Originally published by Betty Liu on LinkedIn: Is It Ever Okay to Lie at Work? Here's 7 Times When You Might Have To
Lying seems like a crisp black and white matter, at least the way we tell it to our kids. In other words, don't do it!
And yet that's just not reality. Lying is a part of our development-learning how to fib is considered a growth milestone in children the same as learning how to walk or feed oneself independently.
According to a 2002 University of Massachusetts study, 60% of adults can't go 10 minutes in a conversation without telling a lie. Interestingly, men lied to make themselves look good while women lied to make other people feel good.
So is it ever okay to lie in the office? Some experts fall in the black/white camp, saying it's never a good idea to fib. Once caught, you lose the trust of your co-workers and your boss.
But is that the reality?
Frankly, I don't think anyone can say they've never lied in the office. Big lies are huge no-nos like lying about your qualifications or taking credit for something someone else did. There are other times, according to experts, where lying is perfectly acceptable.
Here are the top 7:
1. You're hungover. OK, so you had a little too much to drink at your friend's birthday party. And yes, you got only 2 hours of sleep. Much better to blame it on a bad back keeping you up at night than to tell your co-workers you've been up all night drinking. It makes you look bad and irresponsible, even if you know you can handle it.
2. You're late. This is the most common white lie people tell. You're running 10 minutes late to a meeting because you basically couldn't get yourself together to be on time. Instead, you blame traffic, the weather, a meeting that ran long, anything else than the real reason. It's fine. People don't honestly care about the reason for being late-they just want to see the sincerity that you feel bad for making them wait.
3. Quitting because you hate the job. Lots of people leave their jobs because they can't stand their boss, the work, the pay, whatever it may be. Tempting as it might be to tell others how awful it was, it's better to fib and tell folks you left for personal reasons or to grow in a different direction. Nobody will really believe that's the exact reason but they're also not exactly interested in hearing you lampoon your last employer either. And no future employer wants to hear you spew vitriol about your last boss-maybe Donald Trump can get away with criticizing everyone but you can't.