There’s a true story whose lesson I treasure. In the company where I worked before, an officemate was thrust into a new position for which he was not trained. The resulting circumstances contradicted the nobility of the reason behind the move.
It was a promotion, but Jimmy did not really want it. He politely declined at first, only to later concede to the company’s decision. He didn’t want to appear uncooperative and cause a snag in the operations, he confided to close friends.
The job promotion was actually the company’s emotional response to the recent sudden misfortune in Jimmy’s life. His wife, who was a ranking employee in the same company, passed away in an accident. Jimmy now needed better income to singlehandedly sustain their three kids who were still in college.
But the company did not tell Jimmy the real reason for his promotion. All that the company wanted was to give Jimmy more income, and the only way to do it was to move him to a higher position. It was a gesture of corporate kindness, while Jimmy thought they really found him qualified to head the new department.
The company knew that if they told him the truth, Jimmy would surely turn down the promotion, out of a sense of self-regard. So they hid the truth from him, confident in the goodness of their intention. They were certain that Jimmy would learn the new job fast, anyway; after all it was the very job held formerly by his deceased wife and he must have at least an idea of how it goes.
The company’s action, however, caused resentment among the rest of the employees. The more senior in the staff felt they were unjustly bypassed. Jimmy himself became so depressed to hear the hushed complaints going around.
Moreover, the new position eventually produced the situation that Jimmy feared. He lacked the skills for the job and so had to mainly rely on his assistants. He felt inept and became all the more depressed.
During the succeeding meetings of the management committee, which he was now part of, Jimmy was always the subject of insolent allusions by the other managers. Poor Jimmy could only obliquely defend himself from the attacks, trying so hard to maintain a solid front while he crumbled inside.
It was not long until the company began to feel the backlash of Jimmy’s undeserved promotion. The demoralization among the other employees was undermining their performance. And the inefficiency of Jimmy’s department was causing some hitches in the overall operations.
For his part, Jimmy was most unhappy. His self-esteem plummeted. Each day at work was a torture for him.
The company finally realized that they were wrong to move Jimmy to the new position. But they did not want to hurt his feelings. They waited for Jimmy himself to give up – which he did, already badly broken.
It’s amazing how we often feed to each other’s lies. We hide the truth, because we’re afraid of what will happen if we expose it. Most people can’t handle an inconvenient truth.
People fear the truth when they suspect it could be too ugly for them to bear. But it’s in the Bible: “The truth shall set you free.” What’s to fear about that?