With all due respect, if what you're saying is true, they should fire you and give your salary to the glory hog. If she does all of your work before you have a chance to do it, what exactly do they need two people for? Your business isn't there to give you opportunities to learn and show how good you are; it's a business and it's there to make money.

Well, she already has a job of her own, for one thing. And there's tons of other work in my division that isn't getting done at all, if she's looking for something to do.

Your suggestion was actually my contention as well, at least that way I could collect unemployment while I look for a new job, instead of burning down my savings after walking out in despair with nothing lined up. My boss sees it differently. He sees me as the person to do the job, one reason being, I suspect, is that I am much more of a "people person" as they say and don't treat my coworkers and reports like shit in order to get things done the way I want them done.

For example, I don't insert myself into other peoples' business, such as questioning their employees' productivity to *their* boss, with no access to things like, say, vacation schedules or sick day information. That automatically puts me on the defensive and undermines my authority and ability to manage, except of course I know when my staff are out sick or on vacation ahead of time, and don't feel compelled to point out that they don't do any work on those days. Things like that.

And another thing!

Your business isn't there to give you opportunities to learn and show how good you are; it's a business and it's there to make money

That's true, and if they fire me rather than give me the chance to build up my skills -- or even demonstrate the ones I have -- in a crunch they will only have one competent person instead of the two they will inevitably need.

she couldn't just be misguided or tough in the wrong places, no, she has to be guilty of lesbianism

I don't think that's what they were going for with that plot device. My take on it was that Cain was already kind of a wingnut to begin with, but went totally off the rails because her *person* had been betrayed, not just her command, or her ship, or her nation.

Tricia Helfer rawks, and by the way looks much better without that white-blond rinse.

If this guy, in addition to being stuck in hickville, is managing customer service, i.e. being responsible when angry people complain I can understand why he hates his life. No job is more demeaning, frustration and depressing than customer service. Customer service is something one should do for 6 months, just to get the idea of what it's like to be on the receiving end of endless complaints all day. I you stay any longer you will go mad or want to kill yourself.

Holla. I managed to survive 10 years in customer service, as a rep, manager, and account manager. Nothing in this world -- no politics, no global strife, no mass violence, nothing -- has made me hate people as much as working in customer service, and I am a very nice person! People like me (dammit!) I'm also really good at it, which is the universe's perverse joke at my expense.

My point here is: my spirit was utterly broken by the time I crawled out of the wreckage of that career path. I was a miserable person to be around, I never wanted to talk after work (because I spent nine hours a day on the phone), I never wanted to help or teach or assist anyone in any way (because I spent those same nine hour teaching people how to do things). In my experienced opinion, the only people who can be content in customer service are folks who are either already somewhat tapped or a little soft in the head, or folks who are on psychotropic medication.

It should be punishable by law to file a complaint that turns out, after investigation, to be unwarranted. People making complains, anonymous or otherwise, should be given a stern warning: if your complain turns out to be unfounded, you will be liable for paying for the case worker(s) time, the agency resources used, and any and all court costs, plus you will open yourself to the process of a review and potential to pay punitive damages to the family you have slurred.

Are you kidding? If I call DSS (the name where I live) because the small child next door is covered in bruises, and it turns out that the child in question is just a really rambunctious kid who enjoys jumping off things and banging himself up, then my complaint -- only discovered after I've made it -- is unfounded.

I should be fined and possibly sued by the family for being worried about a small kid who looks like he just got the holy hell beaten out of him?

Sorry Garry, the king of cheap beers was Naragannssett and I mourn its passing.

Still around, my friend. The club I was at last night had Naragannsett tallboys in the fridge (as well as PBR, of course).

How free is free speech if you risk getting fired and ostracized for exercising your right to it?

It's as free as the consequences you are willing to accept for your actions. The "free speech" banner is too frequently held up by people who fail to understand the difference between government-directed sanctions, and sanctions imposed by a private entity. One is forbidden by law, the other isn't.

Tell me, what exactly do you think might happen to you if you typed up a racist screed on your company's letterhead and sent it to the local newspaper?