[MarkJerling]

This afternoon Mrs Bob spent over 2 hours on the phone calmly trying to get a Medicare screw up resolved.
I spent about 10 seconds trying to tell a persistent door to door window salesman that I wasn't interested, before closing the door on his face, it felt damn good!

Sorry to hear Bob.

But, now I do wonder. As you have door to door window salespeople, do you also get window to window door salespeople?

[robtcorl]

But, now I do wonder. As you have door to door window salespeople, do you also get window to window door salespeople?

Don't be giving our salespeople any ideas, Mark!
We rarely get these obnoxious intrusions where we live, but I have a pretty short fuse after politely say saying I'm not interested a few times.
When the doorbell rings, Brooke starts barking, so when I open the door the person is standing back a few feet.

[savoche]

I wonder if that would work. Ostrich biltong has a very specific texture and flavour so I would think it's likely that a quick taste test will tell the difference. Gemsbok and kudu biltong taste nothing like ostrich.

I'm not sure I've had ostrich biltong. It's not something I see a lot. A good ostrich steak can be very nice, though.

How about an ostrich egg breakfast?

[tim60]

This afternoon Mrs Bob spent over 2 hours on the phone calmly trying to get a Medicare screw up resolved.
I spent about 10 seconds trying to tell a persistent door to door window salesman that I wasn't interested, before closing the door on his face, it felt damn good!

You said something like:
"I am not desirous of your windows, please go away."

[tim60]

Yesterday I submitted a large document, 47 pages, to our HR people. My boss had helped me in the writing of it, and had used the first person to describe what I had done and achieved etc.


So the HR person replied to my boss and me saying it should be written in the third person. My boss expressed amazement based on first person being the more natural way to express the ideas and that the change would be nugatory, and that there was nothing in the instruction to say so, etc.


I went through the document, using 'search' for the words which could be the cause of bother, and after about 2 hours had transformed it to third person expression. I returned the document by email, with the cover email containing:


"
Pleasefind attached a modified version using 3rd person expression.


Imade changes involving use of both my name in the third person construct andchanging first person pronouns to third person pronouns, and alteration of theconjugation of the associated verbs, trying to make all the grammar right.Fortunately the latter was not too difficult because a lot of the verb voice,mood, tense forms I used do not change from first to third person singular. Ihope it now reads as normal English.


Theresult is a document which has the same total number of pages, but there were afew places where hard page breaks, to ensure whole rows in tables were on asingle page, had to be changed.


Idid notice, and did not change, despite having worked with a [top level boss at another place] who was very particular about the usage, that I have used quite a lot ofsplit infinitives.


NB:when I went to primary school the grammar teaching was very poor. They avoidingusing proper technical terminology and used terms such as “two word verb” whenwhat they really meant was “perfect tense”. I only learned English grammar morefully when I studied [a particular ancient language]. We used the virtually internationalstandard textbook for that (name of professor from [University of up the Road a Bit that Likes to Tells Us it is Old] and now I know the author’s grandson.


Apoint worth considering, given matters of gender and ethnicity in theworkplace, and gender and ethnicity pay gap issue, is that the first personforms are gender non-specific but the third person forms are communicative ofpersonal attributes which are protected categories [this is technical terminology in UK law]. Third person pronouns aregendered. Use of the person’s name may communicate a presumed ethnicity becauseof the ethnic origin of many peoples given or family names.


Icannot imagine how [this kind of document] could be written withoutusing the applicant’s name because a major part of the case is listing ofpublications, which have author names. However, using the applicant’s namerepeatedly through the document repeatedly reminds the reader of their name,not allowing that characteristic to recede in consciousness.
"


My boss was entertained by my response.

[savoche]

So the HR person replied to my boss and me saying it should be written in the third person.

Gotta love HR.

[JimJohnson]

Gotta love HR.

There is HR and there is HR.

A young dairy farmer once told me there are basically two ways to run the dairy business. You can treat the cows well. They won't produce as much milk but they produce milk longer. Or you can drive the cows harder. They produce more milk but won't produce as long before you have to replace them. Replacing cows is expensive and your production is not as regular. In the end, you make about the same amount of money.

Okay, My first career was HR. I worked from trenches to the corporate suite before I left the field. It may sound crude but you can substitute employee for cow in the above story and it is still in my mind true.

In my opinion I wasn't as 'successful' in the HR field as I could have been, because I was frequently battling one of the above mind sets. And as the pressure for short term revenues grew, management increasingly shifted to the one I battled. I was spending too much time and money (and no mistake, HR is an expense category, not a revenue category) replacing employees and training new employees in organization basics.

I moved from HR into the financial services sector and spent the last 17 years before I retired in the high tech side of financial services. There are still requests for my talents as a consultant, but if I wanted to continue working full time, I would not have retired. I did take a part time gig this year as an employee of a consulting firm. From the start, I was critical of my employer's HR practices and offered instead of doing financial services consulting, to consult on certain of my employer's HR procedures. A couple weeks ago my employer fired me. My financial services client loved the work I was doing. I was fired because I was very vocal that one of my employer's HR practices was blatantly illegal.

The vice president who called me to tell me I was terminated immediately asked if I had any comment? I laughed at him and told him the company needed a new HR manager. It wasn't like I needed their money, and certainly didn't need the employer's aggravation. I could raise all kind of legal hell for this employer, but life is too short.

I then resumed eating my dinner with my wife. We had rouladen. For those unfamiliar, this is german entree made from thinly sliced steak rolled and cooked with bacon and onion (and/or pickle) inside. See I eventually got to the most important part of this post.

[Racer X 69]

You said something like:
"I am not desirous of your windows, please go away."

I just answer the door wearing a sidearm.

[microlight]

A friend of mine refers to HR as ‘Human Remains’...

[savoche]

There is HR and there is HR.

Of course. But there's no reason to get all sensible, is there?

But yeah, there are so many bad bosses in the world that I get keep getting surprised every time I encounter a good one. It has happened about... twice.

[savoche]

[Racer X 69]

I then resumed eating my dinner with my wife. We had rouladen. For those unfamiliar, this is german entree made from thinly sliced steak rolled and cooked with bacon and onion (and/or pickle) inside. See I eventually got to the most important part of this post.

Post of the day!

[Racer X 69]

A friend of mine refers to HR as ‘Human Remains’...

When I worked at the electric utility it was called Employee Resources.

Most of us called it Evil Resources.

Usually the only time one went there was when they wanted to hand out discipline, and they called you to their torture chamber.

Of course the wise ones always insisted on having a union steward present.

[rod_grant]

My boss was entertained by my response.

but was HR?

We all eagerly await HR's response.
Is it possible that HR could understand your missive?
They might be stuck in the same primary school grammar from which you emerged.
Do let us know.

[robtcorl]

I thought HR stood for what Mrs Racer calls Mr Racer, Hot Rod.