Don Charney is a sleaze and his product has gotten cheap, odd and unflattering. Who wants to look like they’re in a 1980s work out video? And what’s up with all that metallic lame? I think this company has become a bit of a joke even if the t-shirts are nice.

And the vibrator? It’s just cheap publicity and I’m sort of annoyed with myself for even responding to it. I’d rather be talking about the sexual harassment cases against Charney.

Anyway - if I really wanted to kick it old school/ironic with my Magic Wand purchase (and they are nice – not scary or too loud IMO) I’d go to Sharper Image.

“in that if a superior can't get their job done without an assistant to attend to private errands, then the superior should be hiring their own assistant out-of-pocket rather than using company employees, whom the company pays for.”

My boss is also our company’s Principal Officer. In our case it means he owns the company. If things go south he’s the one holding the bag – if things go wonderfully he buys a summer home. So if I went into his office and implied he was stealing from the company I'd have made an awful mistake. I imagine my boss would also be very insulted and he’d expect an apology from me. The truth is if I did something so offensive I'd offer that apology up way, way before being asked.

There are lots of reasons why one person gets perks others don’t. Sometimes partners have special arrangements based on their personal wants and needs. One person might get a larger salary, another a lager share of the company, another an expense account and another might get a full time assistant to use as they see fit.

But our LW dosen’t seem to know or care about any of that. She thinks that walking into the boss’s office and demanding answers to delicate questions is the way to go – and it’s certainly not. She should have started her search for answers much lower on the totem pole.

I do wish the LW would have told us what was up exactly because I’m curious. But in my advice would be the same no matter what – polish up that resume and get a new job now. Right now the LW can get a new job without using her current boss as a reference (any new employer will know the LW’s interviewing is a secret from her current employer) but as soon as the LW is no longer employed there that rule changes and everyone will want to speak with the current boss. Forget right and wrong – I’m talking about next month's rent and groceries.

Oh, this LW sounds young. If I had to guess I’d say ‘first job out of school.’

I’m an executive assistant. I have been doing this for about 15 years. Within that I’m also a personal assistant because that’s just how this job works. I have walked dogs, picked up dry cleaning and made coffee. And there are important meetings, urgent contracts and last minute travel plans too. This job just IS a mixed bag.

My boss is a really busy guy and very often his personal and professional life come into conflict – it’s my job to smooth that over so he can concentrate on his work. If I’m busting his balls over a few personal expenses on the AmEx bill or I’m chastising him over vacation I pretty much deserve to be let go because that's not helping him. I'm also not much fun to work around if that's the kind of game I'm playing.

And finally, contrary to the advice of lots of other posters, unless you’re being sexually harassed, you know someone is embezzling funds or something equally as serious, you should never go to HR. It makes you look like a cry baby who needs constant hand holding. Because HR knows how hard/expensive it was to hire for that executive and they know how easy/cheap it was to hire for that person’s assistant.

but I’m not sure it would be any less wrong then if girl’s mom twisted her arm into carrying to term.

16 might be young but by the time this girl was to have given birth she’d have almost been a legal adult. It seems crazy to me that her parents have such tight control over a decision that will impact her entire life so completely. I mean – we’re talking about her HS education and her collage plans too. And once that girl hit’s 18 those concerned parents could toss her and that baby out to fend for themselves. Not that they would – I’m just saying that at 16 it should be this young woman’s decision entirely.

This guy is an idiot. I don’t care about his sex life – but I do care that the inter-webs confuse him.

I like Bud and Bud Lite. It’s a good, cheap summertime beer. When fancy pints in NYC can be as high as $10 and it’s as hot as hell outside it’s a good choice. I like ordering it when everyone else is ordering something fancy and expensive – I promise you that people around me cancel that pricy ‘mico-brew’ and hop on my Bud Lite band wagon quick once I’ve made it ok. And I like 40s (and fancy beer hardly ever comes in a 40 oz). Pour it in a chilled glass and it’s all the same.

And this company has branded itself very well. That Bud can IS iconic and it’s really not Christmas time until I see those Clydesdales trotting through the snow. Do I care that a foreign company is buying them up? Not really. I don’t think it changes how I view the brand at all.