There was a time not all that long ago when fudging—or “enhancing”—items on a résumé or job application was viewed as a normal and acceptable workforce practice. Few companies did background checks in those days, and padding the résumé was viewed as a very minor indiscretion and nothing to get worked up about.

In fact, I can remember being a new college graduate looking for my first “real” job and getting counseled, by a number of people from college professors to working professionals, to pad my internship experience to make it seem more substantial and make me appear more hirable.

Well, that was then and this is now. The trend these days is not only to do background checks on prospective employees, but to dig deeper into an applicant’s credentials to make sure they are what they say they are. And, as this New York Times story from 2006 points out, the consequences of being dishonest about yourself during the hiring process can have career-altering consequences—unless you work for the County of Orange in California, of course.

Orange County is where the Workforce Management world headquarters is located, and we like to think that our presence here helps raise the bar for the various organizations and businesses that call our little slice of California home.

No such luck, I’m afraid. Here’s a recent story from the Orange County Register that is remarkable for two reasons:

1. It says that the county’s HR manual was so old (last revised in 1978), according to a report from the Orange County Grand Jury, that it still makes references to typewriters and rotary phones.

2. It also says that the Orange County Grand Jury found that “deliberate misrepresentation during the hiring/promotion process … may not be automatic grounds for dismissal,” according to the Register story.

Here’s the part of the newspaper story that floored me: “Specifically defined educational requirements in some cases are considered by some HR professionals in the county as ‘artificial barriers to advancement,’ the Grand Jury’s report says. Some [county] agencies do not bother to check educational claims made by applicants—if you say you are a Harvard MBA, as far as they are concerned, you are a Harvard MBA. If you state during the hiring process that you have never been arrested for DUI but you actually have been and it subsequently comes to light, your job is not necessarily in jeopardy.”

Sound pretty amazing? Well, here’s some more: “As improbable as it may seem, omissions and false statements are considered on a case-by-case basis. If you have been a good county employee, or your supervisor really supports you, or your indiscretion is not material to your job description, you will probably keep your job.”

I have never been one to push for a zero-tolerance policy about most anything, but this HR policy by the County of Orange seems to turn the notion of a “good county employee” on its head. How can someone be considered a good employee if they weren’t truthful and upfront with you when you were hiring them? And how can one assume that the “good county employee” who lied to get hired won’t lie again on the job about something a lot more important?

California likes to tout that it is on the cutting edge of workplace issues, but this is as regressive and backward of a human resources policy as I have ever seen. But I shouldn’t be surprised; after all, Orange County is also the place where you have senior executives defending all manner of indefensible, boorish behavior.

Letting employees lie during the hiring process is a bad HR policy in any organization or business anywhere. It sends a terrible message to everyone and, more important, says truthfulness and honesty are values that don’t much matter anymore. No wonder people have so little faith in their government—any government—these days.