Employees everywhere are doing it˳ Some are doing it dozens of times a day˳ Most have it done to them once every eight minutes˳ Sometimes it’s done face-to-face˳ Other times it’s done behind the back˳ It’s done out of habit˳ It’s done out of pure malice˳
Employees everywhere are lying through their teeth˳
An Epidemic of Deception
Millions of North Americans are sick and tired of wondering “Am I being lied to?” And for good reason˳ Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report coined the term “truthiness” to describe the ever-increasing tendency for people to express concepts or facts that they wish to be true, rather than concepts or facts that they know to be true˳ More and more, we’re on the receiving end of the “truth improved” and “truthful hyperbole˳” Who knows what to believe today?
Believe this: When deception reaches epidemic proportions in society, no one and no place is safe˳ As in any epidemic, everyone is at risk of being taken advantage of and having their trust betrayed˳ And it can happen anywhere, including the workplace˳
A Bumper Crop of Lies
The workplace isn’t just a location where people come together in the common pursuit of commerce and profits˳ It’s also a Petri dish for growing a deadly crop of big, bald-faced lies˳ Any competitive environment where performance dictates success and advancement is a potential breeding ground for mendacity˳
Now, it’s not that any one particular workplace is full of especially conniving or devious people˳ Deception simply comes naturally to all creation:
- Birds will fake injury to lead predators away from nesting young˳
- Octopi walk on two tentacles, strutting all gnarly on the sea floor, pretending to be algae (or Jessica Alba’s hairdo in Sin City) to escape their enemies˳
- Pint-sized male green frogs lower the pitch of their croaks to sound bigger than they are and scare off rivals˳ (Hey, it beats working out at the gym!)
- Wolves dress in sheep’s clothing˳
Nature’s deceivers are rewarded by longer life — which means more opportunities to reproduce˳ And while lying may no longer be necessary for human beings to procreate (though it can help in many cases), the spinning of a last-minute yarn to avoid responsibility for not completing a critical project has certainly preserved the quality of many an employee’s work life˳
Need a Boost in Performance?
Lies, you see, have become the performance-enhancing drugs for the competition known as life˳
Think I’m lying? Well, here’s an analogy˳ Consider an elite cyclist who’s set to race in the pinnacle of his sport: the Tour de France˳ If ever there was a competition that’s rife with doping, the Tour is it˳ In 2006, Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and a number of other star riders sat on the sidelines instead of their bike seats after being implicated in a doping investigation˳ Floyd Landis, the eventual winner, was himself pinned beneath a media microscope when an abnormal epitestosterone-to-testosterone ratio was uncovered in one of two post-podium urine tests˳ The jury’s still out in Landis’ case, but these sorry examples represent only those riders who were “unlucky” enough to get caught˳ Others in the field undoubtedly doped away and managed — through luck or better planning — to dupe the testers˳
So, here’s our elite cyclist, hitherto clean and sober, preparing to partake in a competition he knows is biased toward dopers˳ And our hero wants to win˳ Badly˳ So badly, in fact, he can already taste the fame, glory and fabulous endorsements that come with wearing the yellow jersey on the podium˳ What do you think he’ll do? To dope or not to dope?
If he’s human and wants the win badly enough, he’ll opt for doping and its boost in performance˳ Unless he’s blessed with one-in-a-billion genetics, he must dope to have any hope of winning˳ Racing clean in a field of dirty competitors means he’ll be lagging the peloton before the race even starts˳
The Place Where the Rubber Meets the Road
It’s no different for employees competing in the workplace˳ Performance matters˳ It might not be the ticket to fame, glory and fabulous endorsements, but workplace performance is certainly the ticket to advancement, promotions and a bigger paycheck˳ Poor performance, on the other hand, comes with another set of “rewards˳” For most employees, it means stagnation, demotion and an eventual pink slip˳
Any competitive environment that is characterized by deception — whether the deception comes in the form of blood doping or bald-faced lies — forces every competitor to use dishonesty if they want to win˳ A single liar in the workplace, hidden among the cubicles, can be the catalyst that triggers a chain reaction of fibbing, embellishments and wholesale fabrications˳ Hitherto honest employees, sensing a cheater in their midst, are compelled to “sweeten” their own efforts and accomplishments, lest they be left “lagging the peloton” when it comes time for management’s quarterly performance reviews˳
Sweetening performance, however, isn’t the only byproduct of the competitive workplace environment˳ When the imperative to perform is so high, fibs to cover up shortcomings or mistakes are sure to follow˳ Deception becomes a Teflon coating, assuring negative perceptions don’t stick˳ After all, everyone else is doing it, right?
Operating a business today is challenging enough without facing the daunting task of sifting fact from fiction among your prospective and existing employees or co-workers˳ And employees deserve to compete against each other on a level playing field, free of the performance-enhancing drugs of deception˳
It behooves (there’s a word you don’t see often) everyone — regardless of their position in the office hierarchy — to promote an atmosphere of openness and honesty˳ And everyone can do just that once they understand the reasons why we lie so easily and so often in the workplace˳ That, however, is the subject of another article˳
Stay tuned for “Understanding Why We Lie in the Workplace … Or How The Dog Ate My Profit-and-Loss Statements˳”
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