The case for the occasional white lie at work

Let’s say you and your team are struggling with an assignment for a client who’s notoriously difficult to work with. Even though your team is doing great work, the client lodges an unfair complaint against your star team member. At the end of the assignment, the team member asks for feedback, and you respond, “The client was satisfied with the end product.” There it is. You told a white lie to protect your star player. The frustrated grumblings of this client, you decided, weren’t...