On the day of writing this blog I'm running on five hours of sleep. My toddler woke up at 4 a.m. and I made the mistake of taking him to bed with me because he's sick and I don't think clearly in the middle of the night and he was so miserable and I'm such a softie and, and ... and so on. We both fell asleep around 6:30 a.m. and woke up at 7:30, I got him ready, got me ready, got dropped off at the daycare (not me) and went to work (not him). Busy. Frantic. Underslept. Hey, have I written about this sort of thing before? I can't remember. I'm actually half-drunk. Or it feels like I'm half-drunk because that's how it is when you don't sleep but still have to function fully in your everyday working life.

I know I'm whining and I know that I'm quite privileged to be working and being able to pay for daycare and I've only one little guy to worry about while many other working moms struggle to make ends meet. I'm still baffled as to how so many of us manage to go to work and be quite productive when raising small kids. Or dealing with anybody in our life for that matter, anybody that may need help and attention -- a sick parent or a partner, or an animal (have you ever dealt with a really sick cat? Worse than a toddler, I guarantee you.) The reason I slept so badly last night wasn't just because of the sick toddler. It was because I lay there and obsessed over not sleeping and having to wake up and making it to work on time because I have to leave in time to pick him up from the daycare, and, oh my god, it's now 5 a.m. and I'm still lying there, thinking and trying to force myself to relax enough to sleep. And I'm getting kicked in the stomach by little feet while I'm trying to accomplish this. Anyway, I'm a mess today. I can still think clearly enough to finish this blog but ask me to come up with some good ideas for a bigger article and I'm toast. I have to put it off till another day where sleep is not a precious commodity like saffron.

And what keeps me going is knowing that we all (working moms, working partners, working children, working pet parents) usually pull through the difficult times and the lack of sleep and we make it to work and try to make the best of it. Yawn.

Jowita

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I'm always suspicious of findings like the ones mentioned in the recent Too Sexy for the Cubicle? article in the Toronto Star where it was discovered women dislike other women who dress too sexily in a work environment. The article reads: "A new study by University of Ottawa professor Tracy Vaillancourt gives scientific backing to something many have suspected -- women often act aggressively toward peers they perceive as physically attractive. In Vaillancourt's study, published in the journal Aggressive Behaviour, the presence of a young, physically fit and provocatively dressed peer prompted hostility from 97 per cent of women taking place in the experiment."

The article goes on to mention some examples where it's shown that women bully each other because of appearance (like on reality TV shows, which, let's face it, are no reflection of any reality, ever). I've never encountered this kind of behaviour and I realize that perhaps I've never worked in a place that would foster such reactions so I'm curious about the type of work environment where this is present. Supposedly it's an office environment (and a bank is mentioned in the article as well) but I'm still struggling to buy this. Are intelligent grown women in a serious work environment, busy with their work really cutting each other up because of a short skirt or high heels? I think that often, these psychological studies are also often full of errors -- such as sampling the valid representative groups -- that I'm not sure if the researcher's findings translate to the real world. Vaillancourt's study proves her thesis but who were these women she studied? Did they actually reflect typical professional working women or were they a bunch of mostly middleclass Psychology 101 students who showed up for the study to get credit toward the completion of their course? I decided to look up the study and ... it turns out the latter (86 heterosexual women, 19 to 23 years old "from a mid-size university located in southern Ontario, Canada”).

I'm not disputing that women being catty to each other because of appearance is a myth but I think it's important to take any such findings with a grain of salt before jumping to conclusions. For now, I'll just believe in my own experience, which so far has shown women being supportive to each other despite how much breast they show or don't in a workplace.

Jowita

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I feel bad about telling you this but one of the most annoying co-workers I ever had was my former supervisor who had just broken up with her boyfriend. They had only dated for a short time but she took it especially hard because I could hear her sniffling across the partition on our desks all day long. It wasn't even the sniffling and the whispered, hiccupping phone conversations she seemed to have with every girlfriend in the world, but the fact that she desperately tried to maintain her composure. For example, she'd talk to me about something that I was working on, all stern and unflinching, and then out of the blue her eyes would water and her nose would get red and she'd turn around and walk off into the washroom. I didn't understand why she didn't take some time off to get over this hurdle but she didn’t and it drove me nuts. The worst thing was that she turned spiteful and I think this was because she was embarrassed about the fact that I got to witness her weakness day in and day out. Anyway, this story ends well because I'm no longer there and she's now happily married, so that’s that, but, man, what a drag!

In the article 13 Ways You're Driving You're Co-Workers Nuts Kaitlin Madden talks about some of the office behaviours that drive us up the wall, like the gossip or people who organize countless meetings or who talk in their "outdoor voice" inside, etc. Madden reminds us, however, that "While most of us are quick to point out the flaws in others, we can be completely unaware of our own." This got me thinking, of course, and I feel even worse about complaining to you about my former supervisor because I'm sure she could tell you a thing or two about my annoying habits. Madden reminds that the second week of October was the National Pet Peeves Week (how and who decides these things anyway?) but I'm sure we could use a reminder to be more conscientious in general while we’re working among others.

Jowita

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I just got back from week-long holiday. I had a lovely time and by the time I finally got into it properly I was an hour away from Toronto on our way back home. Typical. I suddenly regretted not hogging the beach spot a bit longer, not swimming a bit more, or eating a few extra marshmallow by the fire (and I hate marshmallows. But I eat them because that's what a respectful vacationer does). My job is not a particularly stressful job but it's still a job and I do prefer to be on holidays. Shocking, I know.

Because of the mood I'm in right now, the article about unlimited vacations makes me crazy with envy. Toronto-based company Social Media Group employees can take off whatever time they need, provided they give enough notice and meet their deadlines and goals. The CEO of the company, Maggie Fox, scratched off the tracking of vacation time -- this in exchange for employees delivering stellar work to clients such as Ford, CNN or Reuters. (Social Media Group assists the companies with developing ways of using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.)

So, do people take advantage of their unlimited vacation plan? And most importantly, do they abuse it? Yes. And, no. Fox says that people do take more time off but there's no impact on job performance and nobody exploits the system. "We work hard and play hard. I hire people who do great work. If I hire someone who takes advantage of the program, it's my problem, because I've made a bad decision."

(Sigh.)

Jowita

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Just like a lot of us I've had my share of sitting in on dull workshops and conferences where the pie chart rules the world and PowerPoint is its second-in-command. I can't remember the first time I was introduced to PP, I think it was when I worked for a bank and where that sort of thing was not only welcomed but craved. In the bank, PP was a comforting occurrence, a warm blanket over a pile of hard, cold cash.

PP, it never worked for me -- I can't for the life of me remember an impactful PP presentation yet I can remember many impactful speakers -- but I assumed that it worked for others so it didn't bother me. After the bank, I'd encounter it sporadically and if it ever reared its square head it was exotic enough of an occurrence to make me shudder with relief that I never had to see it regularly. I am not, of course, alone in my dislike of it.

Swiss public speaking coach Matthias Pohm mentioned in the Toronto Star article started the worldwide Anti-PowerPoint-Party which is, "aimed at stemming use of the ubiquitous slide software. His idea is to speak for 250 million screamingly bored workers across the globe while becoming the fourth-largest political party in Switzerland." Pohm said that "the goal of the movement is to decrease the number of boring presentations worldwide, and that those who want to renounce PowerPoint will not have to justify themselves in the future." The Party's site has some funny horror slides of the month as well as more serious discourse about the PowerPoint dilemma where, among other views Phom suggests that "The most fervent PowerPoint advocates are usually the presenters, but not the audience."

Perhaps. Hard as I tried I couldn't really pay too much attention to the site because there was something very PowerPointy about it, maybe it was because the whole project seemed to be focused on Pohm (his book and photographs are all over it) and because it was constructed with categories strangely reminiscent of headings, points and conclusions.

Jowita

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The other day, applicant X accepted a position at a certain company, and the team she was supposed to work with got very excited. They got excited because it took a (loooong) while for the company to find the right person for this position and there was a slew of unfortunate glitches related to fulfilling the job. (For example, one candidate never showed up for the interview and didn't call to inform the team that he was not going to show up at all.) This time, the team thought, things were going to be different because X seemed quite enthusiastic about working at the company. All that was left to do, for the team, was to decide on what they wanted X to learn first, and for the management to prepare an agenda for X's first day at work. X was supposed to start on Monday, the 28th. The agenda was prepared and the team waited. On Friday, the 25th, X called human resources and announced she was not coming in on Monday after all.

"Back to square one," said one of the managers. But it was a little more than that. It was more like back to before square one, since once X had accepted the position the hiring breaks were put on. There weren't that many other candidates in reserve; there certainly wasn't any active hiring process in place, because why would there be? The perfect person had been chosen and she accepted. Now, in retrospect, it's clear that the company was way too optimistic about this process.

It's certainly interesting to observe this turn of events, especially after the wonky job market due to the recent recession. It's good to know that people are confident enough to be picky and nonchalant about finding jobs (and, well, rude). It's disheartening, however, that there's nothing the company could've done to protect themselves from this turn of events, but it's also a great lesson about having a backup plan (alternative candidates) in any situation -- X probably had her own reserves, a better salary somewhere else or maybe it was her good twin all along that accepted the offer, not her.

Jowita

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The other night I had a dream that I was invited to a Christmas party at my friend Josh's house. Even though I was all polite at first, I had brought a lot of alcohol with me and proceeded to get very drunk. I did a lot of silly things, some of them with a funny hat on, some with no pants on, some involving lots of smashing of objects. I was confronted by Josh's mother and his cigar-smoking father. I woke up somewhat shaken up by my dream and quite relieved that none of it happened for real. It was a good lesson about how not to behave this holiday season.

I've been to some disastrous Christmas parties in the past. And, yes, there were some parties that I'd like to forget, where I was the main cause behind the general disastrousness. The honour of the most disastrous one, however, belongs to a man whose name starts with the letter "A." To make a tedious story short: A got drunk and punched a female supervisor in the face. Predictably, A got fired (I'm not sure if he was charged). That was the last Christmas party at that company too.

Even though it only takes common sense to know what not to do at a holiday party, it seems that people often get themselves into trouble. Alcohol may have a lot to do with it, but so does the giddiness people feel about getting time off, receiving Christmas bonuses, seeing your co-workers in festive clothing. Things like that. It's only natural that a bunch of people who adhere to a workday routine would suddenly feel uneasy, nervous or excited in a situation that puts them with their co-workers in a non-routine setting. And, even though disastrous holiday parties always make for good lessons, it's only normal that we forget what we've learned as the months go by. To refresh your memory, go to CareerOne.com for some practical and simple rules to follow before going out to celebrate this year.

Jowita

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I'm writing this in order to keep busy here at work. I'm sweating a little and the first pangs of withdrawal are possibly setting in. I need. To. Re. Fresh.

We are sorry, but the page you requested was not found. Please check the URL ...

Oh my God. What do I do?

You see, I was in the middle of doing research for one of our monthly features but then the Internet left the building and now everything is upside down. It's in times like this that I think about my own prehistoric period when ... there was no Internet! I know, I know -- how old must I be to remember that time? (Old enough to have had a blast with Atari 800 XL in my youth and not at all ironically.)

Even when I did my postgrad degree I never thought that one day my job would consist mostly of being online, although we did have a course called "Online Journalism," which at that time was a novelty. Now, the whole idea of journalism existing outside of the Internet is ridiculous. I love it that in my own lifetime, in less than a few decades, everything we've ever known about office work has been completely revolutionized because of the Internet. So when it goes off, like right now, I get totally stumped.

Yeah, I know this is a good time to clean my desk, I suppose, or to rearrange things on my desktop but I don't do so well with my compulsive need to check and refresh the page. And, just like I could never imagine that my job would mostly consist of being online, in moments like this I can't picture not being online. I'm thinking of leaving the office right now, before the shakes set in, and running home to my laptop.

Jowita

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This year, I just may be the queen of calling in sick at my workplace. My toddler is in daycare and ever other week our entire family is treated to one type of a new ailment or another -- so far we've had two cases of pinkeye, hand-foot-mouth disease, stomach virus (twice) and numerous colds. (As I write this, my partner is at home in bed with a high fever. I'm half-way recovered from what he's having, the baby is fine.) It has gotten to the point where I feel paranoid about calling in sick and I always make sure to let my doctor know in case I ever need a note. But so far, this year, I've had no reason to feel this way (paranoid), unlike some people who use the call-in-sick time to play hooky.

In the article Employees Get Creative When Calling in Sick, Wallace Immen of The Globe and Mail talks about some of the more creative excuses given when people take a day off work. My favourite is the guy who phoned in sick the day before -- from a bar. I could see myself doing that sort of thing in the past. Why ruin the party? Plan ahead. "Boss, it looks like I'm getting another pint so I probably will be too hungover to work tomorrow anyway. Consider this my call-in."

Immen says that it's better to let your boss know that you do need a break (a "mental health day"), rather than risk getting caught. Some employers will actually drive by their worker's home to check on them and a whopping 70 per cent require a doctor's note.

But I'm really sceptical of a boss cool enough to accept I'm-having-a-really-good-day-and-am-not-coming-to-work excuse. Still, it's probably much better than getting overly creative out of panic, like the woman who said a cow broke into her home and she had to wait for the insurance man instead of going to work.

Jowita

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A long time ago when I was applying for part-time work in the summer, my friend suggested I wear a "banker outfit" for my interview at the bank. It was a blouse with a ridiculous bow under my chin. The blouse had an obsessively straight row of buttons and the whole construction could be smartly tucked into a pencil skirt. I wore it because we figured I should dress in the appropriate costume. I got the "banker outfit" specifically for that interview. I didn't get the job and it was just as well -- I couldn't imagine shopping for any more banker outfits. I think I had the wrong attitude about that job anyway and, most of all, about what to wear. My friend and I donated "the banker" to Goodwill and that was that.

In the (unintentionally) hilarious Four Work Outfits for Modern Career Women article, Lindsey Schickner describes four professions and outlines some outfit suggestions that would best fit each job. So, for example, if you're an artist (?) you're encouraged to wear a slouchy pair of pants, patterned clogs and a funky hat in order to "solidify your status as an impressive bohemian princess." As an editor, on the other hand, you can go for "oversized sunglasses and sassy black booties." What will that do? That "will provide the added edge to look like you just stepped off of a runway." Ha.

Like with my banker outfit, there's something slightly disturbing about grown-ups trying to dress other grown-ups to fit some kind of a stereotype, especially that of a "modern career woman." I'm sure that by the time you get to be a successful TV producer, editor or -- even rarer -- a successful artist, you will have some kind of a idea what to wear to work and how not to turn your outfit into a costume.

Jowita

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It's possible that I suffer from a dissociative personality disorder and don't have a clue (how would I know it if the others won't tell me?). Every time I do one of those personality tests (usually based on Myers-Briggs) I get different test results. A few times when I did them for work, I got the Mastermind (don't you just love the name?), that says that I am "head and shoulders above all the rest in contingency planning," and am also highly rational, a natural leader, etc. This is interesting, because, in the past I've also got the type that tells me I'm a hopeless romantic who cares about people and feelings and whose primary job in the world is to "heal" (rather than lead armies, presumably).

Personality tests are sometimes used in a work environment to "indicate how people will perform under pressure," for example. They help HR "determine which applicants will contribute most to ensemble working groups and which will work best on their own."

Recently, we did the True Colours test here at work. In the end, I ended up with an even split between two different colours -- an empathetic people-loving Blue and the rational loner Green. It was a fun activity because we ended up talking about ourselves for a long time, but I'm not sure I learned anything new. I'm not criticizing the test -- I think it's a great icebreaker, for example -- and it was nice to confirm that different personality aspects can coexist within a person. It also reassured me that I don't have a split personality but am a rather complex human being. As are all human beings, of course. But we know this without having to do tests anyway.

Jowita

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People often say that they wish they could just "clone" themselves so they could deal with all the obligations that they have in the day. My friend who works from home and wears at least three professional hats complains that he needs an assistant but that there's no way he could find someone who'd be able to just do all the administrative tasks he has to do without constantly interrupting him. So he spends ridiculous amounts of time filing, following up, calling, mailing, fixing and so on, instead of actually working. In a regular office these sorts of tasks are usually divided and nobody just does everything. A lot of us also get to leave work at work -- unlike my self-employed friend who's dragging it (work and work-related tasks) with him everywhere and at all times if he forgets to turn off his BlackBerry.

Then there are people who will use assistants to do absolutely everything for them. Take the guy who pays an assistant to arrange dates for him. Seriously? I understand doing the filing and even making an occasional dry cleaners run for your boss, but managing your boss's love life? Too strange. I wonder if the guy will hire someone to take his potential date on a date -- I mean, why stop with the email exchange?

It turns out that this is not such an isolated incident. According to CNN's Personal Assistants: Not Just for J.Lo article, "fielding calls from a nagging mother-in-law, or approaching a handsome stranger on behalf of an employer looking for a date" are just some of the tasks that personal assistants have been asked to do. Perhaps this is the way of the future -- when I was a kid, "nanny" was a fictional character in a fairy tale, today nannies, although still reserved for families who are well off, are becoming a popular luxury among busy urban parents.

Jowita

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In the world of personal emails, sending an email that you regret later is something that most of us have probably experienced. I still recall a few morning-afters of sending emails that should've probably get buried in an e-cemetery before they saw the light of the screen. Oh, well, I survived. Sure there was some regret, but at least I learn my lessons quickly.

I've never sent a professional email that cost me a job but I know someone who has. She was angry at her supervisor and went out for drinks with a couple of colleagues to talk about her work situation. When she got home, she wrote her boss a funny but nasty email letting her know what she really thought of her. The same week she came to work to find an empty box on her desk and a note asking her to pack up her things.

The job wasn't a dream job but my friend said she always felt shame about acting so immaturely. She also said that she just knew the moment she hit "Send" that it was a mistake to write this email in the first place -- but it was too late, that bridge was on fire already.

It was only a matter of time before a recall mail feature was invented. It's in its testing stage now and it's hardly going to save anybody's skin if they're going to have an e-gret hours later: "The feature only holds emails in a queue for five seconds, giving you time for second thoughts -- though some already argue that this is not long enough." Still, once it's implemented that one "Undo" click may just be the one that will save you from professional disaster.

Jowita

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It's not that I wasn't even startled by it -- I was, but since I already know this particular drill, I simply got up, got my startled self out of the way of traffic (I fell toward the middle of the road rather than the sidewalk), and collapsed on the front lawn of a house. My bike just got hit by a car. For the third time since moving to Toronto, eight years ago.

A bearded hipster coming up the road slowed down on his bike and said, "Are you okay?" I thought I was. I said I was. I added, "The car didn't even stop," and the hipster nodded his head sadly, knowingly, "No, it didn't," and rode off. I was a little miffed by not being offered any more help but I figured the hipster was late for work, and it's not like this is an unusual thing in Toronto -- this being a bike hit-and-run. And it's not bike-exclusive. Recently, a colleague wrote about almost being hit by a school bus while crossing the street. She lived.

Lots of people get to work on foot or via bicycle. In fact, the majority of Torontonians are cyclists (PDF). This is possibly because the city has some serious planning challenges, and gridlocks and construction are a part of everyday commute for those who drive. And we all want to get to work on time, sure. But what we have here are not racetracks, but rather roads and sidewalks. No one is more entitled than another -- we share, and sharing means caring, right?

Although if people don't really give a damn, well, there really is no reason for not reverting to some medieval tactics and applying an eye-for-an-eye justice. Despite being so casual about it as it happened, riding away from the scene of my accident, I was suddenly gripped by an intense daydream about a nice, convenient hand grenade. And not because I noticed that my handle bars became so twisted they looked as if they were trying to escape the bike. No. You see, I have a baby seat attached to the back of my bike with a giant orange warning sticker on the back of it. Thankfully, it was empty at the time.

For some facts, check out the recent scary biking accident stats.

Jowita

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The other day, when visiting a hospital, I saw an interesting notice on the wall of the Starbucks. It said to talk to the staff about the possibility of becoming a barista for a day for 15 minutes. The program seemed to be directed at the health personnel -- on the poster cartoon doctors and nurses smiled manically (perhaps from too much coffee, as free coffee was how they got "paid"). There was a gallery, too, with photographs of those 15-minute baristas. Everyone looked like they were having a fun time.

What a great idea, I thought, to let people try on other people's jobs. It's probably less feasible for the baristas to try on 15-minute surgeries, but I loved the idea that educated, specialized medical workers got a chance to experience what it's like to work in the deceptively simple customer service industry. I'm sure many had their "How hard is it to make my Grande-sugar-free-non-fat-lactose-free-double-shot-decaf-no-foam-extra-hot-Cinnamon-White-Chocolate-Mocha-with-light-whip-and-extra-syrup" questions answered by taking on the barista challenge.

I admit it, there were a few times when I acted like a jerk toward customer service reps -- despite the fact that I've done some of that work myself! I'd let my own frustrations and bad mood take over when standing in many impatient line-ups. I'd get especially irritated when I'd see customer service reps ignoring their customers. I'm so quick to forget how tiring and monotone those jobs can be too. I forget how I'd done the same thing, during crazy-busy days of dealing with rude customers -- how I pretended that people weren't standing in the line-up because it was either that or my head was going to explode. I forget how sometimes people talked down to me and how they felt entitled to way too much, tip-free.

So I think that the barista initiative will get everyone appreciate everyone else's business and help the medical staff understand that making coffee may not be as easy as it seems. True, baristas don't save lives per se, but I'm sure they've saved many wavering, headachy mornings of those who do.

Jowita

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If you're struggling to climb the ladder at work, new studies show that you may need to put yourself on a pedestal. Sure, the character of Narcissus from Greek mythology may have perished because he fell in love with his own image, but research suggests that modern-day narcissists are actually getting ahead in the workforce. According to a Toronto Star article, it's not that narcissists necessarily have better ideas -- they just give winning sales pitches. And, it turns out that companies are more likely to jump on board a narcissist's well-sold idea.

In related news, a recent article in The Globe and Mail advises that we all applaud our narcissistic bosses because many of them get the job done right. Citing Winston Churchill and Steve Jobs as examples, the article proposes that narcissists are ambitious innovators who will likely rise to the top and bring the company up with them.

Being a fairly modest person, I have to admit that I'm not quite sold on this whole narcissism thing. Frankly, I find people who think too highly of themselves kind of annoying, and I'm not really convinced that we modest folk can’t take care of business just as well as our arrogant counterparts. But maybe there's something to be said of compromise. While being arrogant can be a turn off, being too modest can leave you unnoticed at work. So, if you're like me and don't want to trade in your humility for conceit, just turn your confidence up a notch. When you have an idea or proposal, don't self efface or apologize. Pitch it with poise and see where it lands. Your special brand of modest confidence might just impress the pants off of your boss and narcissistic co-workers alike.

Veronica

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This is the third time in my life that I've experienced a boss quitting. The first time it happened I was in shock but also very excited as that boss was not the greatest to say the least. The second time I was just surprised (I had only been hired three months before). The third time happened recently. My emotions about it aren't mixed. I just genuinely feel sad and a bit worried. This person is a friend but also a really valuable employee and I doubt it'll be easy to replace her. Part of me wants to ask her to reconsider, give us another chance, have a talk ... but then I know that once a resignation is in, it's final. There’s no going back.

This summer has been a summer of breakups for me. An unusual number of family members and friends ended their relationships, or at least attempted to. I've spent lots of time on the phone talking to dumpees or dumpers about how the other person was thinking, doing, coping. And, in a way, I want to talk to my most recent former boss to find out what went wrong and tell her how I'm coping, although I know that, unlike a romantic breakup, there will be no hard feelings and I'll even feel hopeful and excited for her. And, unlike being a romantic breakup survivor, I'm interested in knowing where she's going to go next -- not because I want to burn that place down -- no, I just want to sincerely wish her all the best.

Finally, because of the high standards she has set, I now know what having a good boss is like and I know that just because you have the title it doesn't mean that you have the skill. I thought I'd never experience working for a good boss -- I come from a long tradition of working for [beep]holes -- but then I have, with her. So after working with Josée, I can tell you today that a good boss is someone who listens, treats you equally, offers advice and guidance, but also considers your input to be important and puts time and effort into getting to know the people he or she works with. A good boss is knowledgeable, resourceful and easy to approach. Losing a good boss is a bit like a heartbreak -- I may never completely get over this one; she's the one who got away and just spoilt me for the future ones.

Jowita

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Quitting suddenly and creatively is already being referred to as "pulling a Jet-Blue" in reference to former Jet-Blue Airline attendant Steven Slater.

If I were to pick one place (out of a few) that would cause me to pull a Jet-Blue à
la Steven, or another recent famous quitter, Jenny, it would have to be the publishing company I worked for three years ago. In fact, when this letter surfaced, many former colleagues and people familiar with the magazine wrote to ask if that was the magazine I worked for. The former colleagues and I concluded that it wasn't, despite many similarities. We too had to deal with barely literate editors, bizarre office politics, serious abuse of power, and a horny -- albeit quite charming -- company president. For weeks now, magazine people in Canada have been racking their brains trying to figure out which publication the letter writer worked for.

Today, I'm closer to believing that it was a hoax as nobody's been able to figure it out despite so many people following the case. At the same time, it doesn't really matter if it's true or not -- what matters is that the letter proves that something needs to change in how we work with others. As fun and heroic as all those quitting stories seem, behind them are people who have to put up with stress and abuse. There are thousands of people out there still who will continue to put up with poor working conditions because they don’t have the temperament or the means to throw in the towel and scream: screw this.

Some of my former colleagues quit on the verge of nervous breakdowns and more than two were mistreated till the absolute last minute of working there. I quit with another job lined up but it took every bit of sanity to keep my head from exploding before I left. And to this day I find myself stumped when I think back about what went on and also remember the countless times when I was ready to just get up from my desk and walk straight through the succession of glass doors, never looking back.

Jowita

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A recent account of employee rage reads like the beginning of a satirical novel: "He got on the intercom, let loose a string of invective, pulled the lever that activates the emergency-evacuation chute and slid down, making a dramatic exit not only from the plane but, one imagines, also his airline career. On his way out the door, he paused to grab a beer from the beverage cart. Then he ran to the employee parking lot and drove off, the authorities said."

Earlier this year, I met a woman who has worked as a flight attendant for 15 years. She said that one of the hardest aspects of her seemingly glamorous job is dealing with horrible customers. She said that good manners often seem to get checked in with the baggage and she's had more than a few moments where she almost snapped.

Recently, I was on a plane and experienced some awful flier behaviour -- mine and others'. Mine stemmed from being the token parent with a screaming toddler. There isn't much you can do when a pit-bull-sized human boy tries to frantically and incessantly eject himself from your lap but to hold him as tightly as you can in the vice of your arms. So I was that parent and he was that kid. And the tighter I held him, the louder he screamed.

The other bad fliers were the people who complained to flight attendants (and later the ground airport personnel) about having to change planes and the flight being delayed. I'm looking at you, pretty family of five with well-dressed parents. Upon shaky landing and unexpected plane change, the dad announced repeatedly to everyone how great this was, just [beeping] great. Then, once on the ground, the mom stomped over to the boarding desk and proceeded to very loudly let the woman at the desk know -- JUST TO LET HER KNOW -- how dishonest she was for not telling her when the next plane was going to be (because I'm sure the woman knew having just shown up for her shift 10 minutes prior ... yeah, right).

Flying is still a relatively new way of traveling and many people are new to it, but does it really give us excuse to act crazy? I'm not surprised that the flight attendant snapped and although I'm happy to read that he doesn't regret getting fired I think that he was simply a victim of nightmare customers. My 14-month-old can be easily excused. The 40-something mom and dad? Not so much.

Jowita

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During Toronto's recent heat wave, I didn't once turn the stove on in my apartment-turned-inferno. I figured if I couldn't stand the heat, I'd just stay out of the kitchen. But not everyone gets the choice.

One sweltering morning, on my way to my air conditioned office, I was riding the streetcar through Parkdale and passed Yummy Stuff Bakery, whose front door was wide open. As I sat perfectly still and continued to profusely perspire, I began to wonder what it's like to work a full day in the heat.

As you might imagine, doing "hot" jobs during a heat wave is no fun. Pavers, roofers, construction workers, dry cleaners, bakers and firefighters (amongst others) are practically playing with fire during heat advisories. Without taking proper precautions, like drinking lots of fluids and taking reprieve in cooler areas every hour or so, workers run the risk of developing heat stroke.

The Montreal Gazette reports that the City of Toronto suspended road work during the unbearable flare up, while Montreal road crews were forced to toil on in the scorching heat. And, while several construction companies allowed employees to leave early, some workers were hesitant to do so since they'd lose out on pay.

A friend who plants trees throughout the city of Toronto told me that during the heat wave her crew would start at 6 a.m. and finish at noon, although even working those hours was trying. Outside of calling in "hot," if you’re stuck working outdoors, your best bet is to take it easy and try to keep cool.

Veronica

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