The Price of War?

Recently I read an article that astounded me. Apparently there was a woman who recently lost her job after failing to show up to her part-time job as a receptionist a day after seeing her husband off to Iraq. It seems as though she had asked for and received permission for the week off leading to her husband’s departure, but felt too emotionally drained to return to work the Monday following her return back from Indiana where she said her good-byes. She had told her employer when asking for the time off that “if she couldn’t make it on the 17th, she’d definitely be there on the 18th.” As it turns out, the employer called her on the 17th and told her to pick up her things because she was being fired for not coming in on the 17th. Of course the woman was shocked and frankly, so am I. I don’t know your feelings about what is going on in Iraq and I’m not here to judge. But personally, seeing a family member off to war deserves a lot more compassion than this woman received and I’m appalled at the way this woman was treated. I’m not sure where this company found the stones to do this, but if it were me, I’d be sending some nasty little notes to the big shots there. If you’d like to voice your opinion, drop them a line at henry@benefitsthatfit.com. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you. You can bet they’ll hear from me.

Words and phrases I hate

Everyone has them, those words or phrases that just seem to seep into your skin and send you into varying stages of uncomfortable or unbearable teeth-gritting. Here is my list:

- "Heads Up" - As in "Thanks for the heads up." - This is corporate-speak (like a lot of entries here) that is supposed to mean, "Thanks for informing me." Does this imply that our heads are usually down, signifying that we aren't paying attention, or does this mean that without your blabbing, we'd be in a world of hurt?

- "Supper" - This is just a stupid word that invokes images of farmers coming in for "supper" after milking the cows or something.

- "Think Outside the Box" - I am so sick of this phrase! YOU think outside the box and while your'e at it, maybe it's time for another refrigerator box to live in, this one is looking pretty shabby.

- "Synergize" - Does anyone really know what this means? If the implication is to 'work together,' why not just say so?

- "Performance" - Here's another word, used primarily in corporate America, that people can't seem to get enough of. Think of someone telling you that "your performance isn't 'up to par.' " How does it make you feel?

- Sports references in business - Tell me why I have to "step up to the plate," get my "performance up to par," "hit a home run," "punt," "take a stab" at something (this may be a javelin or fencing reference, I'm not sure), or consider the project at "fourth and goal." It seems to me that business has enough weird sayings, why do they have to steal from sports?

I'm sure there are more words and phrases that irk me, but these are the ones that happen to have been used on me most recently. As I discover more, I'll add them. In the meantime, which words or phrases do you hate?

Money!

Well, I sold my first article in a long time today. I got a grand total of $7.00 for a 600 word piece but hey, you have to start somewhere, right? In a way it's a shame that I only got $7.00 for it; I worked really hard on it. Nonetheless, I'm happy that something, anything, sold at all. Now all I need is to sell about a zillion more and my writing career may be on it's way!

Homebody

I woke up in a foul mood today, my nerves frayed by the piercing noises my family makes when getting ready for the day. I'm the one home at the moment while my wife brings home the bacon, though if I could change that around, I would. Sadly my writing career seems to have found a sink-hole and I'm falling into it at breakneck speed. It doesn't excuse snapping at everyone, but I need to find a way out of this hole and I need to find it fast.

What is it with the job market? When you don't need something, you have it by the truckload, but when you need that something, such as income, it's about as scarce as Frosty the Snowman on Maui.

Don't get me wrong; it's not like there aren't opportunites out there, they just happen to be the wrong ones. Let me just say that my experience has been that freelance writing is not as easy as it would appear.

Anyone need a talented writer?