One of our clients told me that their house manager was a confirmed liar the other day.
It seemed a trifle strange that they were saying it in such a matter-of-fact way, without having taking action on it, so I delved a little deeper.
Their most recent lie went a little like this…
There’d been a party at work, and then the team had decamped to the pub, leaving two staff members to follow behind:
The house manager and an apprentice.
Female and male. Older and younger. Both quite drunk.
A match made in heaven, right?
While the rest of the team are merrily drinking away, the house manager suddenly bursts in, dramatically announcing that Bob – the apprentice – has punched her to the floor.
She’s in tears, she’s dishevelled, and everyone crowds around.
Turns out she was in such a state that she’d had to call Alex, another colleague, to pick her up.
Then in walks Bob. The manager goes straight over to him to ask him what on earth has happened.
“What do you mean, “What happened?” We walked here and she got here first”.
Alex gets called in to give evidence.
He’s confused.
“I haven’t been anywhere or picked anyone up. In fact, I’m a few sheets to the wind and I’ve been in the pub for ages”
Something is clearly afoot, but whenever the manager tries to address it with the house manager, tears are the only response.
So – perhaps wisely – they decide to leave it till the next day.
The next day she’s sticking to her story, in private conversations at least, going around telling those who weren’t there that Bob punched her the previous evening.
In she comes to the manager’s office for a chat.
“What happened?”
“Nothing, he didn’t punch me, it has all been blown out of proportion”.
Cue one of those confused emojis.
Yes, it has been blown out of proportion, but by who? You!
At that stage, the manager felt there wasn’t much that could be done.
But on the contrary, you can’t slander your colleagues with serious allegations, only to retract them and expect to get away with it, so we’re currently in the middle of a disciplinary process that’ll ensure it doesn’t happen again, and that she’ll probably end up departing pretty soon.
If you have staff that are creative with the truth, you don’t just have to grin and bear it – it can be dealt with. If you need a hand with that, hit reply and let me know.
