Honesty Is the Best Policy - Is It Always True?

 

Want to become a writer at Eat My News? Here is an opportunity to join the Board of Young Leaders Program by Eat My News. Click here to know more: ​ bit.ly/boardofyoungleaders 

   

We have often heard that "Honesty is the Best Policy" and we all agree to that and why not? One should be honest, trustworthy, and loyal to their subordinates as it helps to establish and nurture healthy relationships with your fellow workers, classmates, friends, family or maybe business partners. A dishonest person is never liked by anyone because there's no credibility to what he says and the actions he undertakes. 

So an important aspect of why an individual chooses to be honest in many situations is that he cares for the well being and interests of others. Although it might harm the individual in some way. Also, it might be because of the fact that if you lie once, you need to use 100 more lies to cover it up. Moreover, socially it is believed that honesty keeps your relationships intact and the partners tend to build trust which is an equally important characteristic. Another reason can be that if one person isn't honest, he can't expect honest behavior from others.

Why is being Honest at all times, not the Best Thing to do? 

Well, when you are always honest about your feelings, emotions, and other prospects as part of your personality, you are often considered as shrewd, heartless, and blunt. Whenever a person shares his share of problems with you, be it work, relationships, money matters and we know about the mistake done by them. So being honest in such a situation can be the worst thing for the other person's feelings. Even if they know what was the optimum thing to be done, so you need to take hold of the situation and respond accordingly. Being honest would just ruin the trust and mutual bonding.

At the workplace, it is necessary quite a time for the managers, employees, and team-leaders to manipulate the truth so as to gain the trust of the employees and ensure better work quality. The company might be facing severe losses and being honest and sharing the annual reports with the employees would just create a lot of mess, panic, and stress. It has the potential to bring down the whole company as employees lose confidence in the company. The psychology of the people changes and they start worrying about their monthly expenses and other responsibilities. It won't help the company in any way. 

The same goes for national and international affairs. It is rumored that often the statistics about deaths, pandemics, and all are manipulated to gain the confidence of the citizens of the country. If the original state is mentioned, people will lose faith in government, panic, come out on streets, make decisions in panic, and might result in strikes. This might lead to a condition of a stampede and lead to the deaths of many citizens.


Caring is the Key

One should see the moment and the situation and act accordingly. Consider a person who might not meet the social standards of being incredibly attractive and you say that to his face. Just imagine how effortlessly you have shattered his confidence, morale, and hurt their feelings. But if you be a little considerate of the other person's feelings and motivate him in a different way, cheer for him and assure him about his appearance, it would boost his confidence. Just think what you feel is better, hurting someone or making them confident about themselves?

Whatever action we take it should be in the interest of others and not hurt their feelings. Learning to modify and being cheerful and motivating even in the workplace is very important. It helps in maintaining good and healthy relationships even with your rivals would ensure a smoother career curve. You might not want to tell an underperforming employee the bitter truth right at his face rather than providing him with little criticism and positivity to work better.

However, in no situation does this imply that you might hide your unfaithful, unjust behavior or break someone's trust and try to hide it from them forever. You can't live in peace hiding such things and that's just inhuman and unfair to the other person be it a workplace, home, or your social networks. One should try to work for the betterment of others and if that does including hiding the facts a little and modifying some words go ahead. If it's for a good cause and you can create happiness without hurting someone, go for it.

Conclusion

Being a little deceptive at times for the good and welfare of others shouldn't be considered as dishonesty or disloyalty. You should take the current situation into account, analyze the outcomes, consequences and other effects that your actions might lead to and then act in a refined and relevant manner in order to provide benefit to everyone.

To read similar articles from us, click here

Written By- Bhanu Jain

Edited By- Neha Kundu