Lying Pig-Dog Weasels

Mom and Dad taught me not to lie to people. Even though it has limited my career, my integrity is more important to me. While I will never get to be Vice President of anything, knowing that people can and do trust me is much more important.
I remember being told in one of my management training classes long ago that sociopaths or people with sociopathic tendencies often became very successful leaders of profitable corporations. I guess to sometimes be successful, one has to make decisions that sometimes do not favor the individual employee. Many people may remember the CEO of Fletcher Allen Health Care, who was convicted of lying to regulators and was sentenced to a year in prison. I have worked for others who were equally, if not more sleazy; they just didn't get caught.
What these people fail to realize (or don't care about) is that, if they lie to us and we figure it out, we aren't likely to believe anything they say going forward. As a manager of 25+ years, this was an important lesson for me. If I were to lie to my staff, I would have no credibility, and this was something that was unacceptable to me. Think about it. Who would you rather trust: someone who you knew to be honest, or deal with someone who you wouldn't trust if they told you the sky was blue?
Oftentimes, managers may be placed in a position where the actual situation should not or cannot be disclosed for some reason. Face it; we are not always free to speak about everything. Some managers I know have gone the route of shading the truth. My approach has either been to tell you I am not free to speak about the situation, or to tell you "This is what I know as of today." You may not have gotten the true story, but you also weren't lied to.
Many politicians would seem to fall into the category of Those Who Frequently Tell Whoppers. I moved to Vermont from Pennsylvania. While I was in PA, I was amazed at how corrupt a political system could be. When I go back to visit relatives, and read the local newspaper, it is a rare occasion when I don't read about a State Legislator or staffer either being arrested, on trial, or going to jail for corruption. Politics seems to be less about public service and more about how one gets re-elected. Congress has an abysmally low approval rating for a reason: they earned it. I have never voted in my life, and I can't imagine ever doing so. To me, the system is broken, and, even though I can't fix it, I can choose not to participate in enabling it to continue on it's dysfunctional path. My wife tells me I have no right to complain because I don't vote. I feel I have every right to complain because I didn't do anything to make the system continue as it is.
Even though I am destined to go no further in my career than being a middle manager, looking at some of the negative role models in my life, I don't consider that to be a bad thing. Mom and Dad: Thanks for raising me the way you did.