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Monday, August 16, 2004

It has come to my attention that something I said was construed in perhaps a negative way by some unknown person or persons who attended the TPMP session last week and I would very much like to take the time to apologize for this oversight on my part.
At one point while being given the new guidelines to the employee review process, I said in a voice loud enough of the whole room to hear and spoken to no one person in particular that if they could find a monkey that could recognize Dennis Hastert, I would be out of a job. I said this in the hope of relieving some of the tension that seemed to be creeping into the proceedings of the meeting with a little dose of off-beat humour, afterwards, I distinctly recall at the vey least more than half of the people in the room laughing or smiling and a fellow who was sitting behind me who works up in the newsroom whispered in my ear that they already had been working on just such a project. This joke at the time in no way seemed to affect anyone in a negative manner and there was little to no pause in the flow of the meeting afterwards.
I am dreadfully sorry that my style of self-deprecating humour has found offense with other co-workers and I will make a conscience effort to refrain from making such comments in the future.

Many members of the staff through no fault of their own view the company with a certain degree of skepticism. I believe this to be only but a natural reponse to a workplace that knowingly creates an environment of fear. This fear is mainly centered on the the fact that the company I work for lays off large amounts of people in times of perceived economic pressure. Usually the first people to be let go are the most recently hired or the other lowest compensated positions that can be filled again by someone else a just a few months down the road when the company discovers that they actually do need people to be performing these jobs.
How would you feel if you had to foreclose on the mortgage to your home or have your automobile repossessed and then be asked to come back a few months later for less pay? I have never seen any of the executives hurting for money. Why do I get to languish in squalor and still have to live in fear of losing everything? Do I really deserve this type of treatment? How is a free ice cream cone going to repair my shattered credit rating?