It sounds like she had a reasonable complaint, and Cary offered her some excellent advice. So why are so many of you griping about her? Are you all putting up with your own "Olgas" and have no choice but to suck up the situation? Sometimes the office suck-ups are the ones who criticize everyone else the most.

I wonder why management is acting the way they are. If Olga is getting away with murder because she is very friendly with and/or sleeping with someone in higher level management, there is nothing that the LW can do about that, and I would advise her to start looking for another job immediately. Even if the LW had to take a pay cut, it would be worth it to get out of this rotten situation.

The LW does not mention Olga's age or how long she has been with the company. Is retirement an issue? If Olga is within 3 years or less of eligibility for retirement, I'd advise the LW to tough it out if at all possible. Management may be giving Olga a break, if this is the case. I've seen it happen before - it's easier for higher-ups to tolerate a bad situation from an employee who will be likely to leave before long than to force said employee out the door. If this company has a 401K plan and not a policy of how many years employees have to work to qualify to retire, the LW probably should grab whatever she has earned and move on to another company.

At any rate, I wish the LW well. Too bad that we can't see a follow-up to this - I'm curious about how it will all turn out.

After reading these letters about awful work situations, I can see why people can't wait to kiss the workplace good-bye. Even if one has no desire to go to Florida, golf or do any of the other stereotypical retirement activities, the thought of leaving an Olga behind is priceless. This explains why I brought up the possibility of Olga being near retirement age in my last letter.

It will be at least 10 years before I can retire, but this is a subject I hear about non-stop at work every day. I work with one other lady in a small office, and am grateful that she is the polar opposite of Olga. However, my co-worker does talk about retirement way more than she should at this time. It will be 4 more years before she is even eligible. All she talks about is how grateful her husband was to have retired at least 5 years before his friends, and how rough they had it when he was working. It's great to look ahead to the future, but I think that we all have to do the best we can where we are at in our lives right now.

All this griping about the workplace makes me wish that I had started my own business when I was younger. I suppose I could start one right now, but it would be really tough, and I'm not sure that I want to make that sacrifice. However, I may change my tune about work before long. Last week, I found out that we are getting a new boss, starting tomorrow. I know absolutely nothing about the new guy, and I'm concerned. Hopefully, I'll like him and find out that I worried for nothing.

I'm happy to see Broadsheet covering a "feel-good" story for once instead of just the typical male-female stuff this column is known for. I'd like to see more positive stuff like this. I'm sure it's out there, though it may require some effort to find it.

The LW needs compassion, not bullshit like "maybe you daughters were bad". I totally understand why the LW does not want to communicate with her parents. If I were Cary, I would have told the LW to go it alone, even though she says that shutting off the parents without her sisters wouldn't help Mom and Dad. As many have said here, they are not likely to get anywhere even if they do this together.

I speak from experience. My Mother has been an alcoholic since the 1960s. In 1993, I had an argument with her, and did not speak to her again for 7 years. In 2000, when I found out that I was pregnant with our son, and believed that the sky had fallen (this wasn't a planned pregnancy, and I had reason to believe that the son would have medical problems), I called Mom out of desperation. We've talked to each other at least once a week on the phone since then.

Sometimes when Mother is being a shithead, I'm ready to take up the silent treatment again. My husband was not happy when I didn't talk to Mom, but I did okay. The sky didn't fall when I wasn't hearing from her, though I did worry about how I would be contacted if Mom were found dead. (Mom lives in California, I live in Texas.) During the seven years of not speaking to Mom, I went to school and earned a degree, worked to help support our family, raised a young daughter, and remained married to my husband. All in all, our family did all right, and the earth did NOT fall off of its axis.

When I talk about resuming the silent treatment now, I get a guilt trip from my husband. He reminds me that Mom is 74, and will be gone someday. So what if Mom dies? She is going to heaven, or more likely hell, and I hope that she's better off in the next life than she has been in this one.