I worked for this place where staff wanted to replace an outdated piece of specialized software. Doing so wouldn't be cheap or easy — at least hundreds of thousands of dollars and probably a year or two to go through the purchase process and then implementation… So kind of a big deal.
In the entire organization, I was the only person who's job was specifically and completely related to that software. It was literally in my job title.
So the staff calls a big meeting to discuss the idea of replacing this software. There were 25 or 30 people in the room. Supervisors, managers, directors. And more folk had phoned in to the meeting, up to and including the Chief Operating Officer. This was a project that would have very high visibility…
During the course of the meeting, the COO asked me, by name, for my opinion. Which I gave. Nothing shocking or inappropriate, just “in my experience, companies generally look to replace or upgrade these kinds of products about every X years, and given some of the issues we're having with the software now, it's probably time to upgrade.” Or something along those lines… Again, nothing shocking given the meeting topic, and nothing inappropriate or out of line.
A month later, at my annual review, my boss apologized and said he tried to fight it, but HIS boss had demanded that my review include a bit about how I shouldn't have spoken in that meeting. (That manager wasn't there.) We called that manager up and asked why. He wouldn't say except “someone complained.” I asked what I was supposed to do when the COO asks me a question. “Say you're not sure and you'll get back to her, then give your information to the project manager and let them decide what to tell management.”
So yeah. My boss' boss told me to flat out lie to the company officers. Just to make a different division within our department look smarter. Even though I was the business' only subject matter expert on the topic at hand.
That was the day I began searching in earnest for a new job.