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

Lies Will Always Be Ethically Wrong

Lies should be rare exceptions to your standard ethical conduct. Though they may occasionally be excused, they cannot be justified unless they are little white lies or lies to prevent great harm. They are ethically wrong, risky, and don’t always (or even usually) work. In my opinion, choosing to use deception to get from here to there is like climbing out on a skinny branch in the false hope that the branch is a shortcut. That skinny branch never gets thicker and more stable, and it doesn’t go anywhere you want to be (just the opposite, in fact). Choose to lie if you must, but be prepared for the negative consequences because they will be forthcoming.

Lies are just shortcuts to immediate feel-good benefits. They temporarily take the pressure away from a discussion where the truth may be acutely embarrassing or hurtful. But they are merely that: delays. Ultimately, the conversation will occur and the problem must be confronted. The day of reckoning comes sooner or later. The trap, of course, is getting caught up in multiple lies in the hope that you can rescue the situation before your deception is discovered.

Lying is a habit with virtually no brakes, which makes it a truly loose cannon on a slippery slope, ethically speaking. The more lies you tell, the easier it becomes to tell more (just ask Bernard Madoff—if you can access him in his prison cell). It is a difficult habit to break away from. There are no thought police or truth squads to monitor ...