Five Times Its Ok To Lie To Your Boss.

Honesty is the best policy, right? Wrong! There are times where you owe it yourself (and even to your company) to lie to the boss.

This post contains ten real-life situations where deception is the better part of honor.

1: When Lying is Integral to Your JobSome jobs, by definition, involve lying to the public. If that’s the case with yours, you’d best be consistent in private, too.

For example, suppose you’re a stockbroker that’s backing an IPO, it’s your job to talk up the IPO to
investors, regardless of whether you actually think it’s any good. Telling the truth to your boss is just plain stupid, because 1) your boss probably already knows the IPO is a piece of crap, and 2) you could create an audit trail proving that you knew you were selling a piece of crap.

In short, it’s better to keep your story straight, than try to keep it selectively real. If you’ve made a deal with the devil, it’s just plain stupid not to be consistently satanic.

If you’ve got some personal dirt on your co-workers, you owe it to them to keep it quiet, even if the boss asks.

This isn’t to say that you should be covering up crime. But if, for instance, you’re aware that Joe called in sick because he partied too hearty last night, it’s not your job to be the office tattletale.

The same thing goes for various screw-ups that might occur, but which are outside of your realm of responsibility. You may know exactly who’s really responsible for screwing up some project, but that doesn’t mean that it’s your job to fill the boss in.

In business, you’re well advised to mind your own. And if it’s not your own business, leave it to somebody else to dish the dirt. Just say “I have no idea.” Even if you do.

You have a right to look for another job… without suffering the consequences.

If it gets out that you’re looking afield, you might be penalized with a loss of status or power. You even might get fired before you find the job you want, if your boss figures that you’re planning on leaving anyway.

So feel free to tell any lies that you need to tell in order to keep your job-search secret

4: When Bosses Lie To You FirstThere is an implicit contract between human beings: you don’t lie to me and I’ll won’t lie to you.

In business, though, that implicit contract is often seen as a one-way street. The employee is told to always tell the truth, while the boss is mandated to lie with impunity when it’s in the firm’s interest.

When bosses tell self-serving lies about salaries, raises, layoffs, work hours, etc. they have set themselves outside of the pale of ethical human behavior. As such, they no longer have any right to ask for honesty from you.

Of course, you may choose to tell the truth, if you wish, but you are no longer obligated to do so.

5: When It’s None of Their Damn BusinessSome bosses are nosy-parkers, and some companies don’t respect privacy. I say: screw ‘em.

If your boss decides to quiz you on your religion, your politics, your personal life, your sexual orientation, your eating habits, what you smoke, or anything else that doesn’t directly affect your work performance, you have no obligation to answer truthfully.

Here’s the deal: decades of corporate control have ensured that employees lack basic privacy protections. For all intents and purposes, companies are now allowed to monitor anything and everything. Heck, they can even demand blood tests — meaning that they’re allowed to sequester an actual part of your physical body.

You have every right to keep anything and everything about your personal life secret from your boss. Even if it means lying.

READERS: Do you agree with all these cases? Some of them? None of them?