I lied

[Smile03]

Before I get any hate I want to say I know I am in the wrong.

We had a virtual away day booked in for the whole organisation and I had a meeting which overlapped by 15 minutes.

My manager was unaware about the first meeting and I lied and told her it was about HR/ date protection.

She has then investigated this and has been told no I was not in a HR meeting.

I then repeated I was.

My manager has said she will be getting HR advice now.

I am planning on going in and telling the truth tomorrow but want to know can I get fired for this?

I work for this Civil Service

There is evidence the manager ONCE checked where their team were. And found at least one of them wasn't where they said they were

Well it depends on your definition of HR meeting doesn't it?

You lied and lied again when questioned. My employer is hot on honesty and integrity so if you had been honest when asked you would probably be ok but because you chose to continue with the lie there’s a strong chance you would be fired.

No, you won’t get fired.

its Almost impossible to be fired from the civil service. Just apologies and say you felt anxious and panicked. It’s going to be fine

No, the point is, there wouldn’t and shouldn’t be meetings at all, in general. If you are in a meeting, it should be rare and it has to be logged and justified, because it’s a marker of low productivity. You should be getting on with your actual job.

@Outfor150

You do realise that for many people the meetings are a big part of the actual work.

I think you need to consider why you were embarrassed that you were participating in an organisationally sanctioned programme that is designed to develop you.

It sounds like you are being poorly managed and unsupported and if I was HR or your managers manager this whole event would be ringing alarm bells related to your manager.

I would advise apologising profusely to your manager but if it gets to HR then you need to be clear about why you couldn’t tell your manager you were being mentored.

They have to check you are hitting all your various targets -and that would include time where you are having “meetings” -they are a marker of low productivity and tend to count against you

But not all jobs are the same. Meetings form a big part of my role and I'd be classed as unproductive if I didn't attend!

So people say, but it wouldn’t really wash at any of the companies I’ve worked for. What value is the meeting adding to the company? How are you helping to create profit? There has to be very definite and specific aims. You sort of need to justify a meeting’s value and time against the cost to the company to employ you and the other people in that meeting. But it’s not civil service, so I don’t know how it’s run there. Anyway, I don’t want to disrupt the OP’s thread.

😂

No way you will get fired from the CS for this. Embarrassing yes, sackable offence? No way, people have been promoted for less...

So people say, but it wouldn’t really wash at any of the companies I’ve worked for. What value is the meeting adding to the company? How are you helping to create profit? There has to be very definite and specific aims. You sort of need to justify a meeting’s value and time against the cost to the company to employ you and the other people in that meeting

But sectors vary.
What if you are employed to attend meetings?
My meetings are a mixture of internal ( catch ups, project working groups etc) and external with potential partners etc. All perfectly normal and part of my job!

I worked in Whitehall civil service for 10 yrs. I am pretty sure you’ll just get a ticking off for lying but what concerns me more is that you felt the need to lie when you were in a work mentoring meeting which is something the CS actively encourages staff to participate in.

I would say that you had a counselling session or medical appt and did not want to discuss the details.

I can't believe the number of posters that have advised OP to try and style it out; pretending that she was describing a mentoring all along - that will make things even worse! Given that OP has already added the detail that there was a data protection issue regarding another staff member, there's no way that will work, AND it adds in yet another (very obvious) lie!

To quote Joey Tribbiani: "Before you lie about lying about lying about lying... stop lying!"

Op did you attend the virtual away day at all or did you avoid it completely by saying you had an overlapping meeting? Did the rest of your team attend or did they look for excuses not to? We have had 3 mandated team days so far this year, decreed from very high levels and it’s been a three line whip - everyone in work had to attend.

The CS code comes into play here, lying just isn’t great.it’s the lying (twice when you could have come clean) not being late that’s the issue here. I suspect at most you will get a first warning unless you’re still on probation. The fact you lied suggests you already know you probably should have rearranged the mentor session. Just apologise, share the correspondence you had about the mentoring to prove you were not just off having a long lunch if you have it.

No it doesn't. A meeting with HR to discuss data protection , when the meeting is not with HR, nor to discuss data protection - please explain to me how you define that as anything other than a lie?

Honestly a third lie is shockingly bad advice. So they ask her to prove that and what does she do, think of another lie? Fake evidence of an appt?

when you’re in a hole stop digging. As soon as she was caught she shouldn’t have doubled down on it . Advising her to come up with more and more lurid lies is ludicrous. It’s the lying that’s the issue.

Don't give up on the mentoring programme. It will work in your favour when you have to produce your personal and professional development programme or whatever the public service call it.

Your workplace sounds odd. One lies about being in a work related programme. Another checks up on her team's whereabouts.

Waffle on about thinking the mentoring was confidential and you mixed data protection with HR. I'm surprised your manager didn't have to agree to you joining the programme as you will need time off if its on during working hours? But absolutely do not step away from it or start waffling on about repercussions. It was an error and your manager has too much time on her hands if she is organising and then checking the attendance of whatever a' virtual away day' is. You need to put things in perspective. You were 15 minutes late for some nonsense thought up by some silly department.

Hi OP, It definitely sounds to me like something more is going on here. If your manager came to me with this as a countersigning officer, I would considering whether there is a micromanaging, bullying aspect or wonder whether you needed more support at work or whether you had something else going on in terms of your health or personal life. Do explain about the mentoring meeting. I would be pleased you are being proactive about your development.

As others have mentioned, do make use of your employee assistance programme if you need a totally confidential listening ear / access to counselling.

Hope this is all sorted out soon.

Why on earth don’t you just say “it was a confidential matter, I’d rather not discuss it” and that would be the end of it

Another one urging you not to give up on the mentoring because it really sounds like you would benefit from it. I’m really senior and I still have a mentor. It’s good for everyone involved.

Op I would be more worried about why you felt you had to lie than the lie. It was a work matter and that would be ringing alarm bells for me.

Be honest but do not withdraw. And I wouldn't sack you but would be looking at the manager

This. Managed colleagues in the CS for 10 years. If one of them felt they had to lie about a mentoring session I’d be looking at my own mgt style. Staff managers in the CS are encouraged to support their staff in development activities. The fact you felt the need to lie about participating in a development opportunity is concerning.