Telling a little fib often seems like a convenient way to get yourself out of a jam. Or better yet, just lead somebody to believe one thing without actually telling the fib. In that case you can have your cake and eat it too - you get someone believing what isn't the case which of course works to your advantage, and you can also deny ever lying, because you didn't, sort of. When you can do this consistently, you have reached BSing nirvana and you can enjoy eternal enlightenment in liar's purgatory.
I know people who can lead someone to believe a pelican will swoop down and pick them out of mid-air if they jump off the nearest skyscraper. This is of course without mentioning anything about a skyscraper or a pelican. This is also of course an example of how human intelligence has manifested itself in devious and destructive ways - take that Alfred Binet.
I was working for a company about two years ago (when people actually had jobs) and right at the point where I was trying to decide if this was a company for whom I'd like to work for a while. We were getting to the end of a massive project and thoughts were flying through my mind about what this company was going to do with the Spartan army they hired for this job alone. I didn't have a whole lot of confidence that I was going to be one of the survivors, but I wasn't persona non grada either.
Then came rumblings from the heavens. Word got out that the chief operating officer who was hired to bring the company to the promise land and manage the slew of new hires and never before seen projects was leaving the company. Oh dear, what do we do now.
Construction companies are kind of weird because the majority of the people working are out on remote jobsites and the higherups in the mothership push buttons, turn knobs, and stroke their cat from the home office and nobody really gets to see what is going on.
To me, it looked like he quit because nobody would let him have his way and run things as he thought they should. This was my immediate impression and for some reason that's what I believed without any verification of it being true. I also starting thinking that perhaps there is turmoil and financial problems up above and the folks from the mothership were going to grab the gold and head for the hills. I doubt I would have been invited along.
I ended up quitting for a laundry list of reasons but uncertainty of the stability of the company was certainly one of them. I found out several months later that the COO was fired, and I wish I knew this. I'm not saying I would have stayed with the company and I would be employed with 2.3 kids at the moment, but I would have had much more respect for them if they came out and told us exactly what was going on. And between you, me, and cyberspace, I didn't really like the guy too much anyway.
So I guess this brings up an interesting question about how much information should be leaked to the little people down in the village, but I know that I personally perfer the truth. And this was an example where the truth could have ended up with me staying at the company which would have probably been much more beneficial for everyone. Probably.
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The person fired deserves some privacy and respect too, though. Their name and their work shouldn't be trashed through office gossip.
ReplyDeleteFew people are fired for true 'cause'--a willful and deliberate act for which they have been warned. Some are laid off, but the majority are 'let go' because they are 'not a good fit'--a euphemism for a vast array of real reasons which usually don't mean the person was incompetent, inept, insubordinate, or incompatible. These people deserve to make a fresh start.
And likely getting the dirt on another person's departure wouldn't make anyone feel better or more secure anyway. If you find out that another person was laid off for making a few small mistakes or because they rubbed someone the wrong way, it just underlines how easy it is for your employer to do the same to you.
Also a euphamism for "we just don't really like you and we've found someone we do like for less money".
ReplyDeleteI don't think someone who gets fired from a $300k per year job is entitled to anything. But people who get laid off because they "aren't a right a fit" probably have a more legitimate complaint.