I heard a story this morning where some concerned public-interest person was expressing concern about the public interest, specifically the child-public's interest in sugar-coated cereals like Choco-Clumps, Syrup Flakes With Gum, and Sugar-Coated Diabetes Bites. Her complaint was that the cereal companies advertise their products on children's television shows, and the children then talk their parents into buying those products, in an evil corporate plot that leads directly to childhood obesity, cavities, and unsightly pimples. My first thought was that her anger should be equally directed at the fruit and vegetable companies that don't advertise on children's programs. My second thought was that, by and large, people just don't have a lot of trust in business.

Public opinion survey after public opinion survey shows that the public trusts business less than they trust used car salesmen with four felony convictions and a white belt. This should come as no surprise, because business doesn't even trust business. Do you think McDonald's trusts Burger King? Do you think Target trusts Wal-Mart, or Apple trusts Microsoft? Have you ever heard any sober manager say anything like "Don't bother to check that shipment against the invoice; I trust the vendor"? Or "Contract? Who needs a contract? I believe them when they say they'll do what we need. Now, pass me some more liquor ..."?

Business-on-business distrust begets consumers' distrust of companies. It also begets distrust among employees. Take me.

I once worked in a large company where the HR people thought it would be a good idea to make us all go through trust-building exercises. Why they thought we needed trust-building no one really knew, although we suspected it was something they read in our e-mails or found in our desks. Anyway, they thought it would build trust if they put us together in teams and made us build a "bridge" from two-by-fours in time to escape flesh-eating zombies, played realistically by auditors. I won't go into a lot of detail except to say that to escape from the zombies, we had to help each other in ways that involved trusting a co-worker enough to believe that he would catch you if you fell backwards into his arms. I missed the second half of the exercise because of a severe fall injury, but everyone came back to work claiming to have more confidence in one another.

Still, even companies that send employees to trust-building camp don't always foster a trusting atmosphere back home. I mean, is it possible to expect a group of people who are all competing for limited raises and promotions to trust one another; to support one another; to make the achievement of others' goals equal to the achievement of their own; to go out of their way to make one another look good; to tell the boss that Jim is at the orthodontist's when, in fact, he is playing golf? Fat chance. If you find it hard to trust your peers with important work because you can't even trust them not to eat your food out of the office refrigerator, you're not alone. That's why experts in trust (also known as "columnists on a deadline") have come up with the Four Signs That Your Co-worker Is Trustworthy:

1. The co-worker doesn't gossip about others. If someone gossips about others, they certainly gossip about you and do not deserve your trust, particularly if they gossip about the criminal conviction you omitted from your resume.

2. The co-worker warns you about untrustworthy clients or co-workers. It is vital information to know that the guy heading the new project you're assigned to once ate a rival.

3. The co-worker doesn't brag about how much she works. Ninety-two percent of credit-wanters are back-stabbers, and 87 percent of back-stabbers are suck-ups.

4. The co-worker doesn't steal your Choco-Clumps.

Dan Danbom writes humor for a number of publications. His latest book is "Humor Meets Your Workforce: Make Laughter One of Your Organization's Goals."