Render Unto Caesar

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, render unto God what is God’s.

                            —Matthew 22:21

A choice of ethics.

This describes the situation where one does something the way the works but reports results with a spin that may indicate that the objective was met in a different manner. This is not always hypocrisy nor is it always a bad thing. A positive example, from my point of view, would be working unpaid overtime to put the quality into a product that management is not willing to expend the resources to accomplish but personal craftsmanship requires.

There are often conflicts in life between what management/customers/society demands and what the product and craftsmanship requires. Each person must find the balance between family and work, quality and timeliness, loyalty to principles and loyalty to people.

However, there is a more sinister side to this principle that takes the form of misinformation. When people feel that they are being forced to do something they don’t want to, they develop the passive-aggressive habits of telling management what management wants to hear while doing what they think the project needs to have done.

Yelling and screaming just makes people better liars [Rule of Rewards and Punishments].