TLDR: Mgmt wanted me to lie to the COO, rather than speak in a meeting.
I used to work at a company where I was brought in specifically to be the one and only subject matter expert on a system that was vital to the company. I came in with 15 years of IT experience working in the databases and with vendors of that kind of system — not this company's specific product, but that industry and other product similar enough that I “got it” as far as how they worked.
The company decided it was time to replace this product. It was a 10+ year old software that had issues and the vendor was extremely difficult to work with. Anyway, a meeting was scheduled to discuss the idea of changing products. It would be a major project for the department in question and would take several years to do. So this was an important meeting. The Chief Operating Officer was there via phone, along with other big-wigs. The conference room had at least 30 people, many with PhDs in their field, all of whom were well above me on the org charts.
The meeting was going on smoothly, as various users of this product talked about the hardships and issues they were having. It was clear that everyone who used the software wanted it replaced.
Then the COO piped up on the phone and asked me, by name, what I thought. All the heads turns to stare me but I took a second, nodded, and gave a clear, concise, expert opinion. “In my experience…” basically saying that the users were right — this thing was outdated and wasn't really meeting the needs of the business any longer. Other, newer, products existed and would do better.
A few minutes later, the meeting wrapped up and we all went on our way.
A month later, my annual review came up. My boss usually conducted those in one-on-one sessions (he and I got along great; he was probably the best boss I've ever had ever). But this time, his boss was also there. We went through the 1st half of the review and all was perfect. No complaints, all good marks. Then suddenly we get down to a bit about communications and boss' boss got a smug look on his face as he told me that I was being dinged for having spoken at that meeting.
I asked how I should've handled that. “You should have said you'd look into it. then given your information to the project manager to relay as needed to others.” So when the COO calls me out BY NAME, I'm supposed to lie and say I don't have a response? “Yes, exactly.”
That was the day I began searching for another job. I hated to leave; I loved my coworkers (on my team and the users I supported) and my boss, but having a management team that literally wanted me to lie rather than provide the expertise I was hired for? Hell no. I was done. Within a few months I got a better paying job and left. I did do contract work for those users for another year or so, part time, on the side.