When I worked for one of the countries more prestigious cemetery organizations, people who balked at the "before need" sales pitches said we just wanted to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible.  They didn’t believe that the plot would even be there in 30 years, nor that the company wouldn’t sell it several times before someone actually tried to move in.  While that has happened at a few mom and pop cemeteries, it would never happen at The Lawn.  In fact, as this piece points out, good final resting spaces are at a premium.

One of the most important things to the company, aside from getting the plots sold, was creating, developing, and maintaining the endowment care fund.  The point of that was so after they ran out of space, the cemetery could still operate and maintain the property in the manner the families expected when they chose to be interred there in the first place.  That’s another problem many small cemeteries have.  Once they’re full, it’s like the owner fold up their tents and leave.  If the property can still operate, cemeteries can still serve as some nice open spaces and greenbelts in crowded cities.  Granted, you can’t play football there or have picnics, but an oasis of peace and contemplation is going to become as rare a commodity and a place to be buried.

But I’m with many other people that I just don’t want to be buried.  Yeah, I worked in one of those places, and between all of the options, I’ll take the navy gabardine covered MDF box if you MUST have a service (I’d rather you didn’t), and them shove me into the retort.  I have enough fat on my bones to get a nice wicking going, so it shouldn’t take too long.    

By the way, when my cat died I found a company that could take a portion of her ashes, completely carbonize them, put them under pressure, and actually create a diamond-like gemstone.  I didn’t do it, but I understand this can be done of anyone, and it could very well be the new age of final resting.  Forget wearing a small vial of ashes, something much more elegant, and probably more so than I’ve ever managed to be in my life.  (The Lawn was totally against separating ashes, but whatever.)

In the case of marijuana, you would deal a significant blow to the drug traffickers.  Government go to such extremes trying to find a way to thwart the cartels, when the simplest, swiftest way is to pull the rug out from under them, and then regulate and tax the product.  Everybody wins!  

In the case of prostitution, again you then can have regulatory control.  Collect fees for licenses that must be renewed every three months with a health certificate.  If you were a john would you choose a licensed or unlicensed hooker when you can be more sure about the safety of one over the other?  

Follow the model of The Netherlands with regard to both.  They don’t seem to have any significant fallout from the pot or the brothels.  When it’s legal and regulated, you can more easily confine the operations so those who are opposed to either can more easily avoid exposure.  I don’t understand the problem.

Sadly, I work for a state.  The only way I’ll get a raise is if I leave.  This veers off the topic, but I’m still fuming and undecided about it.

I’m stuck in the "devil you know vs. the devil you don’t."  Last December I took on a third doctor "temporarily" when our department cut back.  My "worst I have ever worked for" manager didn’t even tell me; his phone just started ringing on my set one day.  So I dealt with it as best I could, even though I had pretty much capped out my personal skills and abilities, and then she told me, in an email, that she was hiring another admin for my campus (I’m the only one from our department here) to handle new doctors coming on, but I was going to have my temporary doc permanently.  

I was angry, but figured this was going to be rewarded come review time if I just grin and bear it.  Then, we got an email from the president saying that even though the state legislature gave us a 4% budget increase, no one was going to get raises.  So all the "service with a smile" has been for nothing, and even though equity and market requests would be considered, my "worst I’ve ever worked for" manager would never deign to go to bat for any of us.  Despite the institution being cheap, our department is even more so.  In fact, I know from friends in other departments that we were still supposed to have our performance evaluations, which would at least allow me to get my extra work into my record, but they were due July 1 and so far none of us have had one.

When I started recirculating my resume after the surprise increase in my duties ("I never once told you it would always be only two doctors."), I actually got calls in this economy and found that I’m underpaid.  several weeks ago she sent me an email (she despises actual communication) saying this new doctor "will start November 1st.  I am assigning you to be his administrative assistant…"  FOUR???  I was barely juggling three.  I had mentioned to one of my docs that she better not try to give me the "odd" number that was coming (the other admin handles three, also), and I sent him a text reading, "she just assigned me Dr. C.  I think she’s nuts.  How does 9/30 as my last day work for you?  I’m just not going to argue with stupidity."

Wow!  They love me!  They really love me!  All three of my docs flipped out.  They leapt in front of that train and told me I wasn’t leaving and told her she wasn’t giving me the fourth doctor.  Well, she finally backed down.  I only know because she told one of them to tell me she reverse her decision.  She hasn’t spoken to me since.  It’s been great!

So, here I am.  I know I CAN get a raise if I leave because my resume generates response and the wages are higher out there.  But I have three doctors who really value my work.  What does one do?  

Oh, and she’s slowly slipping the 4th doc onto the new admin.  I know the signs.  She’ll never know what hit her.

Luckily I didn’t enter the workforce until after women had secured their position, but when I worked for "a renowned cemetery organization," they had a very strict dress code.  The company started in 1917 and hadn’t changed all that much.  I actually liked the dress code because of what you describe, but it seemed to work as just another way for people to try to "buck the system" and see what they could get away with.  They couldn’t actually tell women to always wear pantyhose, but they did say "no bare legs."  And, any visible hosiery up until shortly before I started there could not include black.  I was a senior secretary in the in executive offices, and while they could say "no slacks," but I only wore a pantsuit ONCE, and the looks were enough for me.  Some of the other rules were no sleeveless, not open-back footwear, skirts no shorter than one inch above the knee, no more than two piercings in each ear, no other visible piercings or tattoos.

I think dress codes are still a good idea.  I think enforcing them is, too, given the common lack of common sense.  Once you get everyone on the same page as to what professionalism is, sex shouldn’t matter.

I would be interested in what she means by "contract."  There are independent contractors, who are hired to accomplish a goal and have scant restriction on how they reach it, such as workplace and hours.  And then there are temporary employees who work as other employees for a finite period of time.  If she is the former, she can alter her hours and where she does the job in order to avoid the dork.  If she is the latter, she has all of the rights of an employee and certainly can hold the employer to acceptable standards of conduct, even pursue available remedies if her "contract" is terminated because of her complaint.

There is a third animal that employers call "contract" as a way to avoid paying taxes.  The IRS has specific definitions that differentiate between contractors and employees, and if she has to do work as directed by the employer, during the hours directed by the employer, in the manner directed by the employer, she is an "employee" and they are responsible for the taxes.  It almost sounds as if she is one of these types of employees, which would mean not only is the employer misbehaving in enforcing legal standards in the office, they could also be liable for fines, penalties, and taxes.  I think it’s important to find out what exactly her status is before there is a firm approach the situation. 

Yes, I worked in naughty biz, but I have also been a very strong advocate for professionalism in the workplace.  Even when those paths crossed for me, I never allowed them to cross into my employment.  Here’s guessing once again that common sense just ain’t so common. 

He gets as stupid as most men.  Having worked in the adult arena, as well as being a scorned girlfriend, it has always amazed what costs men are willing to bear for an orgasm (sorry to be so blunt, but there it is).  Not just personal, but monetary.  It’s staggering.  What was 2 minutes of my time and forgotten a few hours later, has been worth thousands to someone else and probably still thought about, if not actively bragged about (:::snicker:::) today.  

A lot of people like to give them a pass for their "sex addiction," but they’re actually just opportunists allowing little brain to control big brain.  All men are sex addicts when it gets right down to it, and for the most part, present 99.9% of men with an opportunity and a pretty good idea he wouldn’t be caught (idea by little brain, not big brain) and he’s going to go for it.  A wife, a child, 20+ year relationship, a reputation, possibly a show, $200,000, and the stress of discovery that probably added to his heart issues, all in pursuit of… something he could get by himself in a men’s room with a magazine or even just a good imagination.

There has been a frightening decline in the knowledge of how to be a good guest.  Everyone is concerned about how they are treated and don’t give a second thought to their responsibilities.  This showed up in the discussion about what to feed.  You don’t want a guest rearranging your bookcase and giving you their laundry anymore than you want one treating you as a short order cook telling you what they will and will not eat.  

In theory, saying you cannot accommodate works, but in practice, I don’t see how with out adding the why.  If the place is empty and they aren’t going to be there, how can you say it cannot be done?  And on a repeating basis?  At some point they’ll ask what the deal is is and you have say, "I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but on the last visit there was very little appreciation shown for out hospitality as well as little respect for our property.  We simply are not comfortable with the proposed arrangement."