Honesty

Honesty is such a lonely word,
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard,
But mostly what I need from you....

- Billy Joel

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I found out this week that a friend of mine is no longer employed with my company. He's a manager, and when managers and Progressive part ways, the "official" communication to the masses always sounds something like "Effective immediately, Mr. Former Co-worker is no longer employed with Progressive." And that's it.

The drama which always ensues after this type of announcement is a guaranteed productivity drain. The office where the person works is aflutter with water cooler conversation. People in other offices start calling around, trying to find out what happened. It's a major source of gossip at the lunch table for weeks. What kind of better opportunity did they find, and how much more will they be making? Were they fired? Did they know they were close to getting fired and just found another job first? And in the absence of any credible story why this happened, people begin to draw their own crazy conclusions, and expend a ton of energy doing it.

So why not just tell the truth about what happened and save everyone the agony?

It happens in sports all the time. A coach gets fired, and management tells them, the media and the fans exactly how they effed up. The coach gets to comment on his/her side of the story. And then everyone moves on, and the team either turns it around because the players know their asses are next (this years Pittsburgh Penguins, for example), or they sink into a slump and the team looks entirely new the next year because no one survived he carnage (Montreal Canadiens, anyone....?). Either way, management has accomplished the desired change, there are no hidden agendas. Everyone deals with it and moves on.

Now, the obvious problem with doing something like this in corporate America, one could argue, is protecting both the privacy of the individual involved and more importantly, legal exposure to the company. Of course, we all know the second reason is the more compelling. But let's look at first one. Why do we need to protect someone's privacy? What is so wrong with making a mistake and owning up to it? What do we really have to hide?

The answer is simple. Unfortunately we live in a society where, in spite of all our efforts to accept people as they are, we still judge each other. Recruiters look for flaws in someones resume that might indicate a less than "perfect" candidate . We have to worry about putting our Bachelorette Party photos on Facebook because 10 years from now someone who's looking to hire us might see. We're held to this ridiculous standard of perfection as human beings, when in fact it is our imperfections that contribute to a diverse and vital workplace. Innovation comes from mistakes. And success often comes on the heels of failure.

If we really want the world to be a better place, we all just need to get over ourselves and be honest about who we are.

Then maybe I could find out what happened to my friend...