For months, my boss would ask me—no, instruct me—to lie to his wife. Every other day, he’d swing by my desk on his way out and say, “Tell her I’m working late again. Deadline crunch.” And like clockwork, I’d get the follow-up call. His wife, always polite but suspicious, would ask, “Is he still at the office?” I’d sigh internally, plaster on a fake cheerful tone, and say, “Yes, still working on that big project.”
I hated it. I hated being part of someone else’s deception, hated how small it made me feel, how complicit. It wasn’t what I signed up for when I took this job, and each time I lied for him, a little more of my patience eroded.
Then one Thursday, after a particularly exhausting week, I’d had enough. When his wife called again, I didn’t bother with the script.
“Just so you know,” I said, “your husband is never here after 6 p.m. I don’t know where he’s going, but it’s not the office.”
There was a pause—and then, to my shock, laughter. Not an angry, bitter laugh. A genuine one. She chuckled like she’d been waiting for this moment.
“Oh,” she said brightly, “so you don’t know about our little game yet?”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
She went on to explain that every evening, right after work, he went straight home—to her. No secret affairs, no hidden double life. They’d have dinner, watch TV, go on walks. The lie he made me tell wasn’t for her benefit—it was for his. He wanted to see how long I’d go along with it, how “loyal” I was. It was some twisted test of obedience.
I stood there in stunned silence, the phone still pressed to my ear, my mouth hanging slightly open. All that guilt, all the anxiety I’d felt over enabling a potential affair, had been... a test? A joke?
“That’s... messed up,” I muttered.
“Oh, completely,” she agreed, still chuckling. “But now you’re in on it. Congrats.”
I didn’t feel like celebrating. I felt humiliated.
That night, I went home and updated my résumé. The next morning, I walked into the office, dropped a polite resignation letter on my boss’s desk, and told him I was done playing games. He looked surprised but didn’t argue.
Looking back now, I can laugh about it—how absurd it all was. But at the time? It was the last straw. I wasn’t just quitting a job. I was walking away from people who treated loyalty like a game and honesty like a weakness.
And honestly? That might’ve been the best career decision I ever made.