UNITED STATES—When you think of the word deception what comes to mind? Sneaky, snake, liar, there are plenty of words that one can use when you think of the idea of deception. To be honest I like the word deception more because it’s a characteristic that many more people in America embody than we’d like to believe. Let me just give you my definition of the word deception: when a person attempts to present the truth when they are well aware they are telling a lie or hiding the entire truth.

I’m bringing this issue to hand because it has become apparent to me over time, that people will be deceptive if they know they are not necessarily being watched or monitored. Why? They lack integrity. Integrity is a big word for plenty of people to use, and notably it involves doing the right thing when people are not looking. It sucks, but the truth is the truth. Some people just can’t be trusted.

All of this comes to a head with me dealing with people who submit false invoices. If you lie, you will steal; if you steal you will kill. So it’s a domino effect, the behavior just gets worse the more that you allow it. If you lie on one invoice, what is to say that one will not lie on another invoice? You likely will, what is worse, is when you get caught and deny or lie about it, then turn around and do the same thing again without properly making it be known.

That’s deception people; you just got caught, but instead of acknowledging it you continue to move along as if nothing ever happened. That is very concerning for me people. I also am a firm believer that if you tell a lie on a person, they catch you in the lie and you continue to deny that is an attempt to deceive, ESPECIALLY when all of the dots connect to something fishy on your end. I think this is vital, I mean vital in the world of management and employment.

If you have staff members who are obviously deceiving in an attempt to gain the upper hand and continuing to refuse to acknowledge the issue that characteristic can spillover to other staff. Yes, one bad apple can indeed spoil the entire bunch if you allow it. What’s worse, you never want to give an employee the perception that they can get one over because they will argue, cause dissension and more problems for the overall morale of the company.

For those in management, do not be passive to deceptive employees, it is never a good sign for the company when you allow such things to transpire. There are so many who like to believe conflict is a bad thing for a company. It’s NOT, conflict it good because it helps one address an issue and solve a problem before it becomes more chaotic as time progresses. I’m a firm believer that if you try to cut corners once, you’ll do it over and over and over again until you call them out.

Deception is very easy to spot, if you suspect it, guess what it is likely transpiring. If you call the person out and they get caught in a lie you have your answer. There is no need to dig deeper people!