How To Be a Good Liar
Stumbled upon this brilliant comic strip by Suparman & Ibab;
And it really took me back to the time when I used to be a part of the corporate world. A world full of suspicious people like the woman on the above comic strip. Don’t get me wrong; the company itself was built upon great values, but it was the people – especially those who were at the top – who were screwing it up.
If you worked at a corporate company long enough, you’d know how to be a good liar – your manager, your boss and your shifty senior colleagues would be the ones teaching you.
How? Study the following case;
Iwan* was a work colleague who went home to Bandung every weekend. It had become a traditional habit to bag the crap out of him when it came to Friday afternoon, because he always took off at exactly 4 pm just so he wouldn’t miss catching the bus back home.
On one particular Monday, he took a day off work because he had to take care of his family car’s registration. Our office was located in Cikarang and if he did try to make it into a half-day’s work by the time he got to the office it would be noon already, and we all know how ‘smooth and easy’ the government was when it comes to administration work, sometimes it would take them a full day just to approve a single paper, but let’s not get into that now.
So Iwan gave my manager, Lisa*, a call to let her know about it since, of course, it was the right thing to do to tell her the truth, right? Not so. Lisa practically yelled at him through the telephone, saying that it was unacceptable for him to miss a day of work just to deal with his car’s registration and why not get someone else to do it? On top of that she managed to let everyone in the department knew about it so that she could come around and badmouth him, or even better get the rest of us to do the same (out of fear for pissing her off if we didn’t, of course).
FYI, Iwan lived alone with his mother (his father had passed away) at home, because all his siblings were married and moved out already, so he was the one who took the role as the head of the family by providing and taking care of the bills etc.
The next day, Iwan came to work with an exhausted look on his face and he said to me, “Had I known she’d make such a big deal about it, I would’ve lied and told her that I was sick instead.”
What he said to me really got me thinking for the whole day – true, he could’ve lied and it would make his life a whole lot easier, but he chose not to. He told the truth instead, and got told off. Even worse, Lisa sort of implied to the rest of us that there might be a chance that Iwan was lying about his car registration.
What made me feel sad was the fact that Lisa’s behavior was not exactly uncommon – almost every manager in the whole office behaved in exactly the same way. Most of them even violated the rules of the company that they had created themselves.
It was okay for Lisa to take half day off from work because her son was sick and demanded attention, but it was definitely not okay for Iwan to do the same thing – why? I have no idea. Maybe it’s the whole double standard thing, “It’s okay for me to breach the rules because I’m a manager and you are not”, even though everyone knew that Lisa misused her position and her son’s sickness as an excuse for too many times than she should, if she was to be compared to her subordinates.
My guess was that the next time Iwan needed to take a day off, he’d rather make up some lying excuses rather than telling the truth – it sounded better on Lisa’s ears anyway, so why shouldn’t he? And he was right. He had started looking for a new job a few months after and for every interview he’d been to, he gave the sick excuse and no questions were asked. And that is how a person becomes a good liar, my friend.
I ought to congratulate Lisa and all the other power-tripping managers for recreating an honest and good-willing person into a dishonest and lying person. I didn’t stay long enough at that company myself – the office politic finally got me and I had enough.*
So when Suparman from the comic strip above gave the doctor’s certificate for his absence the day before and instead, got the suspicious treatment from his boss because the certificate had a writing that was ‘too neat coming from a doctor’, I already had an idea of what was going on in his head then.
But for now, I’ll let you do the interpretation for me. What do you think?
*)The real names of the characters in this story are protected for their privacy.
17 comments
kinda similar with my friend’s story
while she was negotiating things with customs
“percuma aja jujur
toh bakal kena (pajak/tangkap) juga
jadi sekalian aja gak usah jujur
biar lebih lancar”
sad, eh?
richoz´s last blog post..Gibson X-plorer [del.icio.us]
Not only in the corporate world, darling. I’m goin thru the same ‘ol thing here. It bugs me but hey, what can do sir? (gaya kolega gw yg orang india)
sering banget sakit beneran malah dicurigain boong. Padahal dateng aja sini ke apartment gw liat gw lagi muntah2. Sembari pas bos (atau kolega yang pinter jilat pantat – baca: the incestuous bitch) sakit (or pura2).. gak diapa2in. taeeeeeeeeeeeee…
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Not true — regarding the typical doctor’s handwriting. I know some doctors who have very nice readable handwriting and yes, most of them are women
Have a nice weekend, Therry!
Devi Girsang´s last blog post..Shine! The International Student Awards 2009
to Devi Girsang:
Yes, some doctors have nice and handwriting. I’ve seen some, too. But unfortunately, the stereotype in people is the ‘tulisan cakar ayam’. Other than that is suspicious
richoz´s last blog post..Gibson X-plorer [del.icio.us]
hah! i can definitely relate some of my experiences with your story above. it’s sad that honesty is somewhat valued less than dishonesty. it’s a crazy world we’re living in!
the writer´s last blog post..Budgies and snow
one of the best ways to create good lies is:
“believe your own lies”
(ini pelajaran dari corporate world juga…)
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I think it justified in a way that your friend wanted to take a day off to take care of something that is not important (car? bah!) compares to human being (read: precious son).
Recently a colleague of my husband took 2 days off – to go to dog grooming class. Of course everyone was delighted and taking the piss by printing the most disgusting picture of dogs in costumes and sticking them around his monitor. He went back to see his desk was full of pictures of dogs with tutu or star wars costumes.
But the point is, no one cares as long as you do your job well. I personally never cared whether my staffs turned up at 8 or 11 as long as they picked up her phone when I looked for them.
In UK, you could choose to work at home. You’re actually encouraged to work from home since the company doesn’t have to deal with rental space & electricity.
Achievement speaks louder than presence.
But it’s in Indonesia, we’re decades behind everybody – you’ve got to wear tie when you’re a manager; you’ve got to glue your butt on the chair until the boss goes home.
Finally Woken´s last blog post..And The Music Takes It All
New theme therr? Kinda weird
Um.. thank God my office rite now have little amount of
*crappy politics*
Eru Reed´s last blog post..Missing Pieces And The Big O
In terms of lying to get off work, it happens and provided the reason seems legit, I am not going to lose any sleep over it. If it happens regularly then it becomes a topic of discussion.
However, I am pretty much entirely internet based. So, in that sense my people can work pretty much from anywhere (as can I). I must say though that I have people in my office that have already used up their sick and annual leave for part of 2009.
On the writing of doctors. I always have to get a diagnosis written on the receipt before the insurance people will reimburse the amount paid. I always look at the diagnosis and think, “yep, I really do not see the point of writing anything there, I cannot read it and understand it, so I have no idea how the insurance people will work it out!”
I am guessing that insurance offices employ special translators for the task.
Rob´s last blog post..Medical Miracles and Some Thoughts on GWB
hmmm after reading this, im feeling bit lucky working in my current office, coz nobody will actually yell at us.. when they need to say sth, they will do it 4 eyes.. no wonder dirimu lebih demen freelance o_O!
“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
-George Orwell-
Uh.. No not really Ther. I woud’ve lied to ‘Lisa’ too given the circumstances. It’s just that I feel the world nowadays seems so twisted. Something’s definitely wrong when people are are actually being persecuted for telling the truth.
I’m sorry if I gave the impression that I was judging anyone by posting the quote from Orwell. It really wasn’t my intention.
The problem is, that many Indonesians are lazy, or at least have a lazy attitude. This stereotype does not come from nowhere, from my personal experiences (kantor pajak, kantor PLN, kantor polisi, workers in supermarkets, workers at banks) there is just a huge lack of ambition and motivation displayed by the common joe.
Compare that to a country like China and you can see the difference so obviously.
So why should you complain about being misjudged, when this is the image your country has represented to the whole world in the first place?
Hm .. well it’s life Ther.
Sometimes if people were on the top, they tend to forget to compare their reaction to their staff with themselves.
For me, it’s not because Indonesian are lazy, everybody in the world have the same experience.
They were lucky if they have the superior who always mirroring themselves with his/her staff.
Me, sometimes I do cheat, and I know if my staff cheat on me too.
Not through “doctor’s recommendation” but somewhere inside me I know
Advice from a cheater and lazy woman, I may say that you have to know your superior, so you know how to deal with the situation others than ‘sick’ :-p
I’ve once have a staff who always request his permittion because he wants to take care of his son, and it’s always on Monday. Sometimes I let him absent but most of the time I didn’t let him go, because he took the advantage of my generousity
LOL, despite the moral of the story, ‘d love the comic strip though
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Apart from some out there would prefer to present lies after another.. still he/she would think real-harder on the next excuses..making it (lying) a remarkable habbit – thus making it (the skills of lying a permanent character treats)…
Being a good guys may not always pays but sooner truth prevails
One of the questions not yet answered is: so what should this Lisa have done instead, as a manager?
Maybe she should hold a short meeting among all team members in which Iwan was involved. Then, instead of reprimanded blindly, she could’ve asked Iwan to explain his action to everyone. Afterwards, she could’ve encouraged everyone to convey their own opinions.
In short: the rule of the game must be known by everyone in the team. In particular: which behaviors in certain contexts are acceptable and which are not. And how everyone can formulate their own decision-making from those samples.
But that’s my opinion. I could be wrong.
isman´s last blog post..Real-life Stories from the Open Source Software Frontline
Suatu hari, gw ga masuk kerja tanpa alasan yang jelas..or malas tepatnya, lihat manager dan co-worker yang sotoy.
Should I have told the truth then? Kasih alasan yang sebenernya bisa screw me up donk hahaha….
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