Yesterday at work I learned that in the state of MS you cannot get a payment arrangement with the local phone company to pay off your past due phone bill when you already have a write off and several failed payment arrangements on your account.

I was informed of this by the rep at financial services. The customer was none too kind to me before I put her on hold to call financial services so she could be transfered to that department. Once informed, my reply to the rep was, " I will very cheerfully tell her so!"

I think I'd prefer to be in financial services, as those people seem to be able to get away with being mean to customers who are insufferable jerks.

I learned yesterday (I was too tired and frustrated to post at that time) that a 13 hour shift with two trainees is survivable. Not just survivable, but survivable without needing to yell or foam at the mouth.

You can express disdain a lot more effectively by speaking softly.

speak softly and carry a big stick , I beleve the saying is , people listen when you speak softly and clearly and sysucingthly ( don't yell and don' tmince words , tell it like it IS , them shut up )

What I learned tonite , I have bee applying the 48 rules of power ( thanks Wolf ) for years ( most of them any way ) for YEARS !!!!
Here's a link , http://www2.tech.purdue.edu/cgt/cour...s_of_power.htm

I'm up to #15 in the book. I don't get as much time to read these days as I'd like. (especially when I've got a double-trainee shift. It's fucking easier to work alone, I tell you. At least shit gets done right.)

I found this years ago , I have it and the art of war on my PDA , the book of five rings make more sence to me how ever , the 48 rules of power follows these principles ( mostly ) ,
Heres a link to the book of 5 rings ,
http://www.samurai.com/5rings/

I have those on my PDA also ... along with the US Army Survival Manual.

I'm sure you do but just in case you'll be wanting a hard copy... although knowing you, you probably have a solar charger for your pda...nevermind.

Where do you get the US Army Survival Manual as an ebook?

iSilo, I think. Either that or I found it as a .pdf, and I have a converter for those.

And yes, I do already have a hardcopy, along with the SAS Manual and a few others.

http://www.equipped.com/fm21-76.htm for one

also

http://www.basegear.com/fm2176.html

There are several .mil sites that make FMs available too...

this isn't about make work, narrow guages are used in mountainous country because it costs much less to dig a tunnel or carve out a mountian side for the track when it is narrow plus you can make tighter turns with a narrow guage. Wide guage is used on the flat because it is much more stable and you can travel faster.

On Friday, I learned that it is impossible to communicate an important concept to someone, regardless of how intelligent and outwardly capable they may seem, which they are not sufficiently motivated to grasp. Coupled with that is the hardest lesson - never entrust someone else with something that could cost you your job if it goes awry.

I received the biggest asschewing of my two year career here on Friday (while I was home sick as hell, no less) for the failure of our office to send a daily production report to the GC on a Federal project. I had given the task to my assistant, with explicit instructions that these reports must be filed daily, *whether we worked on the project that day or not*, without fail. I have queried her several times over the weeks, only to find that she was a couple of days behind, and I told her to get caught up and stay caught up.

When the shithammer fell on me Friday, I called her and asked her WTF? Her response? "I knew that we had to have a report for every day, but I didn't know we had to send it out every day."

Utter bullshit, and my boss told me the next time it happened, my assistant and I would both be fired, because the GC threatened to throw us off of the project and claim against our bond.

Nice.

So, Els, you gonna have that TPS report for us this afternoon?

Um, uh...that's my stapler...

I've got the fax machine...now I just need a ballbat.

You can use your staff if you're short on sporting equipment in the household.