Nine Lies About Work Novels & Stories

I stared at the curious eyes of my colleagues with a heavy heart. Just like everyone else, I had been taught since a young age that lying was a bad thing. Precisely because of that, I found it quite sad that I had to tell so many lies lately. Even worse than that, sometimes, I felt like the life that I was living was kind of like a lie too. “Can everyone just get back to work already? Karina’s been away for a few days and work has been piling up on our end,” a very stern and deep voice spoke up.

One incident was enough to put a dent in the company’s account. “Well… there's news circulating about him,” Leo whispered to me. “That’s still not enough reason for him to turn into a beast at his workplace,” I pointed out harshly, trying to control the urge to rip the truth out of Leo. “You know his marriage just ended and he lost custody of his child?” Leo submitted the information without being probed. “One blogger said he lost the child because he is a workaholic who barely stays around.” He fished for the phone in his pocket and fumbled around the screen for a minute.

Please save us, if only for the relationship we had in the past…" Jessica begged. A multinational company had approached me with a job offer immediately after I'd graduated with my Master's. Jessica was only a year older than Gregory. I'd already started making money in my college days, so Jessica had realized how much money I could make even when Gregory and I were only dating. She hadn't worked a day since. Initially, Gregory had had a proper job. However, he'd only worked for a month before complaining that he couldn't earn half as much as I did despite working hard. So, he'd quit his job to be a stay-at-home dad.

He had never been more frustrated with a woman in all his life. “There is no other man!” she cried out. “I really have to work.” “You’re a programmer, not a cop, a fireworks expert, or a hooker! What kind of damn work do you have to do at nine o’clock at night on New Year’s Eve? Something doesn’t add up.”

The York family wanted Caleb and me to spend more time together, so he often took me out. We went skydiving, hiking, and visited the ocean. Slowly, we grew closer with every adventure. Mom finally divorced Dad. I heard the York family cut off business with the Johnsons. Dad's reputation suffered after the divorce, and no one wanted to work with him. The Johnsons were soon facing bankruptcy. Hayden stopped paying attention to Selena. Furious, Selena tried secretly drugging both herself and Hayden to force a situation, but Hayden caught her and dumped her out into the street.

I am not the nine-to-five, five-day, forty-hour-work-week kind of guy. I don’t have the attention span for something, so mind-numbing. I prefer the Netherlands’ thirty-hour work week at best. This is why my company runs on a four-day work week with varied hours; no one is expected to work more than thirty hours. People are a lot happier with it.

They think I used influence to get the job, which is partly true. Blake came to talk to me. But I was not interested in anything except my own work. Sensing my reluctance, no one came to me for a talk. Actually I am not a workaholic when I am in my own city or when with friends or family. But now I hardly care about new friends because they will be just for one months or two. Maybe I will not meet them after my departure. The whole day passed by working. On my way back, I got a call from an unknown number.

~ Cole ~ Numbers don’t argue. They don’t lie, don’t get emotional, don’t wake up one morning and decide to fall apart. They either work or they don’t. Simple. That’s why I stick to them today. Paper spread across the desk. Contracts. Locations. Names of men who’ve been with me long enough to deserve something better than running jobs that end with police lights or worse. I tap the pen against the table once, thinking it through again. Auto shops first.

"No, it’s the weekend tomorrow." Jared never worked overtime and never voluntarily followed the 9-9-6 working hour system. He was always the first to leave the company at the end of the day. He refused to let capitalism squeeze an extra minute out of him. The project leaders may have had their opinions but couldn't find any faults with him. He had completed his assigned tasks and achieved the demanding KPIs within the first two weeks of his internship. "I'm sorry to trouble you then." "Don't mention it. Aren't we already half-friends now?"