You've Got to Be Kidding!: How to Keep Your Job Without Losing Your Integrity

Can Lies Ever Be Excused?

This is entirely up to you and your coworkers. You have to work with each other the day after you lied to each other, and how well you work together depends on mutual trust, respect, support, and all the other qualities that go into making relationships work well. If deception creeps into your professional interactions, you have to be ready to deal with all of the negative consequences that may (and probably will) occur.

Every chance I get, I personally counsel people to always take the high road and do everything they can possibly do to avoid lying. I think this is a key component of workplace professionalism. If our coworkers, managers, clients, and employees sense that they cannot trust us—if they perceive our truthfulness as negotiable rather than absolute—we will achieve only a fraction of our potential effectiveness in our job, and we’ll never earn the respect our profession deserves.

Another way to look at it is to consider that you’re saving yourself some serious effort; after all, lying is a lot of work! You have to forever remind yourself of your lies so you don’t trip up and give yourself away. I love President Abraham Lincoln’s words: “I’d make a terrible liar because I have a terrible memory!”

This leads me to the final most common question about lying. . . .