Someone — we’ll call him Martin — got called out in an email thread for not paying a vendor. Martin emailed the vendor, accusing them of failing to include links in the email.
The vendor patiently re-sent the message, and Martin said he still couldn’t see the links.
“Why don’t you share your screen so I can see what you see?” The vendor kindly said. The hyperlinks were there, clear as day.
Flustered, Martin said, “Well, they weren’t there before.”
That’s about the time my late mother would have said, “Methinks thou dost protest too much.”
The truth should always be more straightforward. What is the vendor going to do? Yell at you? No. But if you’re living under someone’s thumb at work, it may feel easier to tell people what they want to hear, or to make up an excuse to stay out of the “dog house.”
I’ve worked in an environment like that. My managers were more interested in catching me making mistakes than in supporting my success. So, I reverted to 8-year-old me, doing my best not to get caught at anything, because somehow, whatever happened was my fault.
Thankfully, now that I’m the boss, I don’t get blamed for anything except, maybe, not sharing some pizza crust.