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tesnirnat

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My father is like this. He believes very strongly that he should be allowed to say anything and other people should be able to take it.

I don't really agree, personally, but I empathize with the central crux of the argument (freedom of speech, or something like that). Nobody likes to be told what (or what not) to do. But I think life would be easier if we all spent some time thinking about how our audience would perceive our words before we say them out loud.

“Recently,” I told Carolyn, “I’ve been feeling a little like a Confederate Statue. I think people are getting a little sick of me and are waiting for me to make a mistake so they can pull me down and trample me.”

I can't be the only person who thinks that this is an odd and inappropriate comparison to make, can I? But it doesn't surprise me that someone who thinks that this is a reasonable analogy in a public setting would be interpreted as making racist remarks.

I've worked in companies where standard practice was to give new managers senior-level engineers, because senior engineers were less likely to require some of the more complex management issues that someone more junior might.

Speaking as someone who, when I was a junior, only ever worked for first time managers -- I hated it, and wished that I had a more experienced manager. Meanwhile, my senior friends who had a first time manager enjoyed the process of teaching a new manager the ropes.