[ping_pong]

During the beginning of the dotcom Bust, we had an all-hands meeting. Someone asked the VP of Engineering if there was going to be layoffs. He said no, there was no need for layoffs.

When the all-hands meeting was done, and we returned to our desk, and there was an email waiting for us saying that we were going to have layoffs. He subsequently defended himself, saying that he wasn't allowed to say anything about the layoffs. There were so many ways he could have answered the question, like "We are exploring all avenues at this point" without lying straight to our faces and looking like an idiot, but he chose the exact worst way to answer it.

Obviously, his trust was completely lost by everyone in the org, and his reputation was completely ruined by this. No one trusted or believed him after that. He was an asshole anyway and was fired a year or so afterwards because of how ineffective he had become as a leader.

[underwater]

Waffle doesn't help, any non-commital answer he gave is either an affirmation or will be exposed as an obvious lie in hindsight.

That's a hard position to be in when you've been specifically told not to share news.