I hope JZ is ok and her work sitch is not too traumatizing.

She's okay. Mostly they said, "We noticed you're crying at your desk a lot and its affecting your work. Go see a counselor."

Good luck, Theresa. I hope we're at the tail end of the Great Recession.

I keep thinking of the children's book The Tough Winter (a sequel to Rabbit Hill, just mentioned here today). Though I guess the Little House book The Long Winter would be a better known example of the theme.

Weasels in bastard sauce! That bites, Theresa.

Sending relax ~ma and don't let this make you anxious ~ma, Theresa. Rotten bastards. I'm sorry.

Are you willing to put that in writing and indemnify me and all future owners of this property for all current and subsequent repairs?

Dang, Sparky! writes that down

Fucking Facebook (isn't that its offcial name now?) is trying to find pages to link my profile to. Pages named But I'm Picky About It, No Screeching, and No Emo Crap. I'm tempted to go make those pages so they can link me to myself.

F. Facebook has put photos of me in my Photo Album that it ganked from a friend's page. I don't want them there; they are hideous. But I can't figure out how to get rid of them. In fact, I can't figure out how to edit anything in my profile at all. Fuck this. I ought to delete the whole account. Give me one reason not to delete the whole account.

Sorry-wrong thread!

Give me one reason not to delete the whole account.

I've been pondering it myself. But I do like that people from my past can find me, even if I don't use it. But I *hate* that my profile pic comes up when you google my name, even though it's not my face. I thought I jumped through the hoops to stop that, but that was so last month.

Give me one reason not to delete the whole account.

It's practically impossible to do, and even if you manage it Facebook will still keep all your data?

Guess it was the right thread!

I keep thinking of the children's book The Tough Winter (a sequel to Rabbit Hill, just mentioned here today). Though I guess the Little House book The Long Winter would be a better known example of the theme.

Little known fact: Laura Ingalls Wilder originally wanted the title to be The Hard Winter, which is how the winter of 1880/81 was known to the survivors, but the publisher thought that sounded too downbeat.

Man, I'm lame. I had entirely forgotten that Robert Lawson wrote Rabbit Hill and The Tough Winter, much less the Ben and Me books (and related semi-sequels like I Discover Columbus and Captain Kidd's Cat). Not to mention illustrating Ferdinand.

He was one of my favorite writers when I was in third grade.

So you were working for the Tino I assume, Theresa? Sorry to hear that, and job-ma is flowing your way.

Weasels in bastard sauce!

I LOVE this phrase.

I am sorry, Theresa! If you had put in for FMLA already, though, I think it may be illegal for them to lay you off now.

I thought that too, but then I realized they offered me a different position with the company at a significant reduced salary (although I think legally it would qualify as comparable) so they have a loop hole. No one expects me to take it, but I think that is why it was offered. Bastards.

When I got laid off after putting in an FMLA request I filed a complaint with the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division. They were unable to make a charge stick because the firm did not have a history of letting people go because they had put in for leave. Even without that history DOL attempted to negotiate a settlement but no dice.

I still had the option of a filing a law suit on my own but opted not to. This was in part because the firm I was challenging had taken their sweet time and the statute of limitations was just about spent -- which my DOL investigator assumed was deliberate. This was also in part because my compensation was not so much that I was going to find someone to represent me on contingency.

Of course, I was up against a law firm. My investigator seems to think there c/would have been a financial settlement otherwise.

Call the DOL and see what they say. Filing a complaint with them costs you nothing. Check with them, but AFAIK you can find an attorney and sue independently of this at any point.