why do people admit guilt when they are guilty?

[JEDI]

there is no advantage to admitting guilt, unless you are cutting a deal for a lesser sentence.

but in an office environment, there's usually no plea bargaining.

deny, deny, deny!

make them prove it.

agree/disagree? why?


'

 

[MoPHo]

Because if you admit guilt you are less likely to be fired when they provide proof.

 

[herkulease]

Did you cut the cheese?

 

[FoBoT]

Honesty IS the best policy

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Who's lunch have you been stealing?

 

[Crono]

Guilt will damage people with morals over time.

Better to admit fault, become better, and move on.

 

[Newbian]

So who found out about your copies of your ass that you were faxing to people?

 

[darkxshade]

you're not on trial in an office environment, if it's a relatively minor mistake you made, admitting could just mean a stern talking to but if you lie and get caught, you could get fired or worse may never get work again in that sector if they decide to warn others about you.

 

[Nik]

there is no advantage to admitting guilt, unless you are cutting a deal for a lesser sentence.

but in an office environment, there's usually no plea bargaining.

deny, deny, deny!

make them prove it.

agree/disagree? why?


'

Maybe it has something to do with honesty, integrity, trust, and personal responsibility?

Obviously something you know nothing about. How unfortunate.

 

[destrekor]

integrity is not a strong value of yours, eh?

Fessing up can save a lot of trouble, and prevent problems down the road, versus denying it and getting busted later. Reprimand may remain the same, but your integrity is greatly harmed.
I'll thoroughly bias tasking out things in the future based on how much integrity I perceive/witness in an individual.

You may have done something you just know you can get away with, and that means no ill-harm to your integrity from the perspective of others. But it'll seep into you, changing the weight such value has to you. And when you compromise your integrity to yourself, you'll likely repeat, and eventually get caught.

 

[rudeguy]

my bosses have always hated the way I freely admit guilt. I won't bring it up but if they ask me, I will tell them. Just today my boss was monitoring one of my calls and asked me why I did something that wasn't exactly the way the company wants it. My answer was..."because I'm a lazy fucker".

Wasn't much she could add to that.

 

[Triumph]

Something I've learned that makes life a lot easier - if you do what's right, you can never go wrong. Even if it turns out that you could've cut that corner, you still did it the right way. It's a lot less stressful.

Now I don't claim to always abide by this rule, but it's still a good rule!

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's usually best to admit it, it gets the whole situation over with faster. If I was convicted with crime I would just admit it, either way I will end up going to court and going through the whole law shebang, and end up with a sentance. Might as well speed up the process so it ends faster.

Though if it's something I think there is a good chance of getting out of, and it's something really stupid like downloading MP3's, then I'd fight it to no end. But if it's something where I would realize was wrong and I should not have done, then I'd just admit either way.

 

[dud]

Perhaps because they have a conscious?

 

[QueBert]

It's not a crime unless you get caught. I love how everyone on here acts like they're morally perfect. That's not how the world works, I worked at a decent sized company that had one of those "leave a dollar take a snack" good faith boxes. Myself and a few others would put money in, many would not. Which doesn't surprise me. But what really did surprise me is at the end of the first week of having it, not only was all the food gone from it, but there were zero dollars in it. So some people were stealing candy and then stealing the money people left.

I suspect many of the people who act like "always tell the truth! it's the thing to do!" are the same ones sitting back at their desk laughing while they're eating the M&M's they just stole.

 

[MartyMcFly3]

there is no advantage to admitting guilt, unless you are cutting a deal for a lesser sentence.

but in an office environment, there's usually no plea bargaining.

deny, deny, deny!

make them prove it.

agree/disagree? why?


'

For a Jedi, that's very un-Jedi like.

 

[Triumph]

It's not a crime unless you get caught. I love how everyone on here acts like they're morally perfect. That's not how the world works, I worked at a decent sized company that had one of those "leave a dollar take a snack" good faith boxes. Myself and a few others would put money in, many would not. Which doesn't surprise me. But what really did surprise me is at the end of the first week of having it, not only was all the food gone from it, but there were zero dollars in it. So some people were stealing candy and then stealing the money people left.

I suspect many of the people who act like "always tell the truth! it's the thing to do!" are the same ones sitting back at their desk laughing while they're eating the M&M's they just stole.

Um, you sound exactly like the type of person who would steal the money and the candy. After all, it's not a crime unless you were to get caught, right?

 

[surfsatwerk]

I don't do things that I don't want to be accountable for. Life's easy that way.

 

[nageov3t]

sometimes the coverup is worse than the crime.

sometimes it's not.

depends on the circumstances and how easy the wrongdoing is going to get traced back to you.

I'm usually open and honest, but I'd be lying if I said I never covered anything up... one time (not at my current job), I dummied up a fake past-dated email to convince my boss that I sent something to a vendor that I never did.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Usually, just fess up. It makes you look like an honest incompetent rather than a shady incompetent, and the latter is more likely to get fired when they find out. And if you lie once, you're going to have to make a whole string of lies to cover it up if people go checking at all. And keeping all that straight, you're probably going to fuck up somewhere.

 

[QueBert]

Um, you sound exactly like the type of person who would steal the money and the candy. After all, it's not a crime unless you were to get caught, right?

Nah not at all, just because I can do something doesn't mean I want to do it. I'm a strong believer in Karma and God so stealing isn't for me even if I did it without getting caught. But that is the saying, and it's obviously true because nobody at my office was ever busted for stealing the candy or money.

 

[Squisher]

Did you cut the cheese?

Ate the boogaire.

 

[Colt45]

Perhaps they aren't psychopaths.

 

[kranky]

I have run into a few people at work over the years who "deny, deny, deny." For some reason they think it's like a courtroom where if you are not convicted then it's like it never happened and there is no punishment.

Except it doesn't matter if there is proof, everyone knows they are guilty and at the first opportune moment they end up unemployed. What amazes me is they think if nobody has concrete proof and they don't admit it, nothing can happen to them.

And even if nobody makes an accusation, it doesn't mean they don't know what happened or that nothing is going to be done.

One guy was hired as the director of marketing probably making 6 figures, with 20+ years of experience, and didn't make it 3 months. First incident was he traveled to Chicago to interview a bunch of different people to fill a marketing job - he only interviewed 3 people in a week and said there were a bunch of no-shows and some people who cancelled for various reasons. Second incident was when he was the only person from our company attending a particular trade show and on the second day he was only there for about an hour.

In both cases they found out (innocently, not that they were checking up on him). He was never confronted about it. Once they found out, they just got the ball rolling with HR to get him fired. He probably still doesn't know exactly why he was fired.

Liars never think anyone is smart enough to catch them. But keep in mind that in the workplace there isn't always a need to "catch" someone in a lie.

A reputation for integrity is very difficult to regain once it's lost.

 

[Squisher]

I have run into a few people at work over the years who "deny, deny, deny." For some reason they think it's like a courtroom where if you are not convicted then it's like it never happened and there is no punishment.

Except it doesn't matter if there is proof, everyone knows they are guilty and at the first opportune moment they end up unemployed. What amazes me is they think if nobody has concrete proof and they don't admit it, nothing can happen to them.

And even if nobody makes an accusation, it doesn't mean they don't know what happened or that nothing is going to be done.

One guy was hired as the director of marketing probably making 6 figures, with 20+ years of experience, and didn't make it 3 months. First incident was he traveled to Chicago to interview a bunch of different people to fill a marketing job - he only interviewed 3 people in a week and said there were a bunch of no-shows and some people who cancelled for various reasons. Second incident was when he was the only person from our company attending a particular trade show and on the second day he was only there for about an hour.

In both cases they found out (innocently, not that they were checking up on him). He was never confronted about it. Once they found out, they just got the ball rolling with HR to get him fired. He probably still doesn't know exactly why he was fired.

Liars never think anyone is smart enough to catch them. But keep in mind that in the workplace there isn't always a need to "catch" someone in a lie.

A reputation for integrity is very difficult to regain once it's lost.

*Two big thumbs up*

Some people are so clueless. I've seen this happen too many times.

Fess up people. People that don't make mistakes aren't doing anything at all.