Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!
In her article in the Sept. 7 issue titled "How to Win in Office Politics," writer Karen Appold mentioned the book Toxic People: Decontaminate Difficult People at Work Without Using Weapons or Duct Tape by Marsha Petrie Sue. In the book, Sue discusses the types of toxic people who can be found at any workplace and how to deal with them.
In one section of the book, Sue writes about how to deal with liars in the workplace. Do you have any experience with liars in your lab? Sue, who describes liars as "the hair in your biscuit," said there are some telltale signs that a person isn't being honest. Do the following and you'll be able to figure out if they are being truthful or not:
- look for inconsistencies in what they say,
- ask the unexpected,
- see if their behavior changes,
- look for insincere emotions,
- pay attention to your gut reactions,
- watch for microexpressions (those that last for 25th of a second and are usually concealed emotions),
- look for contradictions,
- notice a sense of unease and
- beware of too much detail in their stories.