Behind the Schemes (1)

I really can’t believe how manipulative people can be these days. Ok, it isn’t something new, but the truth is that it’s becoming more rampant nowadays … how the young & old manipulate their minds by choice of will.

‘Scheming’ is the word that popped up really strongly to me this evening. Tonight was the latest that I had stayed back at the office to work overtime. In fact, I was also the last person to turn off all the lights & lock the main door. I almost couldn’t believe it when I looked at the time shown on my hand-phone & noticed that it was already long past 9pm...

But that wasn’t the real crux of what really happened to me today. What really happened was that I was almost conned twice in a single day! By colleagues in my own company! It’s infuriating just thinking about it.

Almost Conned

The first con was attempted by this colleague from another department. In my company, there is a regulation that everyone has to work at least one Saturday a month. It just so happened that this male colleague from another department’s Saturday shift fell on the 15th April, which is the day after the Good Friday public holiday.

Nonchalantly, he walked up to my desk this morning & asked if he could switch Saturday duty with me. I asked him which Saturday he is on duty & he told me… so I looked up the Saturday duty roster to confirm it. After that, I looked at my calendar, saw that his Saturday duty was actually the day after the Good Friday public holiday… & that got me suspicious. In my mind, I was thinking - Why does he want to switch Saturday duty with me? Is it so that he could enjoy a long weekend at my expense, if I fell for his trick?

I really thank Rebecca for giving me that small colorful calendar made of some of the drawings from her primary school kids. It was because this calendar actually stated the public holidays & school holidays, which was how I realized that he may be plotting to enjoy a long weekend, by innocently switching his Saturday duty with me.

Becoming aware of this situation, I asked him what the reason is for him to want to switch his Saturday duty with mine. It was a very bold step for me, as it may come across as unfriendly & unhelpful, what’s more coming from a relatively new staff who has only been working here for one month. But still, I decided to be discerning & made up my mind not to be fooled.

Upon hearing me ask him that question, he started to look unsure of himself, as he searched his mind for a favorably reply. I suspected as much that he might be trying to con me out of this Saturday, by hoping that I wouldn’t realize that it was a public holiday the day before… or maybe I looked young, so he wanted to see if I could be pushed around because I didn’t dare to say no.

In the end, he muttered that he has some work to do on that Saturday when I’m supposed to be on duty, thus he wanted to switch with me. When I heard that & watched his body language, I knew for sure that he was hiding something. There was definitely something that he wasn’t revealing & I wasn’t going to fall for it! I mean, come on… that’s like one of the commonest lame reason to say, “I have some work to do that day.”

Thus, I decided to take another approach & turn the tables back on him. So I said that there is supposed to be a form which both of us need to fill up & submit, if we agreed to switch Saturday duty… & I asked him how many days beforehand, do we need to submit this. He looked unsure again & muttered that we can submit this form a few days before that Saturday switch.

Aha! He got caught in my trap! So I told him casually, “Well, you see… it’s still two weeks away & I’m not sure if I would have to work on that Saturday as well. So why don’t we consider this again, when it’s closer to that date?”

With that, he showed this defeated look on his face & said, “Never mind, I’ll ask someone else. Thanks.” & he walked off.

I felt glad that I had used my intelligence wisely, not to con… but to alert myself from being conned by others… or at least, some of those who may try to con me.

Yet I was feeling a bit sad, coz I heard that this guy is a Christian. Of coz, it may or may not be true… since I overheard it from someone else, but then again, there isn’t a very high likelihood that people would mistake someone to be a Christian, right? Coz behaving well doesn’t necessarily mean a person is a Christian. But if so… & he really tried to con me… it’s very sad.