Sooner or later, and it’s usually sooner, we all have to deal with someone who is dishonest or dishonorable. There is a reason that many military and other societies put honor so highly on the list of virtues. It’s because of its absence in many other aspects of life.
While we may all be looking for short cuts to improve efficiency or similar in our projects, there is a right and wrong way of getting there. The cutthroat antics of many in movies are replayed in real life with much more vigor, and occasionally you get to see them for yourself.
While the culture and politics of an operation can often be awkward and difficult to deal with, they may occasionally permit or even encourage other means of making it up the ladder. At times like this you will see some very sneaky and mean spirited stuff happen.
Here are some recommendations when faced with these situations:
- Don’t ignore the situation, by having knowledge you are involved and have a responsibility to do something about it.
- Decide who to inform about the situation and gather as many facts as possible before taking action.
- If you believe it’s your direct boss that is involved in the situation, then decide who is best to discuss it with. This might be HR, Legal or an adjacent reporting line to your chain of command.
- Stay honest yourself, don’t involve yourself in having to repeat a lie, misstatement or taking action against someone for no reason.
- Talk to a friend or someone who will give you good counsel if you can’t discuss it with someone at work.
- Document what you know and when you learned it. You may need it in the future.
