Honesty

When we think of dishonest behavior in the workplace we think about the stereotypical used car salesman. But there are many other inappropriate or dishonest activities that can happen, and things do have a way to catch up with you.

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Welcome back to my podcast Scaling Out.

 Today I want to talk about honesty. Having integrity and being honest are so important in the business world as well as in life. But it is always surprising to find examples of when people are not. Resumes are one example where exaggerations can really get you into trouble, if you say you know something youd better be able to answer questions about it. If you only saw it written in a document don’t list it on your resume. I mean we all feel sometimes that we are faking it until we make it, we cannot be experts in all things, but seriously be honest on what you know and what you have done on your resumes. 

Another example is with time off, if you are taking a sick day it must be because you are sick or a family member is sick and needs your care. Don’t use this day to do anything else; shopping, vacation, spa day. 

And how about work tasks & time sheets, if something takes 2hrs to complete don’t tell everyone it took 40. 

All of these examples have a way to catch up to you. Even if you get hired with an exaggerated resume, there could be significant pressure put on you to pick up that programming language in a day – since hey, you said you were an expert on. Or if you do get sick but your prior sick day indiscretion is known, the team doesn’t know if you really ARE sick this time. And if you are not being forethright on your timesheet, this could ruin the project, the deliverable and potentially your employer – a huge issue all around.

“Aint nobody got time for this” is really what you should be saying, stay on the up ‘n up to keep your project, your team, and your employer happy with you!

Thanks for listing to my podcast! Until next time, stay safe everyone.