You know the phrase, “you can’t bullshit a bullshitter?” I’ve always understood this, being a self-proclaimed bullshitter. The only person who can really tell if I am lying is my mother, and even though she thinks she knows, she doesn’t always. 

In the world of business, I contend that in leadership and bosshood, there is some degree of lying — let’s call it bullshitting, if you will. There are certain ‘knowns’ at the leadership level, that, even when you explain them in a way that worker-bees can understand, go misunderstood, or get misconstrued due to human emotions. We are fighting for our corporate lives, I remember Devin Wenig saying on stage to the All-hands employee meeting at StubHub in the spring of 2014. I understood this be to code for – if we don’t change our numbers, there will be layoffs/changes/cutbacks. I put a hop in my step and made sure my name was on “the special projects list” that summer, and was graciously laid off. It’s always nice to be let go with a little cash handshake. The bigger the better, obviously. 

That was not my first time at the rodeo, e.g., being laid off, and so I could see it coming maybe quicker than some others.

Just the other day, my 18 year old nephew said the main difference in the white-linen tablecloth restaurant where he works now, and the Tex-Mex Cantina where he used to work, is whether or not you’re able to bullshit with the customer – (at the TexMex) or, if you’re watching the management actually bullshit to the customer, straight to his face. (white-linen). I congratulated him on his astute understanding of The Business World.

This summer when the CEOs of Facebook and Amazon and Google got on zoom calls to appear before Congress and testify to their impotence, I watched them tell bold-faced lies about the intent of features of their products. This is America.