Should You Lie To Your Boss?

Your employer has a temper, but should you lie to your boss? Employees are often caught with a decision on whether they should to keep things cool. However, it can all catch up to you with a pink slip in your hand.

When you don’t tell the truth at work, it can really come back to haunt you. However, are there exceptions to the rule? Shawn Achor, a consultant and psychology expert, says that most people who lie in the workplace do it because there is no “psychological safety.”

“There is no psychological safety when managers don’t allow humans to be humans — i.e., to make mistakes and to not be perfect,” Achor says. “If a manager is unable to hear about negative things, confusion or setbacks, then that manager is going to get lied to often. Good managers want an accurate assessment of the present, even if it is not good. Bad bosses want the semblance of progress in the present, at the cost of future successes.”

Whether or not it’s OK to lie to your boss, workers will do it anyway. For example, you overslept and are late to work. Should you like? It depends — telling your boss your alarm didn’t go off (when you actually turned it off and went back to bed) might be an acceptable explanation, but only once.