Truth and Honesty at Work: the unavoidable storm

TRUTH AND HONESTY AT WORK...in the face of Personnel Development Programs, and other nearly impossible workplace problems

By: The Pyst Geologist

Let's start out with two definitions that we all know and should be able to agree upon.

Honest and Truth:

Definition of honest

1 a : free from fraud or deception : legitimate, truthful, an honest plea, an honest presentation of facts

b : genuine, real making honest stops at stop signs

c : humble, plain good honest food

2 a : reputable, respectable, honest decent people

b chiefly British : good, worthy, an honest fellow

3: worthy of praise, an honest day's work, put forth an honest effort

4 a : marked by integrity, honest merchants

b : marked by free, forthright, and sincere expression : frank, an honest appraisal, an honest discussion

c : direct and uncomplicated : innocent, simple, some good honest sleep

Definition of truth

Plural truths play \ˈtrüt͟hz, ˈtrüth\

1 a : (1) : the body of real things, events, and facts : actuality

(2) : the state of being the case : fact

(3) often capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality

b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted

as true truths of thermodynamics

c : the body of true statements and propositions

2 a : the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality

b : chiefly British : true

c : fidelity to an original or to a standard

3 a : sincerity in action, character, and utterance

b archaic : fidelity, constancy

4 capitalized, Christian Science : god

Merriam – Webster Definitions of Honest and Truth

(cited online: 11 December, 2017)

Let me break this down with a scenario that has become common in today's workplaces.

Suppose you work for a company that is concerned about their public image or internal friction.

The company simply is structured from the top down like this:

1. The Board Directors or Board of Investors (the Board)

2. The Administration (Admin)

3. The Management (Mgmt)

4. The Workers

So, in an attempt to foster better relations within the group, and by proxy, create a better image of competence and unity to public your Admin brings in an expert or team to help with “Personal Development”, “Professional Development” or even “Public Relations Training” by orchestrating staff meetings to teach employees techniques to increase efficiency or better relate to each other, the customers and/or the public. What does this mean? Should you be concerned? Are there problems at work that you are not aware of? Does management or the Admin think that you have failed to do something, or worse yet, done something wrong? Before you get worried, be skeptical, but not dismissive.

If these meetings, briefings or classes are (and remain) voluntary then it can be somewhat assumed that the admin or management team are simply trying to encourage employees to do work together better and it is probably in your best interest to try to attend. Be sure to take notes, ask questions and stay skeptical!

Many businesses and factories are involved in production and quality control programs such as ISO (International Organization for Standardization) Programs such as these ensure industrial standards for production practices and methods required for international trade. These programs are NOT what I am talking about here, but a fair bit of skepticism should ALWAYS be retained by individuals that take part in any corporate based education program.

So, just focusing on programs that deal with personnel and not the production or product quality, what should you do if your admin makes a personnel or personal development program mandatory?

Well, by making such a program mandatory it now becomes, a mandate that you should all share blame or are at least culpable in a problem that Mgmt, Admin or the Board is dealing with. I would argue that there are various reasons for this, such as:

1) A person or group of persons within the company are the cause of a problem that Admin doesn't want to address, and therefore blames everyone. This is a collective punishment and an attempt at retraining to 'set you right'.

--- “We (admin) don't want to look like the bad guys to a few troublesome workers, so we will have EVERYONE take part in this program. Hopefully the troublemakers will either leave on their own by not conforming to our new standards set forth in this program, or just finally shut up and do their work. Either way we get what we want.”

2) The admin wants to absolve itself of blame if an employee does or did something that the customers would or could complain about, and therefore have a solid excuse for terminating the offending employee.

---  “We (admin) don't know why a worker did that? They took part in our personnel development course, so they should know better. I guess they just aren't a good fit here. We're going to have to let them go.”

3) The admin has been shamed into this program by their investors, board of directors, a special interest group or the people that have developed (and are selling) the program.

--- a) “We (your board of directors, or investors) are going to have you all take part in this program because you are incompetent, insensitive or otherwise not as efficient as we think you should be. Even though we have no idea what you actually do, nor have any interest in finding out the specifics of any problems you might face. This one stop program will fix all the problems we currently have, and if there are problems after this course is done, then we can assume the problem is with you.”

--- b) “We (a special interest group, or the developers of the program) would hate for the public to find out that by denying your employees the opportunity learn these principles and techniques, this organization fosters employees attitudes and practices that are bigoted: racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise exclusionary and therefore un-American.”

Keep in this mind, these programs cost money (tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars), plus the cost of lost productivity while workers are at the classes and not working, plus the cost of Overtime if the company has shift-workers that have to be called in to attend these classes. The monetary expenditure can be relatively massive depending on how large the company you work for is, so this is a major investment that most likely needs to be vetted and approved at the top levels. So, this makes it imperative to understand WHY you are being mandated to attend the program.

If these questions are not answered in the introductory meeting of the 'training' program, be sure to ask your supervisor or boss these simple questions as politely as possible:

1. Are participants allowed to speak freely and openly during these 'training' sessions without fear of reprisal for objections made, ideas expressed or questions asked?

2. Why has this particular 'training' program been chosen?

3. How much will this 'training' program cost?

4. Why is this 'training' program not voluntary?

5. What specifically does Management, the Administration and/or the Board hope this 'training' program will accomplish?

6. Who approved and vetted this particular 'training' program and it's information for accuracy and effectiveness to attain the desired outcome?

7. What empirical data is this 'training' program based on?

8. What other companies in our industry have undergone this 'training' program?

9. What am I, as an individual worker, going to be specifically expected to do as a result of this 'training' program?

10. What policy changes will be made as a result of this 'training' program?

With this information you, as an individual worker, can better asses the nature and purpose for the program. It may be innocuous, and only intended to help get all employees functioning better as a team. However, there may be an underlying nefarious rationalization lurking within the program, specifically designed to make the dismissal of an employee easier. Either way, if you do not at least attempt to show interest as to why such a program is being enacted, you may inadvertently become subject to policies, practices and procedures that could become the justification for your own dismissal.

This is of course assuming that honesty is valued at your job. In my experience, it is most likely NOT a welcome trait.

I have been in several situations where authoritative figures have expressed a desire for honest and open feedback to policies and practices, assuring complete anonymity for anyone that wanted voice a complaint or concern. Without fail, every time that I have taken that opportunity to voice a concern (being careful not to make an accusation of intentional harm), there has been a backlash in direct opposition to the promised ability to speak freely and without retribution. In most cases, this backlash was expressed in front of other workers and served as a warning to everyone to shut up and never express concerns or grievances, even under the promise of immunity. In turn, I have been labeled as 'a little bitch', 'not a team player' or just regarded as someone that is looking for any reason to 'rock the boat'. The most explicit case of this happened during my last week of basic training in the Air Force.

I was 'dressed down' by a screaming drill sergeant (Training Instructor, or TI for short in the Air Force) in front of hundreds of airmen for expressing concern during a meeting at the end of boot camp. The fact is that I really liked my TI and there was a rumor going around that there were military personnel on the base always looking for reasons to reprimand 'abusive' TI's. If I remember correctly, this was supposed to be an attempt to clean up the image of the military during the Clinton administration. So, I was concerned that one of these do-gooder Airmen observing him publicly 'harassing' a trainee could be misconstrued as abusive behavior instead of the normal corrective verbose manner of instruction. My concern was passed down to him, after a large meeting of new Airmen and headed by a superior officer, as a complaint of harassment, instead of a concern for the welfare of my beloved TI. So, being a typical hard-ass, he let into me with a rage induced furry of anger and indignation that a trainee of his would go so low as to accuse him of physical abuse and harassment. As I stood there waiting for him to finish his rant, it occurred to me that the fact that my military bearing hadn't cracked had just pissed him off even more. I was honest, I had told the truth, and though my stomach was knotted from the adrenaline of being in the situation, I knew that I had done nothing wrong... he had simply been misinformed, but the damage was done. I am not sure if he realized it, but he perfectly personified the brutal reality of telling the truth in any large organization. Even when you are promised anonymity and/or immunity from any repercussions from what you might say, you will surely pay for being honest.

I payed for my honesty by becoming ostracized by my fellow Airmen. This wouldn't have bothered me too much, but I was part of a small group of trainees that were determined that if one person in our Flight (a block of 50 Air Force Trainees) was going to graduate basic training, then EVERYONE in our flight was going graduate basic training. So, I spent my nights in the bathroom (get your mind out of the gutter) teaching uncoordinated kids left from right and how to march correctly. During our physical training when we would complete our morning runs, we would go back out onto the tarmac training area to run with the slower kids, encouraging them to pick up the pace and keep moving. So, even though I had helped other trainees complete their basic training requirements, I had become an outcast.

The outcome of that little anecdote, should have left me contented to become a silent little nothing, happily willing to do whatever authoritative figures ask, never expressing concern or voicing opinions based my experiences or questioning the status-quo...but I'm not that kind of person. I understand that with Freedom of Speech there is the inevitable responsibility for what you say. That is, although you may not always be held legally responsible for the words you speak or ideas you express, you will most assuredly be held responsible in a social sense by your spouse, family, peers, co-workers, supervisors, bosses, administrators and a whole slue of other people you may not even know and, they can all make your life a living hell if you say the wrong thing. Even if it's honest and true, but I'm willing to take that chance and hope that someday uncomfortable honest speech will be regarded with more acceptance than comfortable omissions and pretty lies.

So why is this? Why do words have such power? In my opinionated mind it is simply that people are stupid. I do not mean to say that all people are stupid all of the time, but rather, we have a profound ability to suspend rational thought and assume the worst of each other. Instead of asking for clarification or even attempting to find out if you actually said what others claim you had said, people tend to jump straight onto the 'demonize the bastard' bandwagon. In many cases people simply say things that they haven't completely parsed out yet. I don't know about you, but I often think out loud. In fact, if anyone were near me while typing this, I'm sure that they would think I was completely insane, because I have been speaking to myself, listening to myself and then dictating to myself these thoughts in all their randomly incoherent splendor. Though not everyone thinks out loud, it has been my experience that many people do, and if you ask someone like me a question, you might get an answer that is impartial. This is especially true if we have not full worked out an understanding of the subject. Our true answer could be completely contrary to what we actually would actually agree to if given an appropriate opportunity to rationalize our response. Plus, being a somewhat scientifically minded individual, as I receive or find new information on a specific subject, my opinion or understanding regarding it changes... so what I answer today, may not reflect what I will answer tomorrow.

Given all of this... Is honesty still the best policy? Well, yes. It might not keep you employed, depending on how honest your workplace wants people to be, but if you have to lie or hide the truth as matter of course to stay employed, you might as well start looking for a new job or begin taking anti-depression medication right now. As it is my opinion that the cognitive dissonance of lying will adversely affect you, if you want to be able to sleep soundly at night and be able to look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, then just be honest. If your boss asks you a question, make sure you know if they are asking for an opinion or a fact... sometimes the best answer is, “I'm not sure, but I can find that out for you.” Of course you also have to realize that your honesty is built upon what you trust and/or believe to be true, so make every effort to ask the right questions, collect the available relevant information and try to think rationally if the situation calls for it.

Lastly, if you are in an Administration or Management position, make every attempt to realize that you have people under you that may not think or speak in the same manner as you do. If you ask them a question, be sure to clarify if you are asking for an opinion or fact. Make every attempt to encourage open and honest discourse between employees and management, because without that, everything bad tends to get swept under the rug. Once sparing the boss from hearing bad news or potential problems becomes the unofficial policy in the organization, you are creating a powder keg that will only end in disaster.