I recently had a student lie to me. I am quite confident that students lie to me all the time, but I caught this lie. I took it very seriously, although the underlying reason for the lie was not something all that important. Here is why: despite the daily barrage of stories of executives cheating, committing fraud, and stealing, corporate America still takes lying seriously. The most recent evidence of caring about lying came when it was revealed that the (now former) CEO of Yahoo had lied on his resume. This was a silly lie: his resume claimed that he had degrees in both computer science and accounting, but really his degree was only in accounting. Now, aside from perhaps the first job he tried to get out of college, whether he had a computer science degree was essentially meaningless to his career trajectory. It certainly doesn’t impact his ability to run a company. Although I haven’t read what happened, I suspect that years ago he lied on his resume to get a job. Once he was on his way, it was hard to correct that lie. Fast forward to today, and he is swearing that his qualifications as included in the 34 Act filings with the SEC are correct, under Sarbanes Oxley. This means that a little lie when he was 22 year old now subjects Thompson to prison time and fines, and Yahoo to shareholder litigation.
Thompson has now been kicked out of Yahoo. I don’t know much about the company, but it seems that it has bigger problems than this lie. The lesson is clear, however. Don’t lie. Don’t lie now, when it is easy and seems little. Because it will get harder to correct, and soon you will be trapped.
Here at SMG, we need to walk the talk, and take lies, and other seemingly “small” infractions, seriously. If you lie to me about why you are late to class, or why you need a makeup exam, or why you need an extension on a deadline, I will take it seriously. You will hate me for it, but I don’t mind. Don’t let your classmates and teammates lie to you either; we should all hold each other accountable for the truth. Let’s do this now, before the lies impact more than just our small community, but instead companies, and shareholders, and families.
2 Comments
Yuchen Qin posted on May 23, 2012 at 9:34 pm
Good suggestion to all. Very inspiring!
TANIA PRANATAJAYA posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:08 pm
It is sad how much one small lie could impact one’s future. This case reminded me of Kant’s Deontologist idea that evading the truth is better than telling a lie because it reflects a respect to truth-telling. Thompson’s resume showed a blatant lie. Maybe if he had evaded the truth , he would have a lighter consequences.