and it's hard for her to find things, especially for people who don't want to become managers, blah blah blah, and I was like "Um..what? I am not anti-being-a-manager?"

I've gotten this more than once and it's a real problem. I don't know if it stems from being more independent and not all up in everyone's business?

I've learned (the hard way, after an incident very similar) that at my current company anyway you are better off - expected, really - to be very open about your goals, and to be an advocate for yourself. It was a real adjustment for me to get comfortable approaching someone higher up and say outright things like "I want to be promoted to X and I need your support/advice etc."

Also a problem: I want to go to Mexico again this year, but we don't know when our crunch time is coming, exactly (it depends on when we hit a certain number of patients). They had been saying we'd hit that point end of Jan/begin of Feb, and I thought "great, we'll be done being busy by mid March and I can plan vacation"....but now they're saying end of Feb/begin of March, and I don't know if/when I can go, because it would have to be like, early February? Which might be too soon?

I hate the fact that the no-management ceiling is so damned low. Bless Countrywide for that--they had clear career pathing, and every pay/prestige level up to (and including) VP was open to people who didn't want to manage people. I have no idea if this place has a "next" for me, and I certainly don't want to go back to management, especially not how it works here (although the bare minimum I'd have to do wouldn't be much, they wouldn't be tasks I would want to add).

Getting your wishes across must be harder when when you travel a lot too--remote there's not so much ability to get the subtext across, I'd think. But coming back to someone and telling them what they want when they haven't told you flat out? Not slick management.

Part of our review process is being rated as "meeting expectations", "not meeting expectations", or "exceeding expectations". Which is kind of a bitch. I work my ass off. Everyone knows I work my ass off. It is expected of me. So how the heck can I ever "exceed expectations"?

I need to do my self-eval by next Tuesday and I HATE doing those things. And I need to do this one with the heavy slant toward - GIVE ME A GRADE INCREASE - which my boss supports, but it has to go up the chain, so the better the documentation, the easier it will be for them to approve.

Discussions like these are why I like owning a company, and not working for one.

Seriously, who says to someone who is handicapped, "The best blessing in the world is to have a normal child"?

And I'll just bet that replying, "Well, better a handicapped child than a normal one who grows up to be an ass hole I suppose" is somehow rude, huh?

And I'll just bet that replying, "Well, better a handicapped child than a normal one who grows up to be an ass hole I suppose" is somehow rude, huh?

Since it was a relative, yes probably frowned on.

Your family is WAY more polite than mine.

Your family is WAY more polite than mine.

The evidence seems to contradict this.

And I'll just bet that replying, "Well, better a handicapped child than a normal one who grows up to be an ass hole I suppose" is somehow rude, huh?

Not if you add "hypothetically."