him the job.
Lying to Save Trouble
I had just administered an exam to a dental ethics class, and my assistant Jackie collected the blue books that the students had used to write their essays. When it came time for me to grade them, I asked Jackie where the books were. She couldn’t find them and was afraid to tell me so.
Eventually she mustered the courage to let me know that the books were nowhere to be found. She and I were scheduled to go out of town with our boss for a weekend-long workshop. “I can’t bear the thought of spending the whole weekend with you angry at me,” she confessed, “so I hope you’ll please forgive me.”
What Jackie didn’t know is that I had been in her situation several years before when I was in graduate school. Somehow I’d lost an entire class’s blue books that I’d been assigned to grade, and after trying to concoct a believable excuse as to what had happened, I figured that since I was studying for a PhD in philosophy, I should tell my adviser the truth. I was petrified that he would be angry with me and that I might lose the fellowship I’d worked so hard to get, which would mean finding another way of paying for my education.
But my professor surprised me by being compassionate. He wasn’t pleased with what had happened, but he could see that I’d made an honest, if careless, mistake, and that there was no reason to make me feel any worse than I already did.
I thought about that professor’s response when I listened to Jackie sorrowfully asking me to forgive her. “Of course I will,” I told her. I’m not sure if I told her that I’d once done the same thing she had, but I appreciated the courage that it took to tell me the truth, because I knew firsthand how difficult it was to do that.
Both Jackie and I could have lied to our supervisors. It would have been easier than telling the truth. It wasn’t pleasant to admit what had happened, but it was the honorable choice.
Evaluating Honesty
Finding Honest Job Applicants
My father once bought a life insurance policy from an agent who was a really likeable guy. Warm, friendly, and a good listener, Eric was just the kind of person you wanted on your team. His impeccable credentials, strong references, and a professional demeanor made him an understandable choice to handle such an important part of my father’s financial portfolio.
He also turned out to be a crook.
After my dad discovered that Eric had embezzled thousands of dollars, my father sued him, and I went to the trial. I’ll never forget what Eric’s own attorney said to the jury: “No one will ever trust Eric again.” When your own attorney publicly declares you to be untrustworthy, you’ve got some real integrity problems. Eric was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to prison. After his release, he operated a limousine company and died a few years ago at the age of sixty-two.
Had you met Eric, I’ll bet you too would have believed him to be an honest person you could trust as your insurance agent. He is an excellent, if tragic, example of how difficult it is to evaluate a job candidate’s honesty.
But because honesty is an essential characteristic of the Good Ones, the following questions and sample answers may be helpful to interviewers.
Tell me about a time when you had to tell a direct report an unpleasant truth. What were the challenges and how did you get past them? What were the consequences?
Ross, a senior vice president at an international consulting firm, needed to tell Hazel, his direct report, that she wasn’t going to get the promotion she was expecting. “It was partially my fault for not having submitted the correct paperwork on time, which I didn’t know I was supposed to do,” Ross told me. “Mostly, though, it was our company’s bureaucracy that got in the way of Hazel’s promotion. Hazel would have found out on her own in six weeks, but I decided that the bad news should come from me. I didn’t want her waiting for something that wasn’t going to happen.”
He fretted for days before talking with Hazel. “I was afraid she would quit, which she would have been perfectly justified in doing. She has been with the company for seven years and has always done a good job. Well, she was very angry when I told her she wouldn’t be getting a promotion this time around. But I was glad she felt safe expressing her frustration to me, and it gave us an opportunity to have an open and honest discussion about her role at the firm.”
Ross pressed his own supervisor to get involved, and eventually Hazel got both a promotion and a raise. “Hazel told me she appreciated that I told her what was going on,” Ross explained. “She knows she can trust me to be straight with her and to fight for her, too. That may be one of the reasons she still works here.” Ross could have kept the truth to himself, but his decision to be open with Hazel illustrates the point that honest employees feel compelled to be truthful.
If a job candidate has had supervisory experience, chances are that this question will be relevant.
Tell me about a time when you could have lied to a supervisor but chose to tell the truth. What happened?
Being honest with the boss can be challenging for a good reason: Who wants to alienate the person who has a big say in whether you get a raise or a promotion — or who may ask you to leave?
But recall the story of Jackie, who lost the entire class of dental students’ blue books but told her boss (me) what she did. Jackie could have made up some excuse to explain the problem, but she chose the honorable path. I still respect her for having done this.
Have you ever cheated, and if so, what did you learn from it?
Several of the HR managers I spoke with in doing research for this book told me, “You’d be surprised how often people will just come out and tell you about the dishonest things they’ve done.” I agree.
From time to time I interview high school students who are applying to the college I attended. A few years ago, I mentioned to Rob, the young man I was interviewing, that I’d written a book called Is It Still Cheating If I Don’t Get Caught? I told him how dismayed I was by news reports of cheating in prestigious high schools and colleges and asked him point-blank if he had ever misrepresented himself.
“Yes,” he said. “My friends and I have done it more than once. School is so competitive now you have to cheat to get good grades.”
Rob got an A for being honest with me and a “Do not admit” recommendation from me on the college evaluation form.
There are two downsides to asking a direct question about dishonesty. First, it immediately strikes fear in the candidate’s heart, even if the candidate is fundamentally an honest person. I don’t like the idea of making a job candidate squirm. The second is that the question seems to present a no-win situation for the candidate. She may reason that if the she admits to having cheated, she won’t get the job (as happened to Rob); but if she lies, she’ll be worried about being caught in a lie and rejected for that reason. Only candidates who have never cheated have nothing to worry about (except being believed).
But the savvy interviewer will not reject a candidate simply because he has admitted to cheating. What bothered me about Rob wasn’t so much his admission of cheating but the fact that he exhibited no remorse for having done so and even attempted to justify it.
The smart employer looks not for perfection but for an explanation of how the consequences of a dishonorable act affected the candidate and others. It is probably
