Letters to the Editor
stilltheone
Published Letters: 506 Editor's Choice: 31
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And then you gotta' love Common Touch's letter....
[Read the article: I want to quit my boring, soul-destroying job]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Really great advice! Suck your company dry of whatever benefits you can get and THEN quit. You must be the same person that advises women to take 3 months of maternity leave on the company's dime and THEN announce they've decided to be a stay-at-home mom. "I had no IDEA how difficult it would be to leave my baby home!" Is there no ethical problem with this? How exactly is this different from....say....stealing money from the cash register you've been hired to mind? I'm sure you feel this is severance payment that's due and owing because the company had the audacity to provide a job that this woman found boring. (And Salon gave your letter a star?? Note to broker...don't invest in Salon.com.)
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It'll all work out in the end...
[Read the article: I want to quit my boring, soul-destroying job]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]thekiti -- I wouldn't worry about my view of feminism much if I were you. With the contempt that this woman displays for her job and her co-workers, she'll be happy to know that economic darwinism is arranging for her position to be filled by a nice lady in India who WANTS her kids to go to the best college they can. Even secretarial jobs can and are being outsourced. Thankfully, today there's no reason that the person who types for me, keeps my calendar and, yes, fills out those dreaded travel vouchers, needs to be a whining malcontent sitting ten feet away from me. Soon all LW will be able to do for a living is make lattes at Starbucks or write an on-line advice column.
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Not sure if this is in Miss Manners' Guide or not but...
[Read the article: My next-door neighbor died and I didn't do a thing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In New York, when a neighbor dies, the correct response is to make an offer on their apartment so you can turn your 2-bedroom into a 3-bedroom-with-dining-room.
Sorry to be so cranky lately, but trulely LW, how do you make it to adulthood without learning simple courtesies like sending a condolence letter? Were you raised in a cave by wildebeests? Best advice posted so far, real estate considerations aside, is to send a casserole.
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And what is that next career move?
[Read the article: I want to quit my boring, soul-destroying job]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OK, thekiti, name a few. WalMart? (no thanks, I'll stick with making lattes). There are almost no manufacturing jobs left in this country (and just wait until General Motors finishes its implosion), tech jobs are heading out, clerical, etc. This is at least in part a result of the "this-job-is-beneath-me" attitude exemplified by the LW. I won't do it unless I'm paid a wage that makes it completely uneconomical for anyone to hire me, and even then I'll bring a non-productive, "my soul is sooooo.... empty" attitude with me every morning to the job. This LW has no one else to blame for her predicament but herself. Had she brought a little more spunk with her, she might have advanced beyond the same job she did for 20 years, as others have pointed out.
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Oh come on now...
[Read the article: I want to quit my boring, soul-destroying job]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]SCC- You and the original LW share what to me is a cardinal sin -- you blame your own unhappiness on other people. Who knows why you and she continue to keep your "soul-sucking" jobs? But it sure isn't your employers' fault. You shared with the world the advice of your mother, I'll share with you the adivce of mine. When I was a kid, there were certain things we were not allowed to say in our house. One of them was "I'm bored!" The response from my mother was to angrily list 100 things you could do, from cleaning out the garage to reading a book. The lesson was clear --- "Get off your ass (a word my mother would never utter) and do something and you won't be bored." Unlike the LW, my mother stopped being a stay at home mom in middle age and took a variety "soul sucking" jobs (including working in a stock room at a department store) so that her kids COULD go to the best colleges they could into. All of their kids have jobs that both my parents would envy if they were still around (my father worked in a factory that undobtedly produced the disease that killed him in his early 60's). Is my job occasionally less than an oragasm-producing experince? Sure. But my test before I would start complaining to the world about how unfulfilled I am is whether I could look my parents in the eye and make the same complaint.
Calling someone you disagree with an asshole and wishing their death isn't judgmental. It's a problem you should probably look into. In the meantime, get off YOUR ass and go clean out the garage.
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Why not arrange for the wife to be "secretly" killed?
[Read the article: I have a secret Internet friendship with a married man]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary-- You make it seem as LW's only problem is her inability to decide whether or not she wants to have an affair, when in fact her problem is that she's pursuing what is obviously a romantic attachment with a married man. There's no possibility given all she has said that her feelings are anything other than romantic and very little likelihood that his feelings are also purely platonic. How can you possibly suggest that the choices should be given equal weight?
There's a reason why there are religious and social norms which dictate against having affairs. They ALWAYS end up hurting people. The first hint that the relationship is wrong is that it's a secret from someone -- conveniently the person who would most likely be hurt by it.
I'm not a prude, but would it have hurt to at least point out that the "consequences" of pursuing an affair might include hurting this man's wife?
Cary, I'm sure you would still have a job if every once in awhile you only pulled the black and white crayons out of your box. And seeing at least some absolute truth occasionally wouldn't mean that you're a card carrying member of the Moral Majority.