The workplace is fraught with ethical dilemmas, isn’t it? I have a question for you: what would you do if you saw a coworker’s resume – and saw that it was full of lies? I was recently asked….

What if:

• This resume was on a public server and you accidentally opened it? After realizing what it was you closed it, but you’d already seen too much.

• You’re in the highly competitive field of medicine, and you wonder if the false accolades have helped him nab prime positions — positions you know you’ve competed for.

• For that matter, has his entire credibility as a doctor been thrown into doubt?

What would you do? Was it unethical for you to read the resume in the first place, or was it fair game since it was on the server? Do you accept the lies as “exaggerations” that everyone has on their resume? Or do you speak up because you believe keeping quiet would be wrong?

My advice was to quietly take the colleague aside and come clean that you had seen the resume and recognized that parts of it were untrue. Give him the chance to correct his mistakes without damaging his entire career.

What would you do?