didn't lie. So, I mean, I guess you could lie, but come clean about it. That's the lesson.
D
There's, like a really fine line that you gotta walk here. I mean, again, when you're trying to get a job that's so high profile or whatever, you're trying to create a break for yourself, and that line of integrity gets a little blurred, man.
C
And we also. I mean, Frank went. I mean, for him to lie about a complete company and job that he never worked at. But I challenge anybody to admit that they haven't exaggerated or tweaked information or embellished on their resume. But you guys remember those basketball coaches not too long ago that totally. You know, those college coaches that lied on their resumes?
D
It happened.
C
Busted and fired for it.
D
It happened to the former coach here of Georgia Tech, went up to Notre Dame, George Leary, and they found something on his resume that didn't quite jive. And even before they coached his first down, they gave him the boot because they said he lied or embellished on his resume.
C
Yeah. So I think this, the only lesson we can learn from you, Frank the Tank, is that you are damn lucky.
F
Yeah, man, I guess I think I am.
E
Actually, totally unrelated thing to Frank, but just a reminder if. Did you see Herrick Jr. S test?
A
Yeah. Burt.
E
No. Okay, remind us after we're done with Frank to tell you about that.
D
Okay.
C
Speaking of basketball coaches.
E
Yeah, speaking of basketball coaches, Jim Herrick Jr. S Georgia final exam.
D
Okay. All right. Hey, Frank, I'm gonna put you on hold because a bunch of people want to call up and talk about this, but I can't put everybody on the voice disguiser, so can you hang with us for a couple of minutes?
F
Yeah, sure.
D
Cool. Hold on, man. Wow, that's. I'm floored by that.
C
Dumb luck. Lucky.
D
Hey, Michael, you're on all the hits. Q100.
F
Hey, Bert. I love you guys. Hey, amazing. Frank, you need to go into Sale. Well, hopefully you are in sale, because that was a heck of a sale job. I cannot believe that. I cannot believe that the company or the boss will keep him hired after knowingly that he not only just didn't tell a little lie or embellishment because everyone does it on the resume.
D
Right.
F
But he. I mean. I mean, he was never even there.
D
So the line for you here, if you're the boss, is that it's a complete lie. It's not an embellishment. There's not even a grain of truth in that.
F
No, it's a little embellishment. Hey, I mean, I worked on a $5 million account when really it was $100,000 account. Whatever.
E
A little embellishment. Like 500%?
F
Yeah, a little bit. But he never even walked through the front doors of his company.
C
I wish I could go. I need to see if I can find a resume, like, straight out of college or straight out of when I worked over at Turner and one of the low totem pole. Just to see how I worded what I did when I was a secretary at Turner, how I worded my job responsibilities to make me seem like I was some executive, you know? You know what everybody in radio does, too, is they always exaggerate how long they've been in radio. Oh, I've been in radio for 20 years, and they're like 22 years old. Like that to me, in our industry is what everybody lies about. Yeah, I was working over there for four years. I'm like. Four years, and I'm like, trying to do the computing.
E
I'm like, you were 11, you were 12.
C
But see, the difference is you have worked. There isn't. You know, if you press record and play on a tape recorder and you talked into it for people in radio, they think that's experience. So that's what they. They reference.
E
You know, there's a. When I was out, some people got busted out at the university of Arizona. They actually got busted because they called into our radio show out there and bragged where they had a service where you could pay them. I think they were charging people $75. And they would set up a phone number and a voicemail box, and they would be fake references for you.
D
Oh, really?
E
You could put on your resume. And they would do. They would do it in other cities, too. So, like, if you were out in Arizona trying to get a job and you want to say that I work for all the hits Q100 in Atlanta, they would set up a voice. They would call like a paging company and buy a pager for $20, set up a voicemail on it, and the voicemail would say, hi, this is fake name for all the hits. Q100. Leave me a message. I'll call you back. When the message came in, that person will call the employer back.
D
Unreal.
E
And there was actually a person listening who got suspicious after hearing the people call on the radio show because he got references from four different people at four different companies and did them in, like, two days. And it's like, that is all the same person, but they're four different cities. How is that happening? And they ended up tracing the. The phone numbers and shutting them down.
D
Hey, Warren, you're on all the hits. Q100.
F
Yeah. Hey, Frank, your boss did a lot more than a favor with the Letting you keep your job. Taught you the most valuable lesson in life. No more fibbing.
D
Yeah, but again, there's just.
E
And don't take any wooden nickels.
C
He's like a Southern wise man. No more fibbing.
E
He'll beat you with a switch.
D
Sue, you're on all the hits Q100.
F
Hey, I'm just talking from Frank's boss's point of view here. He. When he came clean, he pretty much had to keep him to save his own butt for not having checked his resume in the first place.
D
I wonder how much of that goes on. I mean, like. Like, do bosses really check, like, 100% of the references?
C
You know what?
F
I think he's admittance right to the fact that. That he didn't know that he. He only hired him because that was on his resume.
C
I would do.
F
Is that what he said?
D
He said it had to do with it.
C
Yeah, yeah, he said it definitely had to do with it. But I would guess that they only checked the last job that you had. Like, you know how you list, like, every job since you started working, Right? You know, you try to list, like, all the best highlights, but I Would guess they only. I would guess they only call the first one.
E
Well, you do.
C
You do the footwork for them, though, from what I remember, because you give them references, so you choose who you want them to call. So I remember, you know, giving three references. So you may put a company on your resume and not provide a reference from that company. So, you know, he. Frank, may not have given them a number for this company, so he may have checked his references, but just not that. You know what I mean?
D
Isn't it illegal to give a bad reference also? Yes, it is. Right?
E
It's illegal now to even give a good reference. Basically all you can say now is, yes, they were employed here, but you have to be very careful what you say if you talk to anyone, even.
C
On a good reference. What do you mean?
E
Like that most companies have a policy that all they will say is, yes, he was employed here for blah, blah, blah. And they will say that's so they.
D
Don'T have to say he was a really crappy employee.
E
Like, if they.
C
You.
E
If you give somebody a glowing reference and you say, oh, my God, he was the greatest employee, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the one time that he was late, he worked eight hours overtime to make up for it because he was an hour late because his car broke down. And then it turns around he didn't get the job, that there's a possibility of that person to sue and say, well, you told him I was late. Ask.
C
Are you serious?
E
Almost any ask in the point of.
C
A reference for somebody to get a feel of what I mean. Because letters of references still are, you know, paragraphs long and you give detailed information.
D
Hey, Frank, we got a roll, man.
F
Okay, well, thanks for your help.
D
Yeah, well, thanks for calling us up and. And give us something to think about for two days.
C
Man, I'm glad you still have your job.
D
Yeah, you definitely dodged a billet, bro.
B
Congrats.
C
Lucky.
D
Yeah, you're lucky.
A
Lucky.
E
Yeah, you're the real lucky. Not that guy who was hooking up with First Sex Friday girl.
D
All right, Frank, take care, man. Good luck. See ya.
E
The Birch show.
F
Mic check, 1, 2. Are we recording? Hi, I'm Michelle Bernstein, an award winning.
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Zoe. This thing weighs a ton. Drew Ski, lift with your legs, man.
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He's talking to you, Bridges. I'm not.
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Of course he did.
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Date: December 12, 2025
Host: Pionaire Podcasting
Main Participants: Bert, Kristin, Abby, Cassie, Tommy, "Frank" (caller)
This episode centers on a juicy, real-life ethical dilemma: Frank, a caller, got his current job after lying spectacularly on his resume—claiming to have worked at a prestigious company in his industry where he never set foot. The drama escalates when Frank's boss announces that the (fictional) VP from Frank's so-called old company will soon join their team, putting Frank in panic mode. The show hosts and listeners weigh in: Should Frank ride it out, confess, or try to cover his tracks? The episode digs deep into workplace honesty, second chances, employer responsibilities, and the blurred lines on resumes.
"His logic was, I'm gonna put it on my resume... if they call for a reference, well, I don't have the job now and I won't have it in a week, so no big deal."
— E [02:18]
"I own a small business and I would fire this guy on the spot... he's bound to do more things down the road."
— Mark (Listener), [06:10]
“He said, I know... He had found out two weeks earlier. And that's why he said that thing at the meeting about the guy. So he was trying to see how far I'd take the line.”
— Frank [08:20]
"He thanked me for coming clean, and I still have my job."
— Frank [09:16]
"I challenge anybody to admit that they haven't exaggerated or tweaked information or embellished on their resume."
— C [10:48]
“When he came clean, he pretty much had to keep him to save his own butt for not having checked his resume in the first place.”
— Sue (Listener) [15:23]
As always, the Bert Show mixes high-energy banter, relatable laughs, and a sincere, supportive vibe. They approach Frank’s anxiety with empathy, and their ethical debates are leavened with industry jokes and personal confessions. The episode never gets harsh or punitive, but they don’t shy away from the hard truths about honesty, trust, and consequences at work.
Frank got a wild second chance, thanks to a boss who valued honesty and performance over a spotless resume. But both hosts and listeners agree: It’s a lesson in how slippery the path can be when ambition blurs ethical lines. The episode closes with laughter, relief, and a bit of awe at Frank’s dumb luck—reminding listeners it’s better to be honest from the start.