Can't believe that there are such manipulative people in this world.

They take advantage of nice people, and are absolutely shameless in the process.

Haiz.

This didn't happen to me, cos I learnt long ago, that it doesn't pay to be pleasant all the time.

This happened to R, a secondary school friend whom I still keep in contact with. I've decided to blog it now, to serve as a warning to others. It happened over the weekend.

FRIDAY

Oh well, it all started on a Friday night. R gave me a call and sounded a little flustered. I asked him what was up, and he said he had been roped in by a colleague to attend some sort of stupid talk.

I asked him who was the colleague, and after a good long time of questioning, he finally spat out.

"My platoon commander."

In short, a guy above him in rank in the office. He works as a clerk, gonna ORD by the end of this year.

Apparently, this guy had approached him by giving him a call just a few minutes before he called me. By acting very friendly, he had lowered R's guard down and asked him casually about attending a leadership and entrepreneurship talk on Saturday at 5pm.

Then, before waiting for a comfirmatory yes or no from R, he had gone on to distract him by asking about work in the office.

Right before ending the call, he said, "So I'll see you there."

What?

I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. If you ask someone formally, you should wait for an acknowledgement. This was more of asking for comfirmation rather than approval.

Being in a difficult spot, R proceeded to ring me up for advice. I asked him about whether the guy could ehem "hurt" him in any way. Cos as you know, its a very real possibility. Such is office politics. Heh heh.

In the end, I told him to come up with a convenient excuse. With that, our conversation ended.

Anyway, the next day...

SATURDAY

R gave me a call in the evening, telling me he had just come back from the talk. Perhaps he couldn't come up with a valid enough excuse, or perhaps he was afraid of the impact of refusing. Anywayz, this was what he had to say.

Apparently, the talk wasn't really like a talk. It was a sales session. He met the platoon commander, and both of them sat at this table. Then, this guy came over and told him that he had somehow "evaluated" R's character and decided that he needed to enrol in some entrepreneurship courses. This was to bring out his "hidden potential".

And surprise surprise. The platoon commander had already enrolled in this course. Ha ha ha. He's at a higher level, by the way. Ha ha. Apparently, they have basic, intermediate and advanced levels.

So anywayz, this pair of vultures proceeded to close in for the kill. They pressured him to agree to sign up for a basic course.

No big deal. Its just a 3-month course (3 times a month) that costs $280!!! Half of R's monthly pay, mind you.

R of course didn't give them a straight reply. He said he'd confirm later.

So now, he asks. How to turn the platoon commander down? He had told the guy on Saturday that he would give him confirmation on Sunday. But for some reason, that guy was so enthu that he called him up THIS EVENING to ask again. R repeated his reply that he would confirm ON SUNDAY.

So kan cheong for what? Does your advanced level course require you to act as a salesperson as well. Hmm... prob there is some cold, hard cash involved for him to be so active. And to make things even sneakier, he reinforced that there was no need to ask permission from the parents. After all, he said silkily. You are matured enough to make your own decision. If the parents had questions, they could come down and see for themselves. But really, its no big deal. No need to bother them.

Once again, I told R to be firm and ended the call. Now... to wait for news on Sunday.

SUNDAY

Oh well... R forwarded me this message. Apparently, he wasn't very direct in saying no. But, the thick-skinned person got the message, and the platoon commander replied R's sms with this.

Haha, ok ok, ultimately, like I said, its yr decision (as if), dun worry, I understand yr concerns, n i respect yr decision (my foot you never asked him properly in the first place). Thanks for yr time too! See u tmr!

R summed it up with one perfect word.

YES!