Is lying on job applications always sinful?

[FNDRB58]

God is Truth. We know most people who feel they need to exaggerate the truth on job applications usually will. I offer a complicated scenario. If I have been terminated from my last two jobs and have two months to find another until I can’t pay rent. What is a person to do in a situation like this? So where are we when it comes to getting a job?

Thanks for the opinions.

 

[Willy_Jose]

I would say it is indeed sinful to lie in job applications. “A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving” (CCC 2482). Lying in job applications doesn’t fall into an exception specified in CCC 2488-2489 either. And of course, you can’t do evil intending a good to come out of it. (Rom. 3:8)

I think it is fine however, to play up your achievements and relevant experience. I wouldn’t call it ‘exaggerating’ to the extent of false claims, but rather creative presentation. There is a thing or two to learn from creative advertising

Do your best. Pray for it, and I’ll pitch in. Good luck.

 

[odhiambo]

It is best never to lie.

 

[charlespinoy]

I remember this quotation that said : when it comes to white lies, God is color blind.
Maybe it is really hard to please other people to hire you on some extent, but it still better if your going to start right. After all you might got hired for the courage of telling the truth.

 

[Edmundus1581]

I think it is fine however, to play up your achievements and relevant experience. I wouldn’t call it ‘exaggerating’ to the extent of false claims, but rather creative presentation. There is a thing or two to learn from creative advertising

Do your best. Pray for it, and I’ll pitch in. Good luck.

Agreed. You are entitled to present your record in the best light possible.

eg. if you started a job on the 31 Jan, and finished it on 1 April, you can still put “January to April” in the period of employment. If you held two different positions in the same job, and one of them had more responsibilities, put the one with more responsibilities . What you shouldn’t do is tell an outright lie, or grossly exaggerate your suitability for the job you are applying for.

Any summary of a product, or event, or person, is an only an approximation. No-one wants to read every detail. You are entitled to tilt the approximation in your favour. In fact, the employer will be expecting you to, and will automatically deduct 20% from your resume, so, if you haven’t tilted it in your favour, you will be disadvantaging yourself.

 

[PatriceA]

God is Truth. We know most people who feel they need to exaggerate the truth on job applications usually will. I offer a complicated scenario. If I have been terminated from my last two jobs and have two months to find another until I can’t pay rent. What is a person to do in a situation like this? So where are we when it comes to getting a job?

Thanks for the opinions.

Play up your skills and talents and accomplishments. BUT I wouldn’t lie about the terminations. If I was thinking about hiring you, I’d want you to be upfront with me about your past job experiences, including why you were terminated. I’d want to know how you dealt with it and what you learned from the experience.

 

[FNDRB58]

I needed confirmation. Thank you.

 

[Hastrman]

Arguably, lying on a job application is really a form of theft, specifically fraud; I mean, you’re trying to get people to give you money (i.e. salary) on false pretenses.

On the other hand, though, if you really are qualified, and you’re just lying about terminations, it’s probably not quite that bad (the important part of employment being “can you do the job?”), but it’s still certainly wrong. It erodes the trust that’s necessary for society to function.

 

[smichhertz]

I’m pretty sure lying is an intrinsic evil. So any type of lying would automatically be a sin.

 

[FNDRB58]

Play up your skills and talents and accomplishments. BUT I wouldn’t lie about the terminations. If I was thinking about hiring you, I’d want you to be upfront with me about your past job experiences, including why you were terminated. I’d want to know how you dealt with it and what you learned from the experience.

I agree with the general sentiment of everyone’s posts. However, I would argue that a prospective employer should know the things that are relavent and that relate to my qualifications and suitability to his company. If I inform him of a termination that was completely unwarranted then he would be mislead into thinking I am someone I am not. He would not want to take a chance on someone who was fired for insubordiation which was based on a lie perpetrated by my former employer. It would not be an accurate description of my work ethic. Its just an injustice that I will have to bare.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

I’m pretty sure lying is an intrinsic evil. So any type of lying would automatically be a sin.

Definitely not true. It is not a sin to deceive and withhold the truth from someone who does not have the right to know it. The classic example is lying to the Gestapo about the fact that you are harboring a Jew who is escaping Nazi Germany. In that case telling the truth would be a sin. (Of course this has nothing to do with a job application.)

 

[Hastrman]

I believe the specific principle is that it is only permitted to lie in order to prevent the direct commission of evil—since one who would directly commit evil with knowledge has no right to that knowledge.

 

[Edmundus1581]

I agree with the general sentiment of everyone’s posts. However, I would argue that a prospective employer should know the things that are relavent and that relate to my qualifications and suitability to his company. If I inform him of a termination that was completely unwarranted then he would be mislead into thinking I am someone I am not. He would not want to take a chance on someone who was fired for insubordiation which was based on a lie perpetrated by my former employer. It would not be an accurate description of my work ethic. Its just an injustice that I will have to bare.

Thanks for the open and insightful response. I won’t add anything to the matter of truthfulness in your job application, as you seem to be considering that issue well.

A couple of points from this post:

Firstly, when we apply for a job, we are often over-conscious of any weaknesses in ourselves and our resume, to the point of fixating on them, and expecting others to fixate on them also. What I become aware of myself doing this, I just prepare an answer on the specific area of weakness, and then try to forget about it. One way to change your focus is to do some research on the company you are applying for, and thinking about why you want to work for them. Don’t forget to have some questions ready about the company and the job.

Secondly, your wrote “Its just an injustice that I will have to bare.”. That is only brief, but I suspect that it is really eating away inside you. I know, because I was terminated once, in a most hurtful way, and it deeply wounded me. It is much easier to say “I will have to bare [it]”, than to actually do so. Somehow, you have to make sure that this personal and spiritual wound, which will take time and prayer to heal, is kept as separate issue from rebuilding your career. As a Catholic, you have some advantage here, because you are working on forgiving, and letting go, whereas others might be fixated on anger.

Thanks for asking us for our opinions, and I’ll pray for your success.

~ Edmundus

 

[smichhertz]

Definitely not true. It is not a sin to deceive and withhold the truth from someone who does not have the right to know it. The classic example is lying to the Gestapo about the fact that you are harboring a Jew who is escaping Nazi Germany. In that case telling the truth would be a sin. (Of course this has nothing to do with a job application.)

Actually lying is an intrinsic evil. It’s just that it is argued that the “Nazi” example would not be classified as lying. There have been huge debates about this on other threads, so I’m not going to talk about it here. Suffice to say that no one is debating whether or not lying is intrinsically evil, they are simply debating what constitutes lying.

I understand its confusing, it took me a while to get this and I still don’t have it all down. Please see below from the CCC: (also note that the whole “right to know” clause has been removed from the CCC, it is no longer part of it)

2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By injuring man’s relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.

2485 By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity. The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

…Please see below from the CCC: (also note that the whole “right to know” clause has been removed from the CCC, it is no longer part of it)

Look again at 2483. It is still there. Although you are right about the exceptions being defined as “not lying”.

 

[FNDRB58]

Actually lying is an intrinsic evil. It’s just that it is argued that the “Nazi” example would not be classified as lying. There have been huge debates about this on other threads, so I’m not going to talk about it here. Suffice to say that no one is debating whether or not lying is intrinsically evil, they are simply debating what constitutes lying.

I understand its confusing, it took me a while to get this and I still don’t have it all down. Please see below from the CCC: (also note that the whole “right to know” clause has been removed from the CCC, it is no longer part of it)

I don’t mind this thread taking on a different course as I have received good answers to my question, thank you.

I would add to the Gestapo scenario…

Our faith is the most common sense faith in Christianity. Things aren’t always so black and white as they seem to be in most Protestant faiths mainly because the Bible is not our sole rule of faith and we have a living Church and magesterium to help us answer those not so obvious issues. We always take things into context.

Having said this, if the Gestapo were at your door you would be “lying” to someone who does not have a right to know. They are asking you to tell them the truth to their question so they could kill somebody. I think this would be a common sense exception to the rule. I would find it hard to accept that God would want us to tell murderers where their next victims are just because they asked. He would not want us to cooperate with a murderer. God said the greatest love a man could give is to give up his life for his friend. Wouldn’t thwarting their murder by evil ones also work in this context?

 

[thistle]

Definitely not true. It is not a sin to deceive and withhold the truth from someone who does not have the right to know it. The classic example is lying to the Gestapo about the fact that you are harboring a Jew who is escaping Nazi Germany. In that case telling the truth would be a sin. (Of course this has nothing to do with a job application.)

That’s not true. In your example it would still be a lie but the culpability would be reduced so you would not be guilty of a mortal sin.

 

[baltobetsy]

Sin or not, lying on a job application is always unwise. They always catch it, and if they don’t right away, then you live in constant fear that today will be the day that they do.

 

[FNDRB58]

Am I hearing that some believe that it is a venial sin to lie to murderers who ask where people are whom they want to kill?

I agree about not lying to employers but to Nazis who want to commit genocide?

 

[thistle]

Am I hearing that some believe that it is a venial sin to lie to murderers who ask where people are whom they want to kill?

I agree about not lying to employers but to Nazis who want to commit genocide?

All lying is a sin. In the case of lying to the nazis it would be of a venial nature and not grave. In such a situation a person lying to the nazis would not be separating his/herself from God.

CCC 2484 The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial sin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity.