A Solution for Lies and Liars in the Workplace

by

Michael Driver

Petty self-aggrandizement drives most* lies in the workplace. These lies are so common and benign, often only constituting a mild annoyance, that they are frequently overlooked. Co-workers and managers are usually understanding and prefer to allow self-inflationary lies to pass unremarked. There is, after all, a social and legal tolerance of “puffing the goods” that surpasses the need to respond beyond a smirk of recognition.

Another easy tack is confrontation. For co-workers, it might take the form of verbal acknowledgement, but this path is often rejected because it produces needless embarrassment for both parties. Managers may decide on counseling,

but frequently determine that it is not worth the effort. Why waste time correcting a false but harmless desire to be outstanding?

Still, there are lies. Besides being annoying, they can cause resentment, interrupt communication and reduce productivity. For a remedy, start by considering the environment in which lies breed and the work culture inhabited by liars.

Industrial Age management mindset, based on control, establishes a centralized example that exalts selfishness. Management is employed to ensure that selfishness in the workplace feeds the maw of company profit. This creates a virtual certainty that workers will be selfish, not only following their company example, but being rewarded for their part in it. Increasing their contribution to selfishness by being selfish becomes a way of life in many workplaces and leads to emphasizing appearance over substance. What easier way is there to contribute to selfishness than by lying?

Managers are left with the uncomfortable choice of ignoring lies or confronting them with counseling. Given the workplace culture and their own role in sustaining company lies, these managers are on shaky moral ground when decrying the ethics of subordinates. Many tease their conscience by pretending they’re exonerated if they are coerced by top management. And so, the sorry state rolls on until colliding with a lie too big to ignore or a truth too valid, too pertinent to avoid.

Participation is a better method to deal with lies, a way that prevents them from occurring. The Industrial Age management mindset, with its focus on control, blocks creative and productive outlets that can channel the activities of workers into meaningful results. When encouraged to participate at all levels of a business, workers simply have no need to lie. If they tried to lie in a participatory workplace, there would be no niche to accept falsehood and no reward for the vainglorious effort.

Enlightened management, having grown into an assembly of stakeholders with other workers in their company, will prosper in an atmosphere of participation. Workers will find that there is a ready outlet for the real fruit of their labor with levels of participation in such an array of variety that they are too involved to conceal, to manipulate, to scheme or to lie. In an atmosphere of participation, workers find their value yielding personal satisfaction as well as true appreciation.

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*An exception that I will not address is pathological lying. Lies that are part of criminal activity as well as serious lies by managers, including a peculiar type of lying by managers, will be discussed in future posts.

Copyright © 2015 by Michael Driver

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