Is it ethical to lie to my boss about a job interview at another company if that’s the only way I can get time off? —Anonymous, San Francisco
IT’S UNETHICAL TO LIE to your boss for the purpose of getting a job elsewhere. There’s no way around this reality. But if we’re going to think about these problems in a vacuum—where ethics are the only concern—it’s also unethical for an employer to try to stop an employee from pursuing his or her own happiness. Let’s be
—Adapted from “The Ethicist” in The New York Times Magazine