Gauging Honesty at Work
April 26, 2006 — -- There is sure a lot of great sociology in dating, particularly in the ever-growing world of online dating. Amid the dull dates, intrigue and ships passing in the night, I've developed a theory that there are four types of people in online dating. Recently, I explained my theory to a woman, and she said that she thought it also applied to work.
The more I thought about it, the more I thought that she might be right, particularly with regard to honesty at work. Let's see if you agree. Here is a quick rundown of the four character types that you might see at work:
Group One: This is the smallest group. I call them the Whole Truth and Nothing Buts group. These people are scrupulously honest. I'm not sure they could lie even if they wanted to.
Group Two: This group is slightly larger than the first group but still makes up a relatively small slice of office life. These are the Pathological Liars. They lie even when it doesn't serve a purpose. One HR manager commented that the good part about pathological liars is that they lie so indiscriminately that you can usually catch them by just checking little details, like if the dates they worked at a certain job are accurate. Lucky for all of us, this group is relatively small.
Group Three: This group is much bigger than groups one and two combined. I was first introduced to this group when a woman who was six feet tall thought that was too tall to list in her online profile. So she put herself down at 5 feet 10 inches. Unfortunately, the great guy she found at 5 feet 10 inches was really only 5 feet 8 inches. Needless to say, they didn't exactly see eye to eye. I call this group the Rounding Errors. It's not really a lie, they just rounded things a bit. But the ramifications of rounding can have ripple effects -- the dating scenario offers a good example.
Group Four: Unfortunately, this seems to be the biggest group out there. To understand this group, I need to refer to one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes. It was one in which Jerry needed to pass a lie detector test. So he went to the best liar he knew, his friend George. George said, "Jerry, there is one thing you must remember. It's not a lie, if you believe it to be the truth." I call this group the Self-Deceivers.
