Is there anything bad that one should look out for before signing a lease for an apartment?

Aside from hidden fees (which someone pointed out) make sure there is an out if you change or lose jobs. There should be a buy out clause where you can get out of the lease for an extra half month or months rent past your notice. (I once lived in an aparment where you could get our for $150 extra - but that was a place with a waiting list for tenants). If something like that is not in there, negotiate it, write it in, initial it and have the other person do the same.

Ishe shouldn't have lied to you, but can you blame her for not wanting to break the rules?

Yes. She put rule following/ass covering against doing what is right. Yeah, I blame her.

She put rule following/ass covering against doing what is right.

I'd say she put it over telling the truth and doing what's kind. What's right? Is it right simply because it is either the truth or kind? Or for a reason outside of either of those interpretations of telling Hec what was really up?

I'm certain she's been expressly forbidden to talk to me about it

What, she's never heard of YMSTICPC?

House of Cards was so much fun. I see it's out on DVD now, I should put that on my wishlist.

Yeah, not good enough. I'm certain she's been expressly forbidden to talk to me about it, but you have to make your own moral choices.

she shouldn't have lied to you, but can you blame her for not wanting to break the rules?

If she wanted to follow the rules but do so in a moral way should would have said "I'm not allowed to discuss these personnel issues." She would have done her job without lying.

Well, there's following the letter of the rules and following the spirit--she could follow the letter of the rules and not, technically, tell him anything, but not lie to his face.

For example, when the layoffs were coming at my old job, the one guy had just been hired, and he was talking with someone from HR about buying a house (he'd just moved to town, and was still in corporate rental housing) and the HR guy was subtly telling him to put it off. Gee, wonder why?

Hec, I'm so sorry. I hope things wrap up quickly and as stress-free as possible.

She would have done her job without lying.

I think so. Also, she's being unkind. No matter what they think about my employability, I don't deserve somebody to tell me "I'm looking you right in the eye and I don't know anything about it."

I hope her fucking skin breaks out in hives and she has a weepy fit on her commute home.

I just want to say to her, "I know you think you're a good person, but really you're just a pleasant person. You have to be strong to be good, and you're simply too weak."

I'd say she put it over telling the truth and doing what's kind. What's right? Is it right simply because it is either the truth or kind? Or for a reason outside of either of those interpretations of telling Hec what was really up?

This is blurring into the current Natter discussion in my brain (not the bacon discussion, the other one).

What hugely gets my back up is her looking Hec straight in the eye and saying, "I'm looking you in the eye and telling you I've never heard anything about it." That blows right past ass-covering and lying by omission straight into pants-on-fire bearing false witness. It just makes my skin crawl, and it makes me want to backhand her or bite her.

eta: X-post with Hec, both of us supremely pissed off by the exact same element of the lie. Huh.

I hope things wrap up quickly and as stress-free as possible.

I'm feeling slightly less stressed now that the depth of their stupidity, ineptitude and chickenshittery is becoming clear.

It feels like a Monty Python skit. Man (let's say Cleese) enters room, grave and dignified, ready to accept his termination. Boss (Palin or Idle) panics and bolts from the room, diving amongst the cubicles. People flee in panic, refusing to terminate the man who is ready to accept his fate as they jump out windows and run around with trashcans on their heads.