This morning I read an article by Anthony Balderrama who is a writer at CareerBuilder.com. Anthony asserted that we all tell lies at work. Now I don’t know about you, but that wasn’t a news flash for me. Our workdays are filled with many “little lies” or exaggerations and they have become part of the corporate culture norm.
The good news is that much of our dishonesty doesn't result from bad intentions; it often is the results of trying to please other people, even at our own expense. Although telling a lie can be easy, and you might even get away with it sometimes, you're not creating the best work environment. To help bring more honesty into the workplace, Anthony identified five lies we're all guilty of telling.
You might ask yourself if you are guilty of telling them and assess how you could better handle them.
- "I'd be happy to"
Think about the last few times you've said you'd be happy to do something. How often was that statement sincere? I oftentimes find these words coming out of my mouth before I think the assignment all the way through. If I accept a task then my boss expects me to get it done. So if I’m afraid that a new assignment might interfere with my other work I usually try to review my workload with my boss to clarify priorities and remind him what else I have on my plate. - "No, I don't have any questions"
Ok, who hasn't been given an assignment that just didn't make sense, but when the boss asked if you had any questions you said no? Usually this is based on the fear of believing that if I ask questions, they’ll think I don’t know what I’m doing. However, in reality the opposite of this is true. Projects usually turn out better with clarification. - "My alarm didn't go off"
This one is not a problem for me as I am rarely late for work. I tend to take the straightforward approach of, "I'm sorry I was late", and then get right to work. If it happens infrequently, it probably won’t be a big deal. - "I'm not sick – it's just allergies"
The only thing worse than being sick is having to use personal time to cover it and getting even further behind on your work. If you think you have too much work to take a day off you might be tempted to pull one over on your cold and flu-fearing co-workers and attribute the sniffles to allergy season – don't. Your coworkers won’t be pleased that you're putting their health at risk and lying to them. If staying home is not an option for you, at least barricade yourself in your office and try to minimize contact with co-workers. - "I'm right on schedule"
As someone who has project management responsibilities, I am very cognizant of meeting deadlines. When asked about the status of a project it can be very tempting to say everything is going as planned, when it’s not. "I am working on it," might be the better response, but you need to develop a timeline to put the project back on track.
