Dear Madame HorroR, Recently, my boss called me in to her office and gave me a counseling notice and said I had 10 days to improve my performance. Should I be worried? Am I going to get fired? — Called into the Principal’s office Dear Called, Yes… Probably… I don’t know. I’m doubtless not saying anything shocking when I relate that most people hate conflict, hate giving people bad news, hate confronting anything unpleasant in general. Just because the corporate gods have shined down upon your manager and christened her a “Manager” doesn’t automatically make her better at any of that. Or make her willing to deal with it either. That is what HR Departments are for, right? Here’s what I do know, your boss HATED having to give you that counseling notice. Now, I don’t know what it was for, but I’m guessing this is how the conversation between your boss and your HR department went: Your Boss: I want to let my employee, Called into the Principal’s Office go Your HR Dept: Have you discussed this performance issue with her? Your Boss: No, I just want you to let her go, she doesn’t listen to me and her work is sloppy Your HR Dept: Have you given her any feedback on her work, told her what your expectations are, how she can improve? Your Boss: No, just get rid of her Your HR Dept: (clicking keys in the background) I see that you gave her a 4.5 out of 5 on her last performance review Your Boss: I don’t care, I just want her gone, just deal with it Your HR Dept: Yes, but first we need to document something… At which point your HR Department gave your manager a nice long...

Frankie asks… Is it easier to be single than to be in a difficult relationship? I know on the surface that question looks relatively easy to answer. You’re mouth may even be half open with a quick answer and witty reasoning. However, you’ll be stumped. Really. Ask yourself, or better yet, ask someone else, and they’ll most likely answer quickly, then their voice will trail off and they’ll rethink their answer, second-guess their motives and reasons for answering that way. And then, of course, if you’ve been single for a long time, you’re going to answer the latter. And if you’ve been in a relationship, maybe a rocky one, you’re going to answer the former. Like I’ve mentioned before in my blogs, I’ve been single for over four years now. That is, up until two months ago. I have been hesitant to write anything about it yet (not that the guy knows I even blog or that I blog on here – so I should be safe from any repercussions), but I’ve been hesitant because I felt like I’d just gotten my groove as the ultimate single girl – confident, comfortable, even a bit chipper about it. And my blog was sort of in my head dedicated to that new me. But as luck (or fate or destiny or timing or whatever you want to call it) has it, I met someone. And without going into great detail, because honestly not all of it even adds up for me, we had a really fun beginning to our relationship – all 10 days of it. And after 10 days, the shit hit the fan. He went through some very tough personal conflicts and amongst them was losing his car, his job, a bunch of money...