“There is no ‘P’ in hamster.” This is not a controversial statement. Any dictionary will agree with it. Any pet store will too. But, Carol Blymire overheard a conversation between a young employee with her boss, and this came up.
The boss wanted a correction. The employee insisted that the word should remain “hampster” because that was how she spelled hamster. And that was what mattered.
To keep reading, click here: This Helicopter Mom Raised a Daughter Incapable of Normal Business Behavior. A Warning
WTF, just, WTF.
Hey, if it’s your boss and s/he insists on spelling potato with an “e” at the end, they’re the boss! 🙂
“The boss isn’t always right, but he is always the boss.”
I did have to dig out a dictionary once to convince my boss that “barbecue” didn’t have a “q” in it. But he wasn’t an idiot, but the dictionary was authoritative enough. (What made it hysterically funny was that he ad a real fetish over spelling, and that was the only time he was ever wrong.)
Just read through the public discord on any political or social issue and you see this crazy mindset. Just recently a high school principal claimed the Holocaust was not a factual, historical event because he needed to “remain politically neutral.” (Google principal-florida-holcaust). It’s gotten to the point where people don’t know how to discuss and debate anything becuase they treat fact like opinion. It doesn’t surprise me that this is creeping into the workplace.
The patience of that supervisor is uncanny. However, I wonder how much longer the Little Princess kept that job. Not long, I’d wager!
thank heavens for the at will employment doctrine
{checks calendar} Nope, not April 1st.
I just #facepalm’d hard enough to cause a concussion.
Saw that thread on twitter over the weekend, and I confess I have a hard time believing it wasn’t made up or at least embellished.
Not that I don’t believe there are some pretty ridiculous people out there, but it just ticks too many stereotypical boxes, and the “helicopter mom on speaker phone” so she could overhear?
I am familiar with creative writing, but not creating spelling. I wonder if the mother home schooled the daughter. Certainly she would have been taught spelling in school.This mother did a huge injustice to her daughter. It would behoove the daughter to listen to people that are smarter than her, rather than her mother.
That should read “creative” spelling, not “creating” spelling.
Although the employee was trying to “create” spelling by adding a p to hamster, so you aren’t really wrong. 🙂
Per Mark Twain: “Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.”
For those of us who were youngish in the late 90’s it was spelled hampster on the Hampster Dance website. 🙂
Funny aside, I always have trouble remembering if the color should be spelled grey or gray.
Depends on where you are. English isn’t monolithic, and different areas spell some words differently. For example, color has one L in the USA, but two in England (learned that when a website I frequent had its regional settings changed). I think that “grey” is used in England, while “gray” is used in the USA.
There are also temporal changes. A lot of words used to have an E on the end of them, for example. If I read a lot of books written in the 1800s (occupational hazard) I find myself adding superfluous Es.
Actually, it’s spelt colour in the U.K. – same number of Ls but an additional U. I don’t know anywhere it’s spelt collor (and ny U.K. spellcheck agrees that’s not the spelling here).
Or even my spellcheck – an ironic error in a thread on spelling!
That’s right–I remember that now. Thank you for the correction!
Sorry for the confusion. It was a bit of fun we had on a discussion forum ten years ago, so my memory is a bit hazy. 🙂
See? That wasn’t so hard!
James thank you for demonstrating how to gracefully accept a correction!
Miss Thing from the article needs to read your comments section EvilHrLady.
She can take an example from James!
I think you mean cancel(l)ation instead of colo(u)r.
I’ve had co-workers accuse me of racism for expecting correct grammar and spelling. As far as I’m concerned it would be racist to give those people a pass because of their race.
“…but until then, her poor boss.”
And poor HR! If I had a dollar for every parent I’ve had to deflect, I could retire right now. I’m pretty sure I say this in my sleep: “Ma’am/Sir, I’m not at liberty to discuss your child’s with you. I can only discuss this issue with the employee.” Sigh.
Um wow. I’d fire her.
This is the mindset of the current generation of workers, (blame their parents) who were told they can do no wrong and anyone who says so is wrong. We have a great example in the Congress with the newly elected congresspeople telling the Speaker of the House that she is wrong for correcting the method they incorrectly used to discuss any issues. Their answer to being corrected was to claim bias.
The boss is in charge if you don’t like the method they use there are excellent methods in place to deal with the reaction but posting on social media is not one of them and arguing with the boss to the point of creating frustration doesn’t look good for one’s job continuation. Plus don’t bring your parent’s comments into the workplace as a method of validating your opinion, Unfortunately, this type of person is hard to get rid of, because of potential lawsuits. Document everything.
In this case, “parent” is pronounced “without a P,” as in “errant.”
Well, if the workplace is reasonably functional, I don’t feel TOO bad for the supervisor. At the end of the day, despite what mom says, supervisor is the one with power. And if the daughter is stupid enough to go to her Boss’ boss, which is highly possible, she’s NOT going to get what she wants. On the other hand it WILL make it easier for Manager to manage her out if it comes to that.
Knowing what I know now I would say go ahead to my boss over the spelling, I triple dog dare you.