quite possibly longer. I am hopeful that this "venting" will eventually result in a calibration and new-normalization. I wondered a few months ago if the Palestinian territories might split, like East and West Pakistan (Bangladesh and Pakistan) did. Too bad for all those people lined up to get the fuck out of Gaza ... wonder how many West Bank people want to join the vanguard in Gaza ...

Rejectionism is not a foundation for any enterprise. My impression is that prior to Arafat's death and elections (finally), the militias and Fatah incompetence/corruption were making normal life for average not-very-militant Palestinians difficult -- to get needed assistance/services, which Fatah was not/could not provide, militia alliance was desirable.

If Hamas fails, will they vote for Hizbollah or will the rumored "Qaeda" alligned religious extremist get their chance ...

Oh well, West Bank and Gaza is taking eyes away from Lebanon and Mussarif ... I suspect lots of people are grateful for that. (Poor Turkey and Kurds ... no one ever cares much about them for very long ... ditto most of Africa)

As I recall some were aligned with Hamas and Hizbollah and then others were splinter groups, I think.

I figure there are a couple of generations of palestinians whose political ambitions were held in check by Fatah/Arafat ... I don't mean to sound "casual" about Palestinian casualties.

When I think about how impatient we are for the "Democratically-controlled Congress" (tm) to make thinks better, I can only imagine the impatience and frustration of the palestinians -- one group itching to attack Israel and the other wanting material improvements.

I also read about the Gaza crime family's influence ... and the gun smuggling Bedouins who do it just for the money, not for any "cause" ... a lot of it appears to be genuinely internal ... like that gangs, er, I mean militias.

I would add extreme fatigue and/or cover for depression/unhappiness. A lot of people believe projecting anything less that "happy happy happy" is not-okay.

I'm wondering if she might be helped by some pattern of activities and/or some "grounding" task work. A new job is always a peculiar combination of boredom and terror ... don't know enough to know what needs to be done or to work without some double-checking ... even small "obvious" tasks -- placing a phone call -- can be daunting when one does not understand relationships, be sure of names and corporate culture, etc. This is even more pronounced if work is delegated on-the-fly.

Setting standing morning, early afternoon, and just before quitting (or whatever works for you) "appointments" with your new employee to check in and answer questions might help "ground" her so that she's not always having to "interrupt" you to get answers, clarify, etc.

Ditto providing a nice bunch of work to do (filing, for instance) that she can do in between assignments and with confidence might help. It's exhausting to have to find the right moment to "interrupt" and say "what do you want me to do now?" all the time.

Rather than addressing "the laugh," assuming your work place is not filled with collegial gaiety and guffahs, modeling sober "focusing" ... even saying, "let me focus on this" or "let me think" might give her a hint to shut-up so you can think.

Engage when she's silent, disengage and get sober when she's giggling -- plain old positive/negative reinforcement does work but you have to stop "laughing along" and take charge of the tone -- which is another benefit of one-on-one formal touching base opportunities.

I wanted to add that I've seen some pretty crazy behavior by assistants, secretaries and receptionist types when their boss was unpredictible and/or unreasonable ...

Make sure also your new employee knows what is expected of her and when -- sufficient that she can -- for instance -- go to the bathroom without hurrying back and forth lest the phone ring (ohmigod!!!!), not to mention make a personal phone call, get lunch, reasonably leave the office to run an errand (with permission or not, depending on your office culture). If you insist that she doesn't need to ask permission to do such things and then over-react to when she'd not at her desk, she's getting very mixed messages ... and may fawn like crazy thinking she's displeased you. I loathe being fawned over.

I've seen assistants turn in utter wrecks trying to acommodate "easy-going" bosses who go crazy when the phone isn't answered immediately, for instance ... and I've worked for some pretty anal people who mistakenly believed they were "laid back."

recycling some other (nameless) company's commericial J-I-N-G-L-E ... what were they thinking?

They'd have done better with the Oscar Meyer song or anything Streisand offered up ...

Titanic was a powerfully bad movie (great production values, good performances, but -- whew -- it stank mightily) ... despite the mega-hit status of the theme song, it made zero impression on ME ... but Celine Dion's "negatives" are impressive -- the people who hate her voice/styling/existence really really hate her.

... they may be mocking your new assistant simply because she's new and possibly because she's potential competition for them.

You may indeed be working in a "mean girl" environment -- they exist -- any ANYONE you hire will be undermined by people who will enjoy manipulating you and your new hire ...

yes, it would be nice if you adored your new assistant ... but it sounds like she's got serious potential. You might want to examine just how much "other people's opinions" not only matter to you but may have ALREADY shaped your opinion of this woman ... none of us are immune and it's amazing now small a little worm is needed sometimes to spoil our apple.

I can almost guarantee that they're not going to like your next assistant either ... remember how they treated YOU.