email.rb

validate :is_employee, :on => :create

 def is_employee
    if self.email.split("@")[1] == Settings.company_domain
       #is employee, do nothing
    else
      # if i raise 'failed check'.inspect here I confirm that an @gmail.com does not satisfy the above conditional
      errors.add(:email, "Not VM employee")  #but then no matter what I put here the record still saves
    end
  end