Liar, Liar

I decided to catch up on some summer reading, some educational, some not. So far one book talking about transitioning from college to the corporate world explains that everyone needs to create a corporate persona, not make real friends at work, and maintain this corporate persona even after hours with co-workers. Another book I've been reading is a memoir of a woman who used to be a stripper. In her book she explains that she created a separate persona to cope with stripping and lived as this person. Somehow this seems confusing and completely wrong. Why do we have to hide who we really are and basically live a lie all the time. Whether we do something like stripper (which especially after reading this book I hope no one I know ends up doing) or climb the corporate ladder it seems that we must create a persona different from who we really are and live as this person.

In both books, it explains how you should not become real friends with your co-workers. Well then I pose the question, who should you become friends with then? It is so aggravating to me that to succeed in life (not as a stripper, but in the corporate world), you have to lie and pretend to be something your not.

I guess I could be called out for lying. Someone heard me lie a few times and afterward would never believe anything I said. I admit I do lie, but normally it is to avoid punishment or to make my life easier (this sounds really bad, but it's human). I mainly lie to my parents because telling them the truth about everything would only hurt them and cause me a lot of grief. Example: I went out of town this past weekend and wanted to go to a party the night I got home. My parents would have asked to many questions about why I was not spending the night at home since I had been gone for a few days, so I lied and told them I wasn't getting home until the day after the party. I almost got trapped in my lie because I locked my keys in my car when I got back into town the day of the party. Instead of calling my parents to get them to bring a spare key, I decided to call a locksmith and pay for the man to open my car. An expensive lie, but it helped prevent problems in the future.

I guess that may be what the author of the corporate book was trying to get across. The idea that having a certain persona is only helpful and prevents problems in the corporate world. I just wish that we could be honest all the time without terrible repercussions, but that will never happen. We always have to watch what we say or we may offend people, have people think we are crazy, or we may end up without jobs and now that I'm nearing the end of college (I have 2 more years, but they will go by too fast) I am realizing the importance of making and saving money.