Shauna Moerke is…

Ok, I get the impulse to lie. You may be afraid you are going to get into trouble. Especially if you did something bad, know you did something bad, and know that you’ll be fired if you are found out. It is very understandable. But it’s also very stupid.

But you’ll be fired if you tell the truth, right? The truth will set you free, alright, free from your job that is. What do you have to lose, anyway? And you might get away with it too.

Lying is still a bad idea and here’s why:

1. It speaks to your character. Whether you are fired or not, is this really the kind of impression you want to make on your boss and co-workers? If you aren’t fired you will have to keep working with them and if you are fired you never know when you might end up working with these people again. Being known as a liar is a lot worse than being known for making a mistake once.

2. How do you know what to lie about? The thing I see a lot from employees who lie is that they don’t realize how much information their employers have access to. Oh, you arrived at 8:30 exactly, huh? Then why do the surveillance tapes show you arriving at 8:45? You say you made that purchase with your own money? Then why do the records show your debit card was charged? You just never know what they can and cannot verify or even what they are looking for.

3. Do you ever truly “get away with it”? So you lied and got to keep your job. Congratulations, you have now given yourself a paper trail and brought extra scrutiny upon everything that you do. Managers do not like being told they can’t fire an employee that they think is doing something bad because we didn’t have enough evidence. As such, if you do anything else, even if there isn’t definitive proof, your manager will be all over it and now we can show a pattern.

It sucks to lose your job and right now even more so. But lying isn’t the answer. And try not to compound the issue later by lying and saying you were laid off instead of fired. That’s extra stupid.