Most of us are guilty of pulling the occasional sickie but today the Institute of Leadership and Management has warned that UK workplaces are experiencing 'endemic' levels of bad behaviour which threaten to 'poison' workplace culture.
The study found that 72% of employees have witnessed a colleague lying to cover their back, and 57% had seen someone take credit for someone else's work.
'At a time when organisations are bending over backwards to demonstrate their ethical credentials, we were surprised to see just how endemic some of these bad behaviours are in the workplace,' said Charles Elvin, chief executive of ILM.
'Even relatively minor misdemeanours, if left unchecked, can poison a workplace culture and bring down trust and ethical standards across the workforce.'
The full top 10:
1.Cutting corners – 72%
2. Lying to hide your mistakes – 72%
3. Badmouthing colleagues – 68%
4. Passing the buck (when you don't get your work done) – 67%
5. Slacking off when no one's watching – 64%
6. Lying to hide other people's mistakes – 63%
7. Taking credit for other people's work – 57%
8. Taking a sickie – 56%
9. Lying about skills and experience – 54%
10. Taking low value items from work – 52%
MT isn't sure that stealing a few pens or telling some white lies to a colleague quite amounts to 'poison'. It's when the shifty behaviour turns into shifting profits a la Tesco that companies really want to get concerned.
