God, if making witty comments put jobs where I worked in danger, we’d all be screwed. OTOH, all my cracks are verbal, and my documents are drier than plain toast. You can’t really spice up “This exemplar achieves a three in conventions because errors are not disproportionate to length and complexity of text” and get the point across at the same time. We tried for a joke (you may not find it funny out of context) once " limited development and limited control of conventions limit this limited text" but it was edited out of the training materials. sigh.
Perhaps if you just said what you were thinking instead of writing it down the boss-woman would be happier?
Girl, I know exactly where you’re coming from! I used to moonlight as a copy editor at a university press, and couldn’t resist adding little witticisms in the margin. Oh, the complaints I got back from the humor-impaired!
I did the library school thing too, when I was at loose ends with careers. Hey, librarianship tided me through a lean 13 years, until I found a better-paying line of work. Don’t knock it. I was a university librarian about 10 years ago while I was moonlighting as a copy editor. Believe me, those writers needed my services badly. I was doing them a favor. They didn’t seem to know the difference, or care, however. This school was not exactly the creme of academia…
Look, people…ah, I know I’m going to get flamed to hell and back for this, but is this really a case of the boss having a defective sense of humor? Maybe she just has a different sense of humor from Eve’s. Maybe she finds Eve overbearing.
I mean, no offense, Eve, and I don’t want to go to the Pit over this, but you’ve done a lot of griping about a former co-worker whose schtick you don’t like. And I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you’ve never said anything to her face, but have you ever complained about her behind her back? I said once and I’ll say again that Pwincess Pwecious sounds like someone I could really dig. Shouldn’t it work both ways—you get to have your persona and she gets to have hers? And shouldn’t a lady be tolerant?
If you don’t like Pwincess, then you just don’t. But you gave the definite impression that her presence in the office was almost more than you could bear. All you’ve been told is “Cut out the wisecracks”; I don’t see how that means your job is in jeopardy. Do you really think the only solution is to relocate to someplace where you’ll be more appreciated? Is your skin that thin?
You liked Pwincess Pwecious? I’ve never had to work with a Pwincess, but I’ve been around a few. I don’t think I could stand to spend all day in an office environment with one.
