It's always amusing to see the lengths people will go to in order to justify their own dubious behavior, particularly if that behavior benefits them financially. You know those emails you get with subject lines like "Here's the information you requested" (I mean who is stupid enough to open such an email anyway!) Well I found out that my company sends emails like that.

I work in an office where the principle activity is that of sales. Every Friday they have their weekly meeting in the conference room. I've found out recently that it's "expected" that consultants and project-managers attend these too, but since I've decided that I'm not "officially" aware of these meetings (after all, I never received a real invitation to attend), I don't need to go. But on Friday, I happened to walk past the open door of the conference room as the meeting was getting going, so I felt I should put in an appearance.

There's a new salesman who's just started in our office. Although he's new here, he's also had years of experience at our headquarters. So Sue, the sales manager, had asked him to present his methods for cold-calling corporate contacts in order to solicit sales. His presentation was humorless and business-like - cold indeed. But what truly appalled me was when he described those emails he sends. In his case, he uses the subject line "Follow-Up". Without a trace of shame or an acknowledgement that this may be deceptive, he explained how he'd fallen into this practice after much consideration about what subject lines would be most likely to grab an unwitting executive's attention.

At this point, I was feeling such distaste that I got up and left the meeting. Otherwise I'd have made a fool out of myself by saying something. I imagined the conversation I'd have liked to have:

"So don't you find this a little deceptive?"

"Listen, it's a tough business world out there. It's businesses that are prepared to play tough that are the ones which will succeed."

"That's crap. It's more that you're prepared to lie to total strangers in order to boost your own sales and earn a fat wad of commissions. Why don't you just admit that it's lying?"

It's been a crazy week. Running around from event to event, working on four different projects at once in the office, finally leasing my new car (photos to come as soon as I pick the thing up in a week). And feeling pretty lousy throughout, as this massive fatigue continues. Thank God the weekend is here!