So, at work recently we’ve been having a situation with the other company we’re sharing a warehouse with. Technically the warehouse is ours, but because it is our sister company and there’s no formal agreement in place we can’t kick them out just because we need the space. So instead they had 3 months’ notice to move to another place, which was apparently fine because they were already preparing to move to an even larger warehouse anyway.
That’s what I got told when the company first moved me to this country. And since then, I’ve found the European manager to be purposefully putting off moving to this other warehouse, because she will save money but staying in our little informal agreement.
“We will move, ….we ARE moving…. Oh the contracts aren’t ready yet…. We can’t move yet, there’s just no way….. if we do move then we’re going to stop business with you…. “
all whilst hearing rumours on the great vine that this European director had paused her own work contracts for the workers who were meant to be preparing their own warehouse.
So, the point you should be getting here is that she is lying, she wants to save money by putting off the moving as much as possible, and she can change her story very quickly. Also she has no qualms in doing any of these, even if it’s to the detriment of many other people.
What’s worse, is that I want to like her, she’s got a nice personality, and seems very sincere. But unfortunately that’s the big thing, seems is not what is actually the case.
So 2 days ago after hearing her bullshit plans and promises for the last 2 and a half months without anything actually happening, we decided to have a meeting, myself, her, and 2 other people from my team who know the warehousing situation very well, and what is and isn’t possible.
It’s a Chinese company, and 1 thing that has to be mentioned is that if you are in the company in the first place, you are trusted, therefore internal meetings are generally informal and oral.
That being said, I decided to take meeting minutes for the simple reason that 1. I would pass on this information to our new European director that couldn’t be in the meeting & 2. It’s a record of proof of what was said in the meeting.
This lady seemed surprised that I was taking it down, and I genuinely think its because she kind of realized it meant she wouldn’t be able to change her story later.
So anyway… she said something about a warehouse we could lease for a short term but…it had no loading platform (she made a big deal of saying we’d have to load the warehouse using a forklift) OR security system, both of which are very important when you’re storing goods worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I wrote this down and this was questioned by a member of my team and we moved on.
After not really coming up with any better suggestions, and realizing we’d have to take matters into our own hands, despite the fact ….you know, this was her problem that she got everyone into through her own inaction, and on =-purpose non-action, we eventually figured…. Maybe we should just check this place out, maybe we can ask for more functionality from the warehouse leasor. So I went midday to check it out with the owner of the warehouse.
Guess what? It HAS the loading bay, and it also HAS a full security system, and it would actually pretty much fit our needs.
I came back and in the afternoon heard from this woman ‘ oh I hear you went to the short term warehouse….; (you know, without really asking a question)
“yeah”, I said “it was pretty good, it DID have the security system, and the loading doors”
“I told you” she said.
What??? No you didn’t you specifically said that it didn’t have any of these things.
“it seems like no one trust me, I told you about the warehouse and you went to go and look at it anyway, so I guess that means you don’t trust me”
Haven’t you ever heard of ‘trust but verify’?
I mean, especially with this woman’s reputation. Of course I’m going to verify that what she said was true or either untrue.
“but in the meeting, you said it didn’t have any of these, so we wanted to see to what extent it was”, I said.
“I never said that, I never said that”
Ah…. Yes, you did. All that note taking I was doing… those minute meetings I sent to you and was verified by everyone in attendance… that might attest to that.
What do you think meeting minutes are for? They’re not for….’oh yeah, I heard everything you said in the meeting….but you know what? I’ll just make up some bullshit…write it down… and use it to hold it against you later…whilst it goes out for verification to company directors and what-not’
No, it doesn’t work like that.
Plus, considering that this entire time you’ve been lying, and even this morning when you sent us the email with the address of the warehouse, when I plugged it into my car’s navigation….it wasn’t even in the correct place. You were even sending us to the wrong place. I don’t know if this was on purpose or not, but I’m start to think this lying is more pathological rather than just forgetful or anything else.
So is it really any wonder why we react by perhaps not taking you at your word.
“I don’t understand why you don’t trust me” (this was not said in a sad voice, no reason to feel bad for her… this was said in a strategic, manipulative, scheming kind of voice)
It was revealed in the global meeting/ conference call that both joint CEO’s thought she’d already moved out of the warehouse, so she’d even managed to lie to these 2 people as well.
And before today, after saying that there was no way she could possibly move out, because other companies don’t have space, or security systems, or the right things in place…or that it wasn’t even a question of money…it was simply impossible at this time, which we now know is completely not true.. she threatened that ‘if we were going to be like this she would just move straight away and not work with us anymore. ‘
She said this to one of my colleagues which is more easily rattled, but in the end I had to say, ‘this is an empty threat’ … logically speaking it can’t be true.
Either it means that previously you COULD move out but didn’t because you wanted to save money…. Which confirms that you were lying to us about this situation the whole time, OR that you can’t move out because everything you said was true, and this whole threat of ‘ fine we’ll move out straight away…but you’ll be sorry’ doesn’t mean anything, because it can’t possibly happen…according to your statements before…it is simply impossible.
I’ve never met a pathological liar before…. But I think this is my first one. Even writing an email, even to her superiors she’s lying, she’s lying that she’s not lying. To be honest it’s absolutely incredible.
I, for some reason, thought it’d be kind of funny to meet a pathological liar, because I just couldn’t imagine what shenanigans a person like that would get up to. But now I see…and it is not fun, especially when you’re affect by it.
Sometimes I think it would make life so much easier, especially if you can’t help it, and don’t seem to care if it negatively affects people around you. As a saleswoman this lady is incredible. But of course she’s incredibly, of course she is, because for any client that comes through…’can you do that?’ Yes of course we can’ Even though it’s completely not true.
Absolutely incredible.
But to have the audacity to say “I don’t know why people don’t trust me”
Hahahah too golden.
