“Why am I cursed with these damned ethics?”
Make sure you’re never in a position to fill out your performance review. You may be forced to lay yourself off.
We already discussed that. He said that…
Oh, wait. You said he might be forced to lay himself off.
Nevermind. Carry on.
There’s a story about Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general in the Civil War. They say he was so quarrelsome, he even fought with himself.
Before the war, he was in the US Army, as a commander of a troop of cavalry in a fort out west. At one point, the quartermaster of the fort was called away, and he was made acting quartermater, until the permanent one came back.
So, then Bragg, as cavalry commander, put in a request for supplies for his men. After drafting the request, he looked it over, and, as quartermaster, decided the supplies couldn’t be distributed, and denied the request. Bragg, as cavalry commander, then wrote a formal grievance with his commander, requesting that Bragg, as quartermaster, be court-martialed for dereliction of duty. Bragg, as quartermaster, wrote a response defending himself. A series of letters were exchanged, more and more heated. Finally, the permanent quartermaster came back, and the quartermaster and commander got things settled before Bragg either successfully prosecuted himself or challenged himself to a dual.
So, see, it could be worse.
Bragg is my new role-model!