Re: A wee story for you...

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

Andrew Plato wrote:
> 
> Haw haw, I have a great story for you. This happened about six months ago.

Thanks! This is the kind of story that restores your belief that there's
justice in the cosmos.

It reminds me of an employee at a company I used to work for. I had
nothing against her, and was mildly pleased to chat when I ran into her
at a trade show last year. 

Unknown to me, she must have been nursing a grudge. Why, I don't know,
but it was there. I must have spent a total of ten minutes at the
company's booth, but this employee told her boss that I had hung around
for all three days of the show bad-mouthing the company. Her boss phoned
the magazine that had paid for me to be at the show and insisted that I
be fired. Fortunately, the editor-in-chief knew that the claim was
nonsense; I won't repeat exactly what he told my former boss to do (as I
listened on another line), but it had to do with duct tape and motions
through the air, and would be illegal to do with someone under 21 in
some states and provinces.

Anyway, a couple of months later, she applied to the company where I was
working at. Taking a cue from Hallgerd in Njal's Saga (who has one of
the great all-time delayed revenges; really - look it up sometime), I
phoned her and said, "Remember how you were telling stories about me?
Well, guess who has hiring authority at the company where you've
applied?" 

I may not be the Count of Monte Cristo or Inigo de Montoya, but I must
admit that I enjoyed that moment. And when her boss took his company
down to bankruptcy a few weeks later, how I managed to avoid deep, evil
peals of laughter, I don't know.

Which, like Andrew's story, is another reminder: don't indulge yourself
in pettiness about people you dislike in the business. High-tech is a
small world. Tech-writing is an even smaller world. You never know when
paths that have diverged will cross again.


-- 
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"And the court gave them justice
As justice is given by well-mannered thugs."
-Geoff Pearson, "If They Come In the Morning"

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by Cub Lea, specialist in low-cost outsourced development
and documentation. Overload and time-sensitive jobs at exceptional
rates. Unique free gifts for all visitors to http://www.cublea.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.