This story is fairly simple: Cousin lies on a résumé, gets caught by people whose literal job is to notice lies, then acts shocked when the family hookup decides not to stake his career on a fake degree and a pretend agency job. That is not betrayal, that is basic survival in a place where HR keeps receipts and does not care about Aunt Linda’s feelings.
I’m all for helping friends and family, the job market is, well, not the best we’ve seen to say the least. Bur, and this is a big but, family loyalty always sounds nobler when no one mentions the part about fraud.
This is a classic “family first” myth colliding with corporate reality. At home, family means you look the other way, smooth things over, and in this case, say he just “rounded up” his experience. At work, family means absolutely nothing when the numbers and dates do not match. HR does not care that you once shared a trampoline; they care that he lied on paperwork with the company logo on top. The minute you vouch for that, the lie becomes yours, not just his.
