People at work telling ridiculous lies

[Guineapiglet345]

I work in an office for quite a big company, there’s probably about 400 people in our building and there are quite a few call centres on the same business park, so when we take on new admin staff they’ve usually come from the call centres.

I’ve been training 2 new admins this week and it’s been like a game of one up manship all week, they say they were head of their department at the call centre, they’ve set up call centres all over the world, they were running meetings with the CEOs and basically trying to make themselves sound really important.

Except there’s absolutely no way any of this could be true, they’re finding even the basic admin tasks I’m setting them to be challenging and if it was true why are they now working at the lowest rung of the ladder for minimum wage?

I can’t work out if they’re just liars or are genuinely deluded and think these things are true.

A simple Oh really! should suffice OP followed by a well your here now and this is how I expect things to be done...Let the fall a bit and you have to rescue them then they will usually shut up!!! I am experiencing something similar with someone new who seems to have an agenda all of her own.its difficult to remain proffessional when someone down right lies and you know it..looks like she will have to learn the hard way I guess,ridiculous when all you are offering is help support and guidance but this is far from a unique problem....silly people!

Treat it as a game. See who can top trump each other. I have had the same - juniors laying claim to having done fairly complex things solo but struggling with basic tasks under supervision. Now I just chuckle internally to myself.

I work with someone like this. He's smug and boastful and clearly lies and exaggerates about his past work life.

He's the most ineffective member of the team and everyone complains about him. He's in his late 40s and it's embarrassing really.

I’ve noticed with these types of people that they also tend to ask A LOT of questions, most of which are irrelevant or go into far more detail than is necessary and they write everything down, I encourage them to make some notes but they literally write every little thing down. I think it may be part of trying to look like they’re soooo clever but it actually gives the opposite impression!

I can’t work out if they’re just liars or are genuinely deluded and think these things are true.

Tell me about it! I had this all the time when I was a catwalk supermodel. Then when I left that career and became a project leader at NASA, it was no better. Now I'm a lecturer in particle physics at Yale, it's even worse.

Who do these idiots think they are trying to kid.

Should we be calling them out on it though? If so how would you do it?

Are they prossibly just bring sarcastic?

“How fascinating” and then carry on with whatever you were talking about.

Or keep asking them questions about it so that they unravel their lies.

@Racecardriver I wish they were! Sadly they seem to think they’re impressing everyone with how special they are.

I’ve just remembered one we had ages ago who told me she really shouldn’t be doing admin because she wasn’t very good at it, so she should be given a management job as that would suit her better. We had to let her go for underperforming.

I wouldn’t ever call them out but I’ve spent a lot of the last week going “oh really, anyway this is where the post room is....”

Oh my, why have they fallen to such low levels after their high flying previous jobs? when I gave up my job as queen of the pop tarts I didn’t realise how much I would miss test driving rocketships.

'You should have no problem getting all this spot on first time and really impressing us then' said with a big smile (that hides your sarcasm)

Normally it’s people with a chip on their shoulder who feel they have something to prove. They might think their new colleagues have a negative view of call centres compared to their type of work and so feel the need to present themselves in a certain way, even though nobody really cares much about your work history anyway.

It's because managers don't know to interview properly, so you end up with liars and exaggerators. HR don't follow up either.

I used to despair of how even quite senior managers would think interviewing someone was a quick chat. They don't ask probing questions about someone's experience. A surprising number of people exaggerate their responsibility or invent qualifications. I feel for you.

Personally, I'd blame whoever hired them for recruiting the best looking CV for the lowest price, rather than employing people who were more honest.

Trouble is with a certain strata of management, that the way to get ahead is to say the right things, blame other people when the shit hits the fan and wear the most expensive suit and shoes whilst somebody on a much lower wage actually does the actual work. And because they're good at that side, they get hired or promoted, rather than the minions who would have been much better in the post.

A good HR Department can tell the difference. Pity yours can't.

@Jaxhog & @MitziK I’d 100% agree with you, my bullshit detector is pretty strong but I think some of the managers just want a warm body in a seat

Well that’s depressing.