4 min readNew DelhiAug 16, 2025 06:18 PM IST
First published on: Aug 16, 2025 at 06:18 PM IST
An Indian entrepreneur recently took to Instagram to narrate what she described as a “hiring horror” story, one that, in her words, proved that “every time she feels like nothing can be worse than this, someone surprises her.”
Sharing her experience, Arshia Kaur said she had recruited someone for a senior role, Head of Marketing, in 2024. On paper, the candidate seemed like the perfect fit. “He walked us through his CV, highlighted how he contributed to the growth of previous organisations, and everything looked extremely legit because we actually saw the backend. So, we ended up hiring him,” she explained.
But within just a few weeks, red flags began to appear. Kaur recalled how the new hire “could neither communicate with the team nor with the bosses, and… couldn’t complete his tasks.” Work meant for him eventually had to be redistributed among other employees or handled by the founders themselves.
After giving him multiple chances, Kaur finally let him go around two and a half months later. However, her curiosity about his repeated failures led her team to re-check his documents – and that’s when the real shock came.
According to Kaur, the man had submitted forged salary slips and recommendations. “As per the slips, he worked 31 out of 31 days without any leaves. They had no company stamp, no signature, zero tax deduction, and the worst of it all, the salary slips were made on an Excel sheet,” she revealed.
When confronted and asked to show his bank statement to prove he had actually received that salary, his excuse was that his previous employer had paid him “a lot of amount in cash.”
Calling the incident a major lesson, Kaur said, “Honestly, as founders, this was such a huge wake-up call, and it’s so important to do your due diligence and make sure that if something seems fishy, you need to ask questions early.”
She also urged entrepreneurs to be careful with finances. “When you’re bootstrapped, every single penny matters; it’s shed-earned money. You cannot pay people whatever they ask for – founders, please don’t do this. It’s your right to have the correct information about anyone you’ve decided to hire!”
Her two-part video quickly went viral, sparking debate online about how careless hiring can drain not just money but also energy, morale, and overall productivity.
A social media user suggested, “You need to fire whoever did the background verification, major major fail (Yes i run my own business and I’ve been in recruitment for 11 years prior).”
Another user wrote, “So how was he able to crack the interview even if his salary slips were fake .. what that guy did was unethical but you need to look at your hiring process as to how he was able to crack the interview .. or did you guys hire him just based on his cv and not interviewed him?”
A third person suggested, “That guy should be hired because he’s smart enough to get this job.”
A fourth user asked, “How does past salary matter ?? If you have budget and he has done well in interview then the only thing to measure salary is interview performance not past payslip.”
According to Kaur, the man had submitted forged salary slips and recommendations 
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