Over the last weekend I had the opportunity to listen to a seminar about honesty in the workforce. The speaker posed a question saying: What would the world be like if everyone was honest? It was an incredible thought.

Honesty, defined as a facet of moral character would also include virtuous attributes such as integrity and truthfulness. This defines our entire life in everything we do. The crime rate would be almost nonexistent. Governments would be run with little or no corruption. Neighbors and co-workers would communicate better without suspicion. There would be no lying, cheating or theft.

From the book “Honesty Works!” by Steven Gaffney says “Honesty issues have a significant impact on virtually every workplace in America. When people bemoan the lack of honesty in corporate America, images of Enron, WorldCom and Martha Stewart come to mind.” This is a growing problem everywhere and unfortunately not uncommon in white collar executives.

Back in 1789 it was recorded that Harvard University Professors wanted to incorporate certain virtues to be taught in their classes’, one of them being honesty. They collaborated together and thought that honesty was one of the most important virtues graduates of Harvard University should adhere to. But what has happened to this ideal?

Many workplaces require pre-employees to take tests asking questions about how they feel in stealing and cheating at work but that is far as it goes. If you answer all the answers “correctly” and get hired by the company then the expectation is to be honest. Yet many people are not honest and steal from their company. Even worse there are executives in companies that expect their workers to lie.

From Steven Gaffney’s research he says a survey was taken in Britain for a software giant and found that three quarters of the workers there felt they were forced to lie at work often because managers failed to provide the right information to enable the staff to do their jobs properly.

Even in government, they swear by “oaths and affirmation to support and defend the Constitution.” Unfortunately this has not been the case in most of our national and state leaders. The oaths taken are long forgotten and we continue to work as a people to remind these leaders to keep to their promises.

The lying in our society is so deep seeded it has now become okay to lie in the workplace and in government offices as long as you don’t get caught. If this happens, no one owns up to the incident and you stand alone in your lies.

Thomas Paine said it well in The Age of Reason: “It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.” So be it in the workforce. We are a dishonest people and this need should be amended. Honestly, this is true.

Loxley resident Valerie J. Steimle is now the author of four books. Her latest, "Dogs, Blogs and Hobbits: Writings from a Widow's Perspective" is available on Amazon.com. Contact her at valeriesteimle@yahoo.com or visit her website at www.stregthenyourhome.com.