I'm trying to work out if there's even a song by the Backstreet Boys I could term a guilty pleasure (I can list NSYNC and Spice Girls tunes I like, but I don't think they make the cut). John Tesh is an automatic hell no. And Hannah Montana? I don't even want to know.

So Aims is indeed the devil.

My intended work persona is forceful and friendly. I will shoot the shit with just about anyone, and crack jokes, but I will also stick up for my ideas and correct people when I think they're wrong...up to the point where it becomes apparent that it's counterproductive or just plain fruitless. I hope that's how it comes over. I have to pay attention to things like apportioning attention more evenly so I don't get people's goat up by leaving them out, and making sure I give positive feedback so that people keep listening. I like to think my father's diplomacy career had a lot to teach me. I hope I picked stuff up. I know I've let people run over me in the past, plus I've been pointlessly confrontational. No more of either.

So Aims is indeed the devil.

I am indeed. t takes bow

I got fired for being cranky and blunt and not being "positive enough."

I think I need to work for Ari Gold.

I think a lot of it also depends on the industry/specific department you're in. My dev guys (and gal) talk to me way differently than the designers, and both those styles are different from the content team.

The one female developer made the girl here before me cry on a regular basis because her short, sharp way of talking was not what the other girl expected.

It bothers me not at all because that's the way I'd prefer to communicate, but that's not the style of my team or some of the other teams I have to work with.

Having said all that, I now need to have a "What is this deliverable????" discussion that I have no idea how to approach. Somewhere in the hourlong meeting what the tech team needed and what the design team said they'd produced totally disconnected. Or the disconnect happened in the design team. Either way, there are some nice people I don't want to embarass that I need to question. Yuck.

I think a lot of it also depends on the industry/specific department you're in.

Oh, my word, yes! I was in a social-work/direct-care job, which was NOT the right fit for me.

This is why I'm moving into a college teaching environment, because, while I am an excellent teacher, my personality is set up for more bluntness and directness than stroking soothing. I'm kind and caring, but I am not a stroker.

my personality is set up for more bluntness and directness than stroking soothing. I'm kind and caring, but I am not a stroker.

In this, Erin and I are as one.

I generally prefer that tack to be taken with me, but I don't mind soothing and stroking for someone else.

It's just that without the blunt, I feel like I'm getting mushy answers that don't allow for effective pushing back when I need it. I like being able to say, "J says it can't be done" because saying "J said she would try to do it for me" leads to constant emails about delivery dates for something that won't happen.

I've skimmed, but Nora's boss sounds... interesting. I think I've been ridiculously lucky with bosses in the few jobs I've had. I think this because I am *boggling* at the idea of a boss having a problem with a two-minute-long bad mood. (Especially since I worked for a man who had a three-year-long bad mood. He was a genius. It was no excuse. Still, it meant he put up perfectly happily with me and my tantrums.)

We're having a Secret Santa dealie at work, and my giftee is an avid knitter. Obviously, there are many knitting-type gifts in the world, but what would be a good one? I don't want to just get random yarn or something since I'm not sure what her specific tastes in yarn are (and apparently yarn comes in different strengths and thicknesses as well as colors...). Are there popular and fun knitting books? Hot new knitting needles?