White lies

“It is a terrible thing,” said Oscar Wilde, “for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.” I’m not sure many of our current politicians, bankers or journalists are likely to be troubled by this trauma. After reading the accounts offered in a recent book by David Shulman called From Hire to Liar: The Role of Deception in the Workplace it is unlikely that many of us will have either. Shulman examines the intriguing topic of telling lies in the workplace. While fibs and fabulations are usually frowned upon as activities we ought best to avoid, Shulman’s study reveals deception to be an important glue for holding organizations together. Copyrighted Image Bowie15 | Dreamstime.com Shadow of a doubt? Colleagues in discussion

In socio-speak, Shulman argues that “deceptive behavior [has] an integral and functional role in social interaction”. That is, lying and deception ought not necessarily to be seen as bad or wrong but as an essential component of communication and maintaining social order. We do it because we have to.

Of course when fat-cats and managers lie and cheat in order to deceive their employees, or obtain some personal or corporate gain, we quite rightly condemn them. But on a everyday basis, workers must themselves rely on deception – maybe to dodge work or protect their own nefarious schemes, but more often for good and noble reasons, such as to do their jobs effectively, to avoid unnecessary conflict, to protect the feelings of others, or simply to make the monotony and grind of work easier to endure. Telling white lies is what gets us through the day. Come on, you know you’ve done it (I know I have, but I’m not telling when).

In his book Shulman shows how lying pervades a variety of workplaces, such as real estate management (no surprises there I hear you thinking), private detective work but also more ‘ethical’ occupations such as environmental activism and work in the not-for-profit sector. Throughout Shulman takes a pretty dispassionate view of workplace deception, neither subscribing to conservative views of deceivers as ‘bad apples’ to be stigmatized or ejected from the workplace, nor overtly celebrating workers’ own deceptions as evidence of resistance or subversive radicalism. Of course, he’s not endorsing a relativistic position – we still have to make decisions about what constitutes appropriate behaviour. Nevertheless, he accepts lying for what it is – a necessary part of everyday life. So don’t feel too bad next time you pull a fast one over your boss or workmates, in this regard you’re just like the rest of us – and you might well be doing it for the best of reasons.

Find Out More

Do you have an interest in philosophy and ethics and want to take it further?

The psychology of deception

The ethics of lying on bbc.co.uk