Every day in every town in the country, Human Resource Officers are training. They are training people to successfully tell tall tales. It is, after all, one of the most sought after skills in business, along with evading the truth.

You might ask, "How are we doing this?" Others might silently exclaim, "Of all the nerve! Why would we want to train people to distort the truth and get away with lying? I would NEVER do that!" Really? Well then, read my take on a short-story classic (with apologies to Stephen Leacock).

Here is a little thing that I have worked out, which is superior to business games in that it combines their intense excitement with the practice of those skills needed for advancement in any industry or business.

It is easily comprehended, and can be played by anywhere from two to ten players, old or young. It requires no other apparatus other than an office of the ordinary type, seats for all players, and a few thousand pens, paper clips and pieces of paper.

It is called: The Urban Employee Selection Process: A Year-Round Game for Old and Young

The chief part of the game is taken by two players who station themselves, one at each end of a desk, and who adopt some distinctive costumes to indicate that they are "it." If only two people play, then each take a seat across a desk from each other. Player B (the person in the less powerful position) sits opposite Player A (the person in the more powerful position). When more than two people play, Player A faces the door and leads a team. The person in the less powerful position (sitting back to the door in a lower chair on the visitor side of the desk) does not lead a team. Other players occupy a place on the same side of the desk or in as near proximity as possible to their team leader (Player A).

The object of Player A is to trick Player B into telling the truth about himself without exaggeration. If Player B is able to answer all of Player A's questions with exaggeration, then Player A must pay philopena (or forfeit) No. 1, the offer of employment. However, should Player A trick Player B into telling the truth without exaggeration, then Player B must pay Player A philopena No. 2, being thrown out of the office by the neck. Any player who escapes paying the philopena scores one except in the situation where Player B, asked by Player A what he needs to improve, when answering not only does not exaggerate his good points but fails to turn a negative into a positive. In that case, Player A scores two points.

I'll take a bet that this game has been played in almost every business in the country, every time people are interviewed for a job.

I've experienced the game myself, although I was a very reluctant player and ended up losing the match. Except for the one time I decided to play and ended up getting a job that couldn't have been less like me than if I had gone actively seeking the job least suited to my knowledge, skills and abilities.

How did I play the game? I did what my friends (including ones that had worked in HR) told me to do. They told me to:

• Turn negatives into positives.
• Rethink. Instead of stubborn, say persistent; paying attention to detail is better than perfectionistic; innovative instead of totally off the wall.
• NEVER tell them something that really is a problem if they ask what you need to improve. Instead, tell them a positive masquerading as a negative, such as working too hard.
• If they ask you to give an example of how you handled a situation and you can't think of what you did, make up an example based on what you think you would do (of course colour your answer based on what they are looking for).
• Think of every possible question they could ask and then think up an answer that puts you in a positive light.

Every time I protested that this isn't really fair