h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, as I said I am reinstated. I will be payed for my time off and I am taking the weekend off. Better than nothing and all that. I am looking still, but I have not found a single posting that does not have thousands of applicants for it. There simply is not much work.

My team applauded me when i came back on to the floor today. That really made me feel needed. I have had people that I hardly know come up to me and congratulate me for winning (not that I really did anything). All in all it is good to be back in the good graces of my beloved employer

We should applaud too!

::rises for a standing ovation and wishes she was going to the Burning Man Festival too::

Not forgetting, Marv, that you're out whatever you paid to retain the lawyer, and several layers off the lining of your stomach. Keep looking. Your employer will now have an extra touch of paranoia about them. And what of the eejit who put your name and resume up on the web? Still, the applause must have been worth it.

As regards a woman being considered one of the guys, in some parts of this American culture the only way you can be in an interesting conversation is to let the rest of the women file off to the kitchen to talk about babies and clothes. But I empathise about the age thing. It's only vanity, but I can still remember almost to the day when shelf stockers in the supermarket started looking through me.

Since then I have learned how truly liberating that kind of invisibility is, and no, I would never, ever have understood it a decade earlier.

{[caer]}

Congrats Marv! *Takes a glass from the tray and toasts in his general direction.*

Thank you courtesy and B4. Courtesy I sent you a copy to the e-mail on your personal site. I really appreciate your helping me. B4, I can't find your e-mail on your personal space. I can be reached at [email protected] if you could send me your adress I will send it to you. Remember though it is only about 1/4 finished and is still an early draft. Your input into what is working well and what is not so well would help me out though.

Thanks again.

Sdiver, thanks, I should have something to you by COB next week.

Courtesy

*applauds Marv*

i'm posting from a terminal at decor expo in nyc. just wanted to pop in and see how everyone was doing. i'm off to home in another two hours.

commercial art has to be one of the most boring things in the world.

Okay, Sdiver, the check's in the mail. No...ah...the e-mail's in the... Well, you know what I mean.

Hmm... Do you really want someone with the skills of a buffoon...uh...baboon...no...with a balloon... Arrrgh! Sure you want me to even get NEAR your writings?

B4

Check your e-mail. I've given you two addresses to respond to. (Dang! Dangling participle!) [Hey, that's no worse than the opening sequence of any Star Trek episode...]

Lil, I did not retain a lawyer. The cost was prohibitive and it would have been useless regardless of the outcome. As it is I feel a great amount of vindication at having 20 grown men applaud my return to the pit of despair. I am going to go in to work on Tuesday with a new attitude. I know my team likes me and needs me. My company now knows the same.

Marv, I'm glad to know that you weren't out of pocket for a shark.

All tax kibble is now organised. Huzzah! Off to the accountant early next week.

Nah, had I done anytihng with a landshark I would have simply just had them read over what I was writing in my statement to make sure it was kosher, but did not want to pay USD$225/hour for one.

Marv, that's great. Although given their level of sheer meanness, I'd just look and look and jump ship. That bridge, when you come to it, should be burnt.

The guys I'm talking about are all grad students, fairly intelligent, two of them are married (they seem to know I'm a woman, and respect it, and their wives and I get along famously), and they range in age from 24 to 36. The one that gets me the most is the *ahem* rather large one who told me the reason no one thinks of me as a girl is because I weigh too much. To which I responded "yes, that may well be, but I have breasts because I'm a woman."

I know, I know. Shallow and mean, just like he was. But that really hurt my feelings. I tend to shoot zingers when that happens.

Yup. This is one bridge that is likely to be burnt, then molded into a model of the original bridge and the smashed and then burt again when the time comes. Trouble is, so far the time has not come.

Marv - you'll know the right thing to do when the moment comes, but definitely think of sunny southern california .... I guarantee no white death.

MR - I don't believe that they don't think of you as a woman, however you pal around with them, and you can definitely hold your own in a coversation so they treat you with the deference they would a peer. I'm sure they see you as a woman. As for the jerk that talked about your weight, there's no excuse and he should be appropriately humiliated in public.

I just got back from watching "The Life of David Gale", good movie, but I guessed the ending about a 1/4 of the way through. I can't believe how lousy an actress (I'm not even sure I can call her that) Kate Winslet is ..... she should never have decided to be in the same picture as Kevin Spacy .... like a class 4 star next to a super nova.

Courtesy

Courtesy, it looks better all the time... Still have not found anything there in my searches however. I really think that my cv needs revamping.

You showed me your cv Marv - but I cannto comment on it because European CVs are very different - much longer (mine is about 5 or 6 pages) and much more detailed.

Working with male colleagues is a tricky one. About 3 years ago I worked in a very tricky environment - I had been brought in as a technical expert to a failing project. The guys on the project were supremely competent technically, but the project was not being managed, which is why it was failing. As a result one of the guys in particular took the lead in prodding me verbally to see how far he could go. I truly cannot remember what he said to me, but my surprise at whatever it was must have shown in my face. He said 'I haven't even BEGUN to harrass you'.

No-one bullies me, (and no-one bullies my female colleagues). My response is like MR's - I match their ten and raise them ten. I ended up very loud, very sexual, very agressive, and - and this is the cool thing - very good friends with all of them.

It helped that we were all good at our jobs and that we all rode shotgun for each other. There was a real them and us feeling, with them being the client and us being our team - we had to pull together or we would have whithered and died. It also helped that we had the best project manager I have ever worked for leading the team.

I was pleased to be able to calm-down when I stopped working with them. But I absolutely know that they respected me.

I have more to say on the subject of sexual harrassment but I'll keep it short - a friend of mine was the victim of sexual harrassment on the project I have just left. What really upsets me is that if I had been there, it would have lasted about 30 seconds. But because I wasn't there the whole thing went on for weeks. There is a lot to be said for a really ballsy riposte.



B

If any of the USian salonistas have any experiance polishing a resume or cv please let me know. I think that mine is weak and that may account for the lack of responce when i send it in.

Congrats, Marv. Good news.

BTW we had "triangular milk" here say 25-30 years ago, I can remember it.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of the salonistas. This was a very tryin week for me and your kind words helped me through it all.

Let me buy everyone a beer.

Matina, can you have some of the CLI bots help me in with this crate of homebrewed ?

Impressive...