By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady
Readers deliver a veritable flood of responses—mostly critical—to The Ethicist column about how to handle a lying employee.
My column two weeks back concerned some advice that The Ethicist (a newspaper columnist) gave concerning an employee who claimed she needed leave because she was suffering from cancer. Her co-workers all pitched in to do her work. Later it was revealed that she had fabricated her illness.
The Ethicist thought that the employer should give the co-workers time off to compensate for having been deceived, and recommended no punishment for the lying worker.
I replied that I thought that if we at BLR had faced the same situation, the lying employee would have been disciplined, perhaps fired, and that our people would have had the good nature to just accept that they had been duped.
And then I asked readers to weigh in. And I can tell you, Advisor readers really did not like this “person from another planet” telling them how to run HR. I can’t possibly quote all of the dozens of responses, but I’ll try to give you a sense of them.
Where Did They Get This Ethics Guy?
First off, I don’t think anybody agreed with The Ethicist’s recommendations. Some expressions of that:
“Where did they get this ethics guy?”
“Wow, is the weather nice on this planet the ‘Ethicist’ comes from?”
“This person has never run a successful business.”
“Ivory tower mentality, not grounded in reality.”
‘Shame on HR’
On the other hand, many readers were concerned that HR had not done its job. Here’s how they put it:
“Didn’t HR require FMLA documentation prior to approving the leave?”
“Company HR policies, procedures, and execution need an overhaul.”
“Did anyone even ask what hospital she would be in so that the company could send flowers? Even that question would have provided some information!”
Reward the Co-workers?
In general, readers did not want to directly reward co-workers, for example, by extending them comp time, yet most respondents thought that some form of reward and/or apology would be appropriate. Your ideas:
“Consider holding a company luncheon to re-gain the positive attitude.”
“An apology from the company for failing to manage this situation properly is in order. Additional appreciation should be given in the form of gift cards, a special lunch or dinner, or a similar activity.”
“I can understand catering lunch as a thank you to the employees, but time off is ridiculous!”
Fire the Liar
Many respondents would fire the liar, but some urged caution, or a lesser punishment.
“This employee is SO fired ….”
“My organization’s core value is integrity and we don’t compromise that for anything so termination is the direction to go.”
“If it was proven to be a legitimate mental health condition that caused this type of behavior … continued employment may be required.”
“The underlying cause for employee’s lie should determine severity of discipline. For example, if employee’s mother was ill and she wanted to spend time with her but was afraid to ask for time off, I would not fire her, but if the employee lied just to have time off, I believe I would terminate.”
Responses to the Responses
And, of course, with an issue like this one, there are responses to the responses:
“I am shocked how soft some of you are about this. This person didn’t lie about having the flu. She told people she had cancer! … “
“If you make a call with the provided information, you’re a manager. If you look for more information, then I think you’re a good manager. “
Creative approaches
And a number of respondents got creative in their solutions:
“It is only fair that the employee who lied should be required to cover for the other employees as they take comp time for the hours they worked in her stead.”
“If I allowed the employee to stay, I would require individually-written letters of apology for each member of the team that picked up the extra work while she was out.”
Reality Check
And finally, what we hope is a tongue- in- cheek reflection:
“What would our company do? Discipline the employee up to and including termination (or promote her).”
Readers, thanks for your thoughts on this issue and for taking the time to respond.
By the way, with all this interest on an ethical matter, I’ve got another question: Would you like see some training materials on ethics? If I were to ask my editors to invent such materials what would they be like? What would you hope to accomplish by using them? Let me know by emailing RBrady@blr.com.
Re: Lying Employees
We have one employee who is improving. Previously, we’d joke that the way to know if she were lying was if her lips were moving, she was lying! She would lie when there were no reason, and when there were huge reasons. The boss would take her into his office, she’d lie her way out of it, and go on her merry way. And she doesn’t understand why no one talks to her?!?!?!? There have been no consequences–we are all seeking employment elsewhere.
It’s unfortunately when people such as Connie’s co-worker dwell in our midst and go unscathed. To the extent they perform their various manner of harm on the office and those associated with the business and keep getting off with just a “talking to” or worse, get their lies and tantrums catered to, the worse the situation will become. Authorities have found these types of people will feel they are being encouraged to act in their various manipulative ways and will only get worse as time passes. Congratulations to Connie’s workplace that there’s been some improvement.
There are many other examples of this type of dysfunctional in the office. The lying is only one part of it. Can you imagine having this type of person in charge of the ethics and compliance program for the company? Which way would the company go in regard to sound practices?
It is my desire to have the ability to share some of my expertise in the areas of bullying, workplace abuse, communication skills, ethics, and so on. My knowledge draws on a wealth of research and experiences, so no fingerpointing is necessary. Just good hard examinations of situations and parsing out the alternatives.