I’m writing about covering up – favorably known as CYA – Covering Your Ass. It can be for a good reason or for a bad reason. To protect oneself from blame, negative consequences, mistakes, and failures.

We CYA at work by meeting responsibilities and doing the best work we can. Or we cover to get away with something. We cover for justice or to harm, fool, and have our way with truth.

“Covering your ass” reveals two completely different philosophies of life hiding in the same phrase. There’s the smart CYA – documentation, meeting deadlines, doing thorough work – and the fearful kind that’s really just deception in business casual.

The smart version? That’s self-respect. You cover yourself by being prepared, following through, keeping your word. You document not because you’re paranoid, but because you’re professional. Your “cover” is simply the trail of doing things right.

The other version – covering up mistakes, hiding failures, creative truth-bending – that’s exhausting. You’re constantly managing the lie, remembering who you told what, watching your back for when reality catches up. And it always does. You can’t cover up not paying your electric bill or rent on time. The same with taxes. The electric company doesn’t accept explanations. The IRS isn’t moved by creativity. Your landlord wants rent, not stories.

Here’s what’s true: covering yourself through excellence gives you freedom. You sleep well. You don’t flinch when questions come. Your cover is just your character, visible to anyone who looks.

Covering yourself through deception makes you a fearful and often hostile prisoner. Every day you’re managing the gap between what you said and what’s real. You’re not protecting yourself – you’re protecting fiction.

The choice is simple, but not easy. One path requires integrity up front. The other requires constant maintenance of multiple realities.

The best cover is the truth.

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

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This matters too – What We Do With Truth.

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