This came up in a conversation with a (slightly odd) woman the other day. I found it quite irksome.
If someone said to you “I’m sorry, I can’t talk about what I do” what would you think?
Spy, detective, other - or bullshitter?
Surely if it were either of the first two, the person would have an innocuous cover story like “I’m an office administrator” or “I work in trade”. By saying “I can’t talk about what I do” you immediately create intrigue about what it is you do, which would be the opposite of the desired effect if you really didn’t want to talk about it.
Furthermore, any thoughts on what she might actually do?
I think most people who deliver the “If I told you then I would have to kill you” type lines are full of crap. Like you said, if they do anything that is that top secret, they’ll have a vague/boring cover story.
I could only see someone saying they can’t talk about what they do if you are asking them specifics about what kind of projects they are working on, or if they are being hired for this position, but it hasn’t been announced yet.
Next time, introduce yourself as an investigator. Tell her she passed the test, and she can expect an evaluation summary within 2 days. And then mention you are a robot, and have to go recharge your batteries.
Maybe they signed an NDA and aren’t sure whether they can even say what they do so just err on the side of caution.
Or maybe they just don’t like talking about it and figure that’s the best way of avoiding follow up questions. In my experience “I don’t want to talk about it” either makes people even more nosy or offends them for some reason.
I have two friends, one works for the CIA and one works for NASA. Per the contracts they signed, neither is allowed to say what they actually do. All they can legally tell people is “I work at NASA/the CIA.” I sincerely doubt either is doing spy stuff, it’s just a quirk of those organizations.
The only person who ever said that to me ended up telling me what she did;
She was a therapist, working exclusively with rapists.
The worst of the worst, most violent, multiple conviction, last possible chance of getting out of prison rapists.
Apparently most people felt this was work that she shouldn’t be doing and her clients should never have the chance of getting out of prison and how dare she be helping the scum of the earth anyway.
She found it easier to let them assume spy/detective/bullshitter.
Not saying your lady was doing the same work, but it might be something that tends to make people so uncomfortable that their frustrated speculation is the better option for her.
I had an aunt who worked for the CIA. (No, she wasn’t a spy, she was a secretary, but naturally she was privy to a hell of a lot of information!) Until she retired, most of the time she just said she had a government job. And even then I think she just told the family. (I wish I could say that I had asked her for some stories, but she died when I was a baby)
Or just something that brings up more questions than it’s worth, or they get flak for. I’ve got a buddy in the reserves who smokes too much and drinks too much. He doesn’t tell people about his dayjob much because he works at a daycare.
In other words she was “the rapist therapist”. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Yeah it did occur to me that she might have an unpalatable job rather than a mystery one. Still don’t know why she wouldn’t just make some shit up. In my life I’ve known two genuine spies and one genuine private detective (that I know of), and they all had cover stories.
What I do know is that she and her fella seem to have a lot of spare time, but she works Saturday mornings and wears business attire. And if she hadn’t said “I can’t talk about it” I wouldn’t be being so nosy…
I’ve known plenty of people in military intelligence, and they usually answer the question with, “You know, stuff. Nothing that interesting.” They often smile when they say it, though.
My daughter works for a government contractor, and she’s not allowed to really discuss what she actually does. Not even with her own mother. I try to accept this gracefully.
Someone I know is an undercover agent for the DEA. Obviously he can’t reveal any details about what he does, even to his wife. He lives two counties away from where he works, basically living a double life.
My fiancée is a neuroendocrinologist and isn’t supposed to discuss what she does, other than in the most vague way possible, as a lot of her work involves animal experiments and nobody want the risk that some animal rights whack-job will start targeting members of the department.
A zillion years ago Lady Chance and I both had contracting jobs that required us to be cleared. But different departments. Our dinner conversations were essentially ‘How was work?’ ‘I can’t say’ and so forth.
> I have two friends, one works for the CIA and one works for NASA. Per the
> contracts they signed, neither is allowed to say what they actually do. All they
> can legally tell people is “I work at NASA/the CIA.” I sincerely doubt either is
> doing spy stuff, it’s just a quirk of those organizations.
Do you mean NSA instead of NASA? I don’t think there’s much classified work at NASA. What do you think they do after a satellite launch? Do you think that they tell an agent, “We just did a secret launch. We estimate that 40 million people live close enough to Cape Canaveral to have seen it. Your job, should you decide to accept it, is to terminate with prejudice all of them.”
Incidentally, no one refers to what they sign as a contract, although that’s what it is, I guess. You get briefed for a clearance that you’ve been given. You then sign a non-disclosure agreement.
