SELF-IDENTIFIED FRAUD-73

Who am I referring to? Why myself of course. After I have explained you may say, “tut, tut”, but I do not believe you will be too censorious of me. There were extenuating circumstances, as you shall see. In the late 1980’s or there abouts, the upper management of the corporation I worked for, Mobil Oil, decided to embrace the business fad of the day which was called New Culture. In the august wisdom (read ironic sarcasm into my words if you wish) of top Mobil management the publicity for being all inclusive and seemingly highly caring for the workforce of the corporation outweighed any additional expense incurred. Therefore seminars were set up for groups of employees to inculcate this New Culture into the Zeitgeist of the workforce. As I remember it employees in the building where I worked, including professionals, technicians, and secretaries, were put in groups according to what floor they work on to attend a couple of hours seminar continued for several days to discuss and be lectured on this concept of New Culture. An outside consulting company ran the seminars. There were a couple of useful features in it such that when teams are formed to work on particular company projects not only is it logical and necessary to have people on the team with different skills and specialties, but also with different personalities such as those who were spontaneous and quick with new ideas, even if some of the ideas were off-the-wall crazy and people who were more deliberate and well grounded if not as original in their thinking. At any rate I decided to have some fun with it because everyone knew that the whole thing was a business fad sold to the management of Mobil and was largely, even if not completely, a waste of everyone’s time. Ok, so how did I approach this sham of workforce propaganda? Simple. Knowing that the participants would be classified into categories of whether they were outgoing and spontaneous or reserved and contemplative I chose to deliberately and artificially exhibit characteristics of the former classification. My excuse was that I was just a few years away from wanting to retire so I allowed myself to make a game of it. I would not be too obvious or divulge to anyone what I was doing because I wanted to retire in a few years, not immediately. I rather logically figured that upper management would not be particularly pleased if word got out that I was playing games with their current pet project. The owner of this small consulting company had a couple of assistants who conducted seminars at our building as he did himself. I was in a seminar conducted by the owner who at least gave the impression of being confident in what he was doing. From the start of the first seminar session I was quick to both attempt to answer any questions asked by the seminar conductor and to be the first to weigh in on any issue or subject under discussion. At one point I attempted to immediately answer a question asked by the seminar conductor and as I was answering it I was thinking about it and started to moderate my answer as I continued to talk. He was quick to pick up on that and explained to the class that I was so prone to responding quickly before I had a chance to really evaluate the question that as I was talking I was thinking about it and changing my answer as I went on. Later on in the seminar as my immediate responses continued, the fellow commented that if I were in a room full of strangers I would make the rounds in the room and become the first person to be acquainted with everyone there. I smiled at this ersatz observation, but did not say anything. In the final evaluation by the consulting company, the group I was in was considered the most outgoing and spontaneous. We had some real extroverts in our group including professional explorationists, technicians, and one secretary in particular who was as talkative and voluble as anyone. Yet I was considered the most extroverted of all! Sacrebleu! I had successfully pulled off a great hoax. So confident was he in his evaluation of me that neither I nor anyone else could have convinced the consulting company owner who was our seminar leader what I had done; never in 1000 years would he have believed or have admitted he had been hoaxed. At work the day after the seminar ended people I knew would come up to me and express surprise that I was judged the most outgoing employee of all the groups. I would inevitably respond that it surprised me too, yet that was the conclusion of the consulting company. I did not tell anyone the truth until after I retired. I am no dummy. What to take away from this by now long ago experience? One thing is that if I, a rank amateur in the field of deception, could fool so many people so easily, including a man who fancied himself an expert in judging the personalities of people, then what could an experienced con man do? Clearly it is still the old, old lesson in being wary of what people say and do unless verified by facts. Years ago there was a best selling book titled Games People Play. Even without reading it I seemed to have mastered the art of whatever stratagems some people employ in their relations with others, as judged by what I have read of the book reviews. I suppose I could also claim that such an innocuous game as I played did no real harm to anybody. And I certainly enjoyed it. Now that you know the story of my deception, if I were one accustomed to betting I would put my money on you not judging me too harshly.