Should I answer honestly if asked why I was late one day when I was actually in an interview?

Question

I had an job interview today that went well and I accepted the job offer. The interview was in the morning during work hours so I had to make an excuse about why I was late coming into my current job. I just said that there was an issue with my car. I said this because I know that you shouldn't tell that you are interviewing somewhere else and I didn't know what else to say about why I was late.

Anyways, that is in the past, and now I am wondering, since I am usually very punctual, and I accepted the job on the day I was late, people will naturally assume that I was lying and that I was late because of the job interview. Now what I want to know is if someone asks if I was late because of the interview, should I continue the lie and say that my car was really out of order, or should I come clean and be honest?

I feel like either option has the potential of burning bridges. I will immediately burn bridges if I say right away that I lied. But I could burn bridges in the future if they later find out themselves that I went for an interview at that time.

Answer 1

Next time this happens, I would let your manager know beforehand. It's not a good idea to not show up for work and then suddenly have an excuse as you arrive for work. That will cause suspicion. If you contact your manager and explain that you're going to be late for work due to "personal obligations", that would be a good reason.

Saying "personal obligations" isn't lying, it's ambiguous but it'll let the manager know that you rather not discuss it. Hopefully, they'll respect your life and won't need to follow up with what your reason may be.

Lying is not the best option to avoid confrontation. With some life experience, lying will eventually cause some issues as time moves on. Once you're confronted with the lie, you might resort to lying again to get out of the first lie and then you have to remember what you lied about, which then could cause some inconsistencies in your testimony. As Judge Judy once said, "If you tell the truth, then you don't have to have a good memory," meaning that if you tell the truth, knowing what to say will become natural and easy.

There are ways to tell the truth without revealing what the truth is and you don't have to create deception either. If you get hired by this other company and you accept their job offer, then you'll have to explain to your current company that you lied about being late. I think you will eventually burn that bridge whenever you have to reveal the truth. However, if I was you in this situation, I would say, "I wasn't trying to lie with bad intentions and I apologize. I just wouldn't know how you would react if I told you that I was interviewing for another company. My intentions were not supposed to be rude towards you or the company." Then they would probably ask you about why you thought about leaving, etc.

Good luck with this situation. Someone's feelings will get hurt eventually but hopefully you were lying with at least good intentions, meaning that you weren't trying to hurt anyone's feelings.

Answer 2

I usually would recommend taking a PTO day if you're interviewing, going over a lunch break, or going during the day and letting your manager know in advance that you need to be out for X hours - If you need an excuse for why, I don't necessarily think there's much harm in saying something like a dentist appointment or needing to be there for the cable guy to come in etc.

They'll realize after the fact that this isn't true if you leave.... but that shouldn't matter. You're leaving, oh well - part of the process of finding a job is interviewing.... and - especially if you're using personal time - it doesn't matter, not nearly as much as the fact that they need to find a replacement.

Don't worry about 'bridges' being burned - If you did the job, well enough to not get fired, you're probably fine.

Answer 3

Lying is rarely the best option. (Obv.)

Saying nothing, or as little as possible, is easier.

The problem here is that a colleague might be interested in cars, or just want to make conversation and start asking ("what was wrong? did you try this? what car do you have?").

If they ask, don't add more lies (avoid, for example, saying that you had a flat, or that your car wouldn't start) because that just invites more questions.

Either come clean (for example, say "The car is fine. I had to deal with a personal matter, I'd rather avoid talking about it, which is why I mentioned the car in the first place."), or stay vague (for example, "It was nothing, really, but it still took me a bit of time this morning"). Not sure if staying vague will work very long, though, as it sounds very mysterious.

Answer 4

Perhaps your best option is to not actually answer the question if answered. Most people will jump to the conclusion that you were actually interviewing, as you were. So many may not even ask. But if they do ask, a simple "Does it matter?" and then changing the subject could be a reasonable answer.

Unfortunately, the way interviews are set up, and the way it's not recommended that you let anyone know you're interviewing until you have a job offer in hand, giving a lie for why you were out (dentist, car problems, etc), is a very common option. The answer by KingDuken has a good way to handle it in the future, instead of lying. But you already lied, so now what?

Holding on to the lie, digging in, however, seems to go too far. That takes it from a commonly expected white lie to something darker. And for what? A strong lie so they don't think you used a white lie? It's much better to admit to the white lie than to dig in.