Ask a Manager: My boss saw me guzzling chocolate in my car

[colorwheel]

LW: After a particularly long day, I stopped at the convenience shop by work and got myself a well deserved candy bar. While waiting to merge back into traffic, I proceeded to shove it in my mouth, barely avoiding eating the wrapper. To my horror, my boss was the car waving me into the lane and witnessed me unhinge my jaw like a snake in order to get as much chocolate in my mouth as quickly as possible.

My question is, can I take FMLA due to dying of embarrassment or should I just email my resignation right now?


Alison: Just ghost the job entirely and let her think what she witnessed was part of your jubilance on your bacchanalian flight to freedom.

Comments

[cereta]

Let the boss who has never scarfed a candy bar cast the first peanut. Unless they're allergic, in which case chuck an M&M.

[dorinda]

To me guzzling always connotes liquid, not solid.

Of course, as soon as the chocolate gets melty...

[cereta]

Yeah, that threw me a little, too. I was thinking maybe English drinking chocolate?

[ayebydan]

what a waste of column space. i mean. folk have real issues

[cereta]

Life cannot be all sexual harassment and open office plans.

[polarisnorth]

Alison likes to throw us a bone sometimes in between all the letters that have us up in arms.

[ayebydan]

I guess, but it just feels like it could have been used for a great many other things. Ask a Manager tends to be one of those pieces where you get loads of solid advice that can be used in many situations not just the LW.

[colorwheel]

alison does four columns a day full of real issues. i found this one funny and enjoyed it.

[ayebydan]

Fair enough. I think she's a great writer and always hands out solid advice that anyone can use in many situations. Seemed a shame to be to lose even a bit of that to this sort of thing. Each to their own.

[colorwheel]

everyone's mileage many vary, of course, but personally i did find her funny response useful for many situations. it's a reminder to me to keep an eye on whether something i did that feels horrifying at that moment is red light (actually bad, requires action), yellow light (might require action but isn't as bad as i think it is), or green light (requires no action and is only bad inside my brain).

[annotated_em]

Wow.

[ayebydan]

Wow yourself.

This writer is usually full of great advise. Seemed a shame to me to give up space to deal with this sort of thing. I can't imagine even thinking this is an issue to even write in about but each to their own.

[ayebydan]

Amused yet down-heartened that me expressing the opinion like this has received more interaction than any other time I have tried to join the conversation in this community.

[kutsuwamushi]

What did you expect? The way you begin an interaction will often end up reflected right back at you. You called it a waste of column space, which is a pretty negative thing to say.

You got one comment that said "wow," which was honestly just matching your tone. The rest were more polite and substantive than you.

[ayebydan]

Well to be honest I expected that my years of commenting with thought out answers and replies to others might be worth interaction. Suddenly I deviate from the norm and everyone notices I am here. It says a lot. I still think that given advice columns often do help people or at least bring up interesting topics the choice to use this letter deprived another person getting a chance to get a reply, thus wasting the space. Next time I'll try be more articulate about it I guess.

[cereta]

FTR, I have noticed you are here. I just haven't been responding much lately.

[kutsuwamushi]

People are more likely to respond to things they disagree with, especially on forums (as opposed to chat rooms). I don't usually expect replies when I comment here, and don't usually get them. I read the comments and notice people who comment frequently, but don't respond unless I have something I really want to say.

I still think that given advice columns often do help people or at least bring up interesting topics the choice to use this letter deprived another person getting a chance to get a reply, thus wasting the space

This strikes me as a kind of ... entitled ... take. I mean, the real limitation isn't the space, because on the internet there is unlimited space. It's the work. Someone has to write those replies. When you complain that it's "wasted space", the implication is that the columnist should have taken the time to write a serious reply instead, but this is already a really productive columnist.

It's also going to rub people the wrong way if they enjoyed it and thought it was worth sharing.

[cereta]

First,very few comments get much response, here. I comment all the time, and seldomget much in the way of response.

Second, you posted something provocative, and not a little diminishing of the person who made the post (whether you intended to or not). That's going to get response.

Third, I am half a second away from mod-locking this thread, so let's everyone remember that we're here to have fun,okay.

[ayebydan]

Why would you threaten to shut down the discussion with a mod lock?

People have disagreed but no one has been out of order in rudeness ect towards one-another. To be honest, this threat just makes it seem like people can comment on the comm but only if they agree to a comm policy which defeats the point of a discussion based comm.

[cereta]

I made that comment because discussion was drifting from discussing the column to discussing the discussion, and I prefer to keep that to a minimum.