Embracing the Suck: Chronic Liars

At Ask a Manager, a commenter weighs in on how he dealt with an incompetent coworker that management would do nothing about.

Conveniently for him it turned out, the coworker was also the type whose conversations frequently include obvious lies. The lies one day caused him to realize -- when they were about something he was very familiar with -- that there was a way to fight back:

What finally worked was calling her out on all the outrageous made-up stories, but doing so in a way that appeared to show concern. For example, she claimed to have severely torn her kneecap on a cruise, but was completely fine when she came back a week later. I expressed camaraderie due to a knee injury I suffered in college, and asked her questions about the type of tear, the recovery, the PT, etc. She got frustrated and embarrassed when she couldn't keep up the details. Rehash and repeat for every BS thing she came up with -- when it was something I knew nothing about, I went home and did research so I'd be prepared for the next shift. She finally quit.

While the above story will more likely be an amusing anecdote, it might be good to file in the back of one's mind.

If nothing else, the amusement of flustering someone like this might make up a little bit for the annoyance of having to listen to it.

-- CAV