Good luck, ND!

He had anger issues, and a few months later, at my new job, I was like "oh hello don't hire him!!"

Perfect!

I want to think I'm an asker, but then when an asker DOES ask me something, I always assume it's an order, not something I could say no to. So I think that makes me a guesser.

I just always feel like a slacker, which I know is a more than a little crazy, but it's how I inevitably feel.

I think I'm an asker, but when someone in any kind of authority asks me something, I tend to assume it's an order. Except not with my current boss C, partly because she has a very easygoing personality and partly because she was promoted from our group when it was decided the overall director had too much on her plate to manage my team. So I tend to view C as an ally and an advocate, far more than with any previous boss.

I have been walking around with my sweater on backwards all day. Just noticed.

At some point in high school we were wearing V-neck cardigans with the buttons on our backs.

You were being retro.

Today is draggggggging. I have been rotating from one pile of papers to another so I don't get too bored, but yeeeesh.

Filing, scanning, bill paying, note transcribing....on other days I might feel accomplished for getting rid of so many papers from my desktop, but today, just booooored.

I have filled a grocery bag with paper for recycling, so not a small amount of stuff gone through.

Still quite a bit on my desk. Yawn.

I grew up with guessers, and I'm more of a guesser with people I don't know well, but I'm an asker with friends/family and co-workers.

There was, and may still be, a school of thought in Business Psychology that you get better responses and less resentment from subordinates if you phrase your directives to sound like requests instead of orders. So, instead of "I need you to do x by y" one should say things like "Can you HELP ME do x by y" and that Office Space classic, "if you could do x by y, that'd be great". Bosses shouldn't sound like bosses, they should sound like collaborators! It's better for morale!

My sister adheres to this school of thought. Everything she asks for is "help me do this" and then "thanks for helping me!" I hate it. It's manipulative and disingenuous. (I think it's just become a mental habit by now. She once thanked me for helping her rake leaves...in MY yard.) When I say, I didn't HELP you, we did it together, she blinks at me and laughs like she doesn't understand the damn difference. I'm not your sidekick!

My issues, let me share them.

I've hit the "clear liquids only" part of my prep for tomorrow's colonoscopy. I will be so glad 24 hours from now when this is all over, hopefully with me having another few years' peace of mind that, family history notwithstanding, my colon is not currently trying to kill me.

My lucky I-don't-have-cancer shirt is ready (I've worn it to all my mammogram and colonoscopy appointments to date), and I've been promised Girl Scout cookies when this is all over--they arrive late in Seattle, and tomorrow is the first day they'll be selling at the local grocery stores.

24 hours to Thin Mints and Samoas...

One of my peeves (I have many) is the people who kind of hint around that they want you to do something, but don't come out and say "would you/could you do x" or "please do x" or even "do x". I'm really not good at these subtleties - I do need to have a straightforward request or even command.

If you're my boss, tell me to do something and tell me by when.

If you are not my boss, ask me what you want and if I can do it or help you do it I will. If it is a work situation and you ask me "do you want .....?" Realize I will almost always say no. I don't want to do much that is work related. That could change in a different job.

Mac is pretty awful about asking for what he wants and I hate it. I cannot read minds. I hated this about other girls when I was a teenager, but realize now I did the exact same thing with regard to boys when I was a teenager. I would hem and haw and not be direct around them.

I do think it is situational though.

There have been times in my life when faced with people who would not make direct requests, that I would maintain behavior or activities they disliked simply because they refused to ask me to stop. Fair warning.