Is it legal for my boss to ask me to lie to employees?

Mel

It's not illegal, but it is chickens*it - your DM should have called the employee directly rather than making you do his/her dirty work. It's also a stupid lie - why not just tell the employee that s/he is being investigated, and they can either choose to come in, or disappear into the sunset?

Honesty is the best policy when dealing with employees - what if this employee is investigated and found to be innocent? Do you think s/he will have a high level of trust in the company or its management?

Illegal lies are ones that would have a material effect on the business - lying about sales revenues, for example, or covering up the drug ring that's operating out of the shipping department.

Bottom line, if you are being asked to do something that makes you uncomfortable, push back and tell the DM you really feel this should come from someone at his/her level. There are other jobs out there for honest employees.

Expert Realtor

There isn't anything wrong with that and as a manager, you are obligated to assist your DM in that manner.

Nothing illegal about it.

However, you DM isn't very smart. He should have just waited until the employee came in for his next scheduled shift....and questioned him then.

tiffany

Not illegal, just unethical. As for recourse, you can't change the past but you can document all the details of the discussion with the District Manager, including dates and times, in case you get called into question by the labor board or HR department if the employee submits a complaint about the false promise of a pay raise.

For future reference, please remember that you have a choice to make and you can choose a more assertive and generic approach like asking an employee to arrive early for their next workday to discuss a problem. It doesn't sound like the employee was being fired, just questioned on "suspicion" of stealing.

buggygirl

It probably isn't illegal for your DM to ask you to lie, but it certainly isn't ethical, which is probably why you are troubled by the whole situation. When he asked you to lie, you did have a choice. Because you were fearful for your job you did it, but if you had not and your fears had been realized by losing your job, you probably would have been able to collect unemployment. I would be concerned about a person in authority over me who uses this type of morally questionable tactics to accomplish something. I would also document the incident in an email to the DM as well. Possibly even letting someone further up the food chain know, like an hr person. When we work for someone who has proven to us that they are capable of intentional deceit....we should take a subtle defensive approach......because we could be next.

January 20th, 2009

Lying is not illegal, and in this case, where it is simply to comfortably draw the employee away from the situation, it is acceptable. I would consider a different course of action next time, but there is nothing Illegal about this.

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