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

What about Poor Bob, Whose Boss Is Lying at the Opening of This Chapter?

Your boss’s job performance is your business; this is what makes Bob’s dilemma too significant to ignore. Bob’s boss’s failure to respond truthfully in the meeting, compounded by his lying to the team (including to the president—who is also his boss) to cover his tracks, impacts the company’s employees and customers, and therefore Bob, too. Bob is in the ethical hot seat on this one and is honor-bound to take action. Any inaction on his part would imply complicity.

How to Proceed

A workable solution to Bob’s dilemma requires that he have a potentially difficult conversation with his boss, while keeping the following items in mind:

• People often lie because they feel powerless. Liars believe that the unvarnished truth diminishes them in the eyes of the people with whom they work. Haven’t we all been tempted to put a favorable spin on a message to avoid appearing foolish, incompetent, or inadequate in front of people we care about? When we lie, we’re trying to retain control of a situation so we can maintain our sense of self-esteem and status in the group.
• Truth depends on trust. A person who fears rejection, shame, and blame for telling the truth will become a messenger of only good news. Since Bob didn’t say anything about his boss lying habitually in the past, let’s assume his behavior in this circumstance is an unusual occurrence. It may be a last-resort strategy to conceal something because the boss believes ...