Frankie and Slim

Frankie and Slim
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Monday, May 09, 2011

QUESTION OF THE WEEK 5-9-11


"The straw that broke the camel's back"

Have you had "last straw" experiences in your life?

One of my first bosses, a horrible man, yanked a document out of my typewriter that I was working on for another bank officer. I tried to complete the typing in the order it was received. My boss cursed me loudly and told me I had to do his work first. I got up, said "I quit" and walked out. Later that day the bank president called me at home and asked me to return and talk about the issue because "something wasn't handled properly" he said, and "you are a valuable employee." I ended up working for them several years launching a 32 year successful banking career.

12 comments:

  1. A night sister was my bete noir. My room was high in the attic - too far for the maids to give us a wake up call so we were dependent on an ancient alarm clock - an old thing with a bell on it.
    This particular morning it didn't go off and I was late for breakfast.
    Later on Sister Neal - for it was she - came striding down the main corridor with the bell ringing loudly to make it look I had been lying. This was after months of harrassment so I said ;
    'That's it I'm going to see Matron and resign!'
    Fortunately my friends persuaded me I shouldn't waste those years of training for one bitchy sister.
    I completed my training but she was a thorn in my side to the end.

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  2. Good for you!

    Yes just recently actually. Someone wrote some offensive comments on my blog and I contacted them and said enough was enough, and reported them to Blogger and blocked their emails. This was someone who was a close and good friend of mine for 4 years. It was very painful for me to end things that way, but I felt I had no other option. :(

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  3. I did with two different people. One was an old boyfriend, whom I gave the boot after 7 years of off and on dating because he simply couldn't stick to one person (me).

    Another was a women with whom I worked for about 7 years (that seems to be my limit - LOL - who kept borrowing/using my props,vases, etc., and either losing them or damaging them. I thought she should be more careful with my stuff and telling her that had no effect - so I cut off all ties with her. She was really surprised, I heard.

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  4. I cut a "friend" loose - she was too high maintenance. It occurred to me one day that I was spending way too much time appeasing someone that I was not even related to. :)

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  5. When my son,Jerry, was about 4 years old we had a neighbor who always took advantage of me.

    She would always ask me to go get her bread or milk when it was freezing outside. She didn't want to go out in the cold, but it was OK to ask me to do it.

    Almost every day she had another request and I would always do it but I would say, "That Phyllis is really getting on my nerves."

    One day the phone rang at the usual time and before I could answer it Jerry ran over to me and said," Mommy, why don't you tell Phyllis that you have something else on your nerve today."

    I suppose we could say that Jerry was having a "Last Straw Moment" that day.

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  6. Wow! Good for you. And good for them for calling you back in.

    I've had a handful of those moments myself. One that comes to mind: in college, I was trying to change a class and had to get permission from a dean, who never seemed to be in his office to sign the paper. I had been trying to find a time to pin him down when the secretary I was talking to glared at a man sitting nearby, who had heard our entire conversation. Turns out he was the dean! Just sitting there, not helping or identifying himself.

    I told him that I was paying x amount of money to attend that school, and that if he didn't sign that form right now I'd wait outside his office every day and bitch until he did.

    He signed it on the spot.

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  7. My question is how could someone get to a position like that and still be soooo rude!!!!!

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  8. Definitely there have been those moments in my life. And it's a good thing, I think. Sometimes the straw is a bit too flexible, but eventually it breaks and, after the fallout, things usually settle the way they should.

    How rude your boss was! Why do those types always seem to excel? I'll never understand it!

    Hope you and Ron are both doing well, Annie! Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

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  9. I can't believe you got talked back in! How rare-

    Last straw at a food counter job was having to reach for glazed goods covered with yellow-jacket hornets, or even consider giving them to customers after insects were on them! Never mind one sting would kill me- I'm allergic!

    What good stories in these comments! I guess we all have these moments...

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  10. good for you!
    and good for the bank president for noticing good work and defending it/you
    Brava

    I have more broken camels than I do what to do with ;)

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  11. Yeah I've had a few but not many because I'm too darned layed back. I'm glad you did what you did.
    Best wishes, we're leaving tomorrow for a quick trip to Dallas. I'll yell out the window on the way by.
    We're driving both ways in one day. An Escalade, a Yukon XL and 10 people. Lets see, about 10 stops both ways if we're lucky.

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  12. Actually I was tired of building a haybale on my back when I people pleased myself into not knowing who I was. That last straw was for me, so I told myself off and decided to change. :-)

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