# agent pushed candidates to Hired on a verbal yes - the signed-offer event never fired

## TL;DR

The agent moved candidates to Hired on a verbal acceptance, but the signed offer never came and the pipeline lied. Gate the Hired stage on the signed-offer event, not on verbal reports. Verbal yeses are intentions; the signature is the hire.

```text
agent pushed candidates to Hired on verbal yes - signed-offer event never fired
```

## Steps

1. Confirm the gap: list Hired candidates without signed offers.
   Expected: The phantom hires are counted.

2. Move them back to their true stage (Offer extended / negotiating).
   Expected: The pipeline reflects reality.

3. Gate Hired on the signed-offer event from the ATS or HRIS.
   Expected: Only signatures hire.

4. Handle the verbal-yes case explicitly: record it as a sub-status, not as Hired.
   Expected: Intentions are tracked without lying.

5. Reconcile offer-accept metrics; they were inflated by the phantom hires.
   Expected: Reporting is corrected.

## When to use

- Hired precedes the signed offer
- stages advance on verbal reports
- offer metrics look inflated

## When not to use

- the signed offer exists but the event did not fire (backfill the event)
- the hire is a transfer with no offer letter (different flow; document it)
- verbal yeses are contractually binding in this context (rare; get legal to confirm)

## Tool compatibility

- any ATS stage automation
- offer workflows

## Variant phrasings

- "pushed to Hired on verbal yes"
- "Hired without signed offer"
- "premature Hired stage"

## Why it happens

A verbal yes feels like a done deal, and the agent wanted the pipeline to reflect the good news. But offers fall through between verbal and signature regularly, and a Hired stage triggers onboarding, headcount, and reporting. The stage must record the legal fact, not the optimism.

## Edge cases

- the sub-status for verbal yes is genuinely useful; keep it, just do not call it Hired
- backfilled signatures need true timestamps
- headcount planning that read the inflated Hired numbers needs a correction note

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_WdjkmrwIYURAkO5p5dFMQw