Nine in 10 South Korean workers have lied to their bosses or colleagues at work, mostly about being sick, a survey showed Tuesday.

According to a survey by job portal site Career on 756 workers, 90.7 percent of the respondents said that they have lied, with 22.6 percent of them being excuses like “I don’t feel well” to get out of social or work obligations.
Other 21 percent said they lied about understanding orders from their boss although they failed to grasp what was being sought, while 17 percent said that they threatened to quit without actually having such intentions. Nearly 14 percent said they cited “family affair” to excuse themselves.

When asked when they lied the most, 30.8 percent said it was while talking to their bosses, followed by when they are running late for work (26.9 percent) and when they are attending dinner gatherings (23.1 percent). Nearly 10 percent lied while working outside the office.

The degree of guilt for lying varied, with 46.2 percent respondents saying they could not help it, followed by 17.3 percent who felt guilty, 15.4 percent chose to lie to survive and it did not bother another 15.4 percent.

When witnessing their coworkers lie, 54.7 percent said they let them off the hook without addressing it, while 21 percent said it made them become more cautious in interacting with them and 17 percent said they would just ignore it.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)