Nearly a third of unvaccinated workers say they might lie to keep their jobs

PROVO — A new survey from Qualtrics finds 28% of unvaccinated workers are considering lying or forging documents in order to keep their jobs.

“What that suggests is organizations are going to have to start verifying documentation people are providing is actually legitimate evidence of vaccination status,” said Sydney Heimbrock, chief industry advisor for government at Qualtrics. 

Heimbrock says the survey also asked why individuals were so hesitant about getting the vaccine. 

“The top three reasons we got back are: They don’t trust the government; they are afraid of side effects; or are cautiously waiting for more information before they make a final decision to go ahead and get vaccinated,” Heimbrock said.

Heimbrock noted that more than half of the people surveyed would turn their back on a mandate.

“Fifty-two percent of the respondents said a mandate would make them less inclined to get vaccinated,” she said. 

Eliminating all of the mandates likely wouldn’t make much difference for those surveyed, according to Heimbrock.

“Thirty-seven percent of the respondents said nothing would convince them to get vaccinated,” she said.

But it’s not just about keeping their jobs, Heimbrock says 30% of all unvaccinated working Americans would be willing to lie for any number of daily activities, including eating at restaurants and flying on airplanes. 

“This suggests a couple of things to me,” Heimbrock said. “One, verification is becoming more and more important.”

And the second issue is the relationship between the employee and employer.

“We need to work on building trust and transparency in those relationships,” Heimbrock said. “That is why listening is so critically important.”

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