There is a creature you will find in almost every office — the shirker, the person who can get away without doing any work. He was appointed because he is a friend of the boss’s wife. But he continues to haunt the office despite the fact that the nepotistic relationship may have faded.

There is nothing much you can do about such people. In the face of staff complaints, the boss merely maintains the status quo. Often, he does not want to admit that he was wrong in the first place. Secondly, he doesn’t want to ruffle domestic feathers; he is probably not sure of how exactly the relationship, which gained the drone entry in the first place, stands. Make no mistake about these people; they are rarely yes men or sycophants. If anything, they take great pleasure in pulling down their boss, sometimes even in front of him.

There is a variant of this drone you will find far more frequently — the perfectly competent employee who suddenly becomes useless in a particular situation. Take Dinesh, for instance, an accountant who is computer literate. But every time he is asked to interface with the new and expensive software his company has just bought, he pretends not to know the difference between random access memory and a horned beast. Dinesh probably knows the new system inside out. He also knows that it won’t work. And he is not willing to waste time on it. He acts dumb.

“Acting dumb and stupid isn’t a natural instinct; it is adapted under bad leadership,” says the Motivational Tool Chest, an online HR guide. It goes on to say there are two types of laziness. Constructive laziness increases creative skills because we don’t like to do more work than necessary. People search for the easiest way to get jobs done. Destructive laziness is associated with people who are not motivated.

One situation in which you should deliberately try to act dumb is when you are new on the job. No one likes a show-off. Even if you are right, you should bow to the views of others. “The less you say when you start a job, the better you position yourself to learn about the organisation and how it works, and your new colleagues and how they work together,” says Dave Taylor, co-author of The Truth about Starting a New Job. “The early days should be about listening and observing while giving away as little as possible. After all, you don’t know who’s who or what’s what.”

This sort of dumbness —which is essentially deception — is far more common than you think. David Shulman, associate professor of anthropology and sociology at Lafayette College, says it is a fundamental part of corporate life. In his latest book — From Hire to Liar: The Role of Deception in the Workplace — Shulman contends that everyone lies on the job, from the secretary on up to the highest executive. “Lying and deceiving is a part of how business actually gets done. And that’s not a bad thing.”

“Lying on the job,” he continues, “is absolutely necessary”. The moralists won’t like it; nor will the HR departments that preach transparency. But the Shulman view — and he has many supporters — is that every organisation is a construct of game-playing individuals. You lie — sometimes even resort to crimes — to gain an edge.

The drone we started with is just another actor on the corporate stage. Compared to the megalomaniacs who sometimes end up as CEOs, they are harmless. They cause minor irritation. But they are always good for gossiping about and often inspire a dirty joke. In a world full of liars, you need such comic relief.

Of lies and liars

Books to help you nail liars

How to Spot a Liar — Gregory Hartley and Maryann Karinch

Never Be Lied to Again: How to Get the Truth In 5 Minutes or Less in Any Conversation or Situation — David J. Lieberman

The Definitive Book of Body Language — Barbara Pease

The Truth About Lying: How to Spot a Lie and Protect Yourself from Deception — Stan B. Walters

Conquering Deception — Jef Nance

Lying and Deception in Everyday Life — Michael Lewis

Lies! Lies!! Lies!!!: The Psychology of Deceit — Charles V. Ford

Source: Amazon.com