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Sunday, April 08, 2007
Lying is essential to doing business
Marketplace: "Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway is OK with lying on the job. In fact, she believes the corporate world demands them, and in a very real way it cannot function without little white lies to get through the day."
Lies may be necessary - but it doesn't mean it's okay or right. I think her outlook is a terrible mindset. Seeing lying as necessary or "the norm." It awful. I understand how lying needs to be done to survive in this world, especially in businesses like she's talking about, but you should avoid it as much as possible. If you like constantly, people are going to catch on and no longer trust you. If you only lie when it's absolutely "necessary" you are much better off. It's unrealistic to say "stop lying." But we can make it as least harmful as possible. Think before you lie.
I think she over emphasizes the world 'lying.' Either that, or our society has just become desensitized to this form of 'lying.' I mean really, acting nicely and civil towards someone you hate isn't necessarily lying. I'm sure everyone does this without even thinking of it as lying. We've been raised this way - always be nice. And in relation to not saying something you feel - like "you're an idiot" - is that really lying or just holding back the truth?
i don't think the theatre industry is a good place for "Lying". so many things are dependent on one another that if one thing get slipped up it causes a domino effect. For example, if dave asks us, "how everything is going?" and we say that, "we're a little behind, but i think we'll be okay." and he takes that as truth, things are going to keep moving on at that pace until we hit a brickwall and everything comes crashing down. i don't think it is every necessary, and certainly not helpful in the end.
This is a touchy subject because, like Andrea said, it's hard to define what "lying" IS exactly. It's really vital to be liked and amiable especially in our business. Sometimes it's easy to mix personal and business issues, which can be very detrimental to your career and subsequent opportunities. Always being nice, in my opinion, isn't really "lying" as she puts it.
This is SO true! There really is no way that any industry could function on a level with the absolute truth. One because people have so many insecurities that we would not be able to handle this.
5 comments:
Lies may be necessary - but it doesn't mean it's okay or right. I think her outlook is a terrible mindset. Seeing lying as necessary or "the norm." It awful. I understand how lying needs to be done to survive in this world, especially in businesses like she's talking about, but you should avoid it as much as possible. If you like constantly, people are going to catch on and no longer trust you. If you only lie when it's absolutely "necessary" you are much better off. It's unrealistic to say "stop lying." But we can make it as least harmful as possible. Think before you lie.
I think she over emphasizes the world 'lying.' Either that, or our society has just become desensitized to this form of 'lying.' I mean really, acting nicely and civil towards someone you hate isn't necessarily lying. I'm sure everyone does this without even thinking of it as lying. We've been raised this way - always be nice. And in relation to not saying something you feel - like "you're an idiot" - is that really lying or just holding back the truth?
i don't think the theatre industry is a good place for "Lying". so many things are dependent on one another that if one thing get slipped up it causes a domino effect. For example, if dave asks us, "how everything is going?" and we say that, "we're a little behind, but i think we'll be okay." and he takes that as truth, things are going to keep moving on at that pace until we hit a brickwall and everything comes crashing down. i don't think it is every necessary, and certainly not helpful in the end.
This is a touchy subject because, like Andrea said, it's hard to define what "lying" IS exactly. It's really vital to be liked and amiable especially in our business. Sometimes it's easy to mix personal and business issues, which can be very detrimental to your career and subsequent opportunities. Always being nice, in my opinion, isn't really "lying" as she puts it.
This is SO true! There really is no way that any industry could function on a level with the absolute truth. One because people have so many insecurities that we would not be able to handle this.
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