How and Why We Lie at the Office: From Pilfered Pens to Padded Accounts
Amid the uproar about top executives cooking the books, another ethical meltdown has gone largely unnoticed.
Rank-and-file employees are lying more often at work, by some measures. Employees calling in sick have hit a five-year high, and three-fifths of those who do so aren't sick at all, but are tending to personal needs or just feel entitled to a day off, says a 2004 survey of 305 employers by CCH Inc. In a separate survey last year of 1,316 workers by Kronos Inc., a labor-management and consulting concern, more than one-third of workers admit to having lied about their need for sick days.
Groups that track federal family-leave use say more employees are stretching the reasons for taking time off, even claiming that a common cold warrants a medical leave. In another indicator, job applicants reporting false academic credentials have hit a three-year high, with 12% of resumes containing at least some phony information, according to the Liars Index, a survey by recruiting firm Jude M. Werra & Associates.
One factor may be stresses brought on by accelerating corporate change. There is evidence that misconduct increases in companies where mergers, acquisitions and restructurings are under way.
In other cases, employee dishonesty is a sign policies are outdated. One health-care company in the Northeast prohibited employees from using personal software on company computers, says Lee Essrig of the Ethics Officer Association, Waltham, Mass. But the company shifted gears after realizing that time-pressed workers were secretly installing personal-banking and calendar software on laptops.
Almost all of us are dishonest at work at one time or another, of course. Among more than 30 readers I asked about eight common workplace sins -- from lying about one's reasons for missing work to stretching expense accounts -- one-third wrote back to confess to at least one.
I've had my dishonest moments too, even beyond pilfering office pens and legal pads for home use. Last year, I cited a "family emergency" as the reason for re-scheduling an interview when in fact, my only problem was an angst-ridden teenager who needed to talk. I wanted to avoid the stigma of people thinking my family life was out-of-control.
It's easy to blame top executives for creating the kind of environment that fosters dishonesty. One New York headhunting firm is run by "people slimier than the bottom of a bottle of Wesson," says a former employee, a finance director. Amid a lack of strong policies and an abundance of bad examples at the top, "everything from regularly calling in 'sick' to stretching revenue forecasts was acceptable. The impact of this on Sally in Accounting was pretty obvious."
Corporate culture does shape employee truthfulness, but the roots of rank-and-file dishonesty run deeper. Research has shown a persistent gap between lower- and higher-ranking workers on certain measures of workplace ethics. Rank-and-file employees are less likely than managers to report misconduct they observe: 44% say they resist doing so, compared with 28% of managers, according to the Ethics Resource Center survey. And younger managers with three years or less experience are nearly twice as likely as older or more experienced managers to say they feel pressured to violate ethical principles.
Some employees, of course, simply harbor a larcenous sense of entitlement. Phyllis Hartman, a consultant with PGHR Consulting, Pittsburgh, who has worked with many clients on family-leave issues, says she has seen an increasing sense of entitlement among employees over the law's 12-year existence, with a growing number taking time off for minor illnesses or questionable family needs. The aged father of one auto-industry employee I know has "died" three times, by the employee's reports, gaining the worker-bereavement leave at each of three successive employers.
While it's never OK to lie at work, the complexities of workers' lives thrust them into some sticky situations. Is it better to tell your boss you can't take a business trip because of nonexistent client appointments, or to admit that your spouse may take the next step toward divorce court if you go? There are some excuses bosses just don't want to hear. As family-oriented as I am, I remember, during a previous life as a bureau chief, getting tired of hearing the same time-off excuses over and over -- the sick nanny, the traveling spouse who can't share child care.
What if the truth will do so much career damage that a face-saving lie seems better? A Newport Beach, Calif., human-resource director says her boss is so demanding that she lies to protect family time, fabricating work-related reasons for missing staff meetings, taking time off or refusing business trips.
"Am I proud of it? No," she writes in an e-mail. "But it helps my VP maintain the illusion that everyone is as dedicated -- that is, as much of a workaholic -- as he is."
But any lie has hidden costs, not only in teamwork and productivity, but in an employees' own self-respect. Once you start stretching the truth, it's easy to forget where to stop. The human-resource director also pads her travel-expense reports, adding an occasional extra meal or inflating the amounts a bit, to help cover the high cost of child care while she's on the road, she says.
If you find yourself in compromising situations, it probably means you need to make a change. A Shrewsbury, N.J., copy editor lied to her supervisor just before Christmas two years ago, saying she would work from home that day. Instead, she took her 90-year-old grandmother to the mall. After she missed a late-afternoon call from her boss, she told yet another lie, that she'd been outside with a repairman at the time. She felt so guilty that she later asked for and received a permanent work-at-home setup.
She hasn't told a lie since.
美国员工诚实水平下降
在高层管理人士伪造财务报表之类的行为不断引起震动之时，另一类有悖职业道德的行为却没有引起人们的足够重视。
从某些调查结果看，普通员工在工作中撒谎的现象比以前增加了。据CCH Inc.公司2004年对305家雇主所作的调查显示，打电话请病假的员工数达到了5年来的高点，而其中有五分之三的人实际并未生病，请病假是为了处理个人事务，或者仅仅是因为觉得他有理由享受一天假。而劳动力管理及咨询企业Kronos Inc.去年对1,316名企业员工进行的调查显示，有超过三分之一的员工承认，曾经在请病假时撒过谎。
一些研究美国人对法律规定的家庭事假使用情况的机构表示，员工们请假的理由现在变得越来越牵强了，他们甚至认为普通的感冒也需要请病假。
另一些研究则显示，求职者在申请工作时提交虚假文凭的情况也达到了三年高点。据人力资源招聘公司Jude M. Werra & Associates所作的调查，他们统计的撒谎指数(Liars Index)显示，有12%的求职者简历中或多或少包含虚假信息。
造成上述现象的原因之一可能是企业加速变化带来的压力。有资料显示，在那些正在实施合并、收购或重组的公司里，不当行为有所增加。
而有些情况则表明，员工的不诚实行为说明制度过时了。比如在马萨诸塞州沃尔瑟姆的Ethics Officer Association工作的埃斯瑞格(Lee Essrig)说，美国东北部地区的一家医疗保健公司禁止员工在公司的电脑上使用个人的软件，但后来公司发现，感到时间紧迫的员工们仍偷偷地在电脑上安装个人银行事务软件和日程管理软件，于是这家公司收回了成命。
诚然，我们每个人在工作当中几乎都有过一次两次不诚实的时候。我曾就办公室常见的8种不诚实行为──包括在请假的原因上面撒谎、多报办公费用等等──向30名读者进行过调查，有三分之一的人在回复中承认至少有过一次不诚实行为。
笔者本人也曾有过不诚实的时候，这不仅指将办公室的纸、笔拿回家用的事。去年，我曾经以家里有急事为由要求重新安排采访时间，实际上，我只是为了跟家里一位满心焦虑的十几岁孩子谈一谈。我之所以撒谎，是不想让别人认为我家里出了乱子。
将员工的不诚实行为归咎于是企业管理层制造了一种“怂恿”不诚实行为的客观环境是很容易的事。纽约一家人力资源招聘公司的前财务主管说，这家公司的经营者是一群非常讨厌的人。他们缺乏强有力的管理制度，且管理层不能以身作则；经常性的打电话请病假、多报收入预测数字等行为都被公司默许了。
企业文化的确有助于培养员工的诚实品质，但普通人不诚实的根源更深。研究表明，底层员工和管理层员工对待职业道德标准的态度一直曾在著差距。普通员工对看到的不良行为向上报告的比例要低于管理人士：据Ethics Resource Center的调查显示，有44%的普通员工说，他们不会去报告，而管理人士中这个比例是28%。另外，与年长或者资历较长的管理人士相比，工龄不超过3年的年轻管理人士在违反道德原则时感到心理有压力的比例要高出近一倍。
当然，有些员工也在滥用法律赋予的权利。曾为多家客户提供过有关事假问题相关服务的PGHR Consulting咨询师哈特曼(Phyllis Hartman)说，自从有关事假的联邦法案颁布12年来，员工认为理所当然应享受事假的想法越来越强烈了，因为很小的不适或无谓的家庭事务动辄请假的人越来越多。她认识的一位在汽车行业工作的人曾经三次分别向其供职的三家公司报告说其年事已高的父亲“去世”了，这样他得以享受了三次丧假。
虽然撒谎总是不好的，但有时从员工所处的复杂境地出发，也许是不得已而为之。你不想出差的时候，是向老板撒谎说已经跟别的客户有约会了好些，还是老实承认说如果你去了，你的配偶就会为跟你打离婚官司采取下一步行动更好呢？有些借口是老板根本不想听到的。我记得即使像我这样家庭观念很强的人，在我担任记者站主任的时候，听到属下请假时总是重复同样的理由──孩子生病了，配偶出差无法照顾孩子，这让我感觉很烦。
如果说实话对保住职位不利，而为顾及面子（和位子）撒谎反而更好些，那究竟该怎么办呢？加州一位人力资源主管说，她的老板对他们要求太高了，为了保证家庭生活的时间，有时她不得不撒谎，编些跟工作有关的理由来解释为什么没参加员工会议、为什么请假、为什么躲避出差等等。
她在电子邮件里说：难道我乐意这样做吗？并不是这样。但是这样可以给我的上司这样的印象：每个员工都很尽职，都像他那样是工作狂。
但只要撒谎就要付出潜在的代价，它不仅会影响团队合作和工作效率，还会伤害员工的自尊。一旦你开始撒谎，你就很难控制何时停下来。那位人力资源主管也曾经虚报出差费用，偶尔多报一次餐费或虚报餐费金额，她说，这样是为了弥补她出差时请人照看孩子支付的高额劳务费。
如果你觉得自己需要妥协，可能就应该考虑作出变化。我们在新泽西的一位文稿编辑两年前在圣诞节前夕对她的上司说，她那天要在家里办公，实际上她陪她90岁的祖母逛商场去了。后来上司问她下午为什么没接电话，她只好继续撒谎说，当时她正和修理工在屋子外面。这件事让她很内疚，后来她索性申请长期在家上班，上司批准了她。
从那以后，她再也没撒过谎。
