[devilsfan]

I think the fact that this is the first comment James has HEARD was glossed over. Does anyone honestly think this is the first time James has done something to tick this guy off, and this is the first time this guy has made a comment behind James' back? I seriously doubt it. He's just gotten brazen enough to do it within earshot of the boss. To me, that's not a joke, that's escalation of disrespect. It's definitely one thing if he bitches about James to his wife at the end of the day, but quite another to be that bold at work.

I am not a boss, but an employee in a small company (15 employees). Let me tell you what this kind of dissent can do to company morale and working conditions. Our office was VERY tense for awhile when we had a new hire who did nothing but bitch about my manager behind her back. We're a pretty close knit group, and if there's ever a problem, we sit down as a group and resolve it. Works every time. This new girl (God only knows why she's still here, I'm hoping to see her ass get canned before the year is over) bitched 24-7 via instant messager, email, vocally - any time the manager left the room - over truly STUPID stuff. Like the manager didn't review her project yet (when the manager had 7 other projects going on of MUCH higher inportance). I got sick of it one morning and put her in her place (and got the attitude of "You're not my boss!" to which I responded "Obviously not, because you would have been fired weeks ago, bitch." Things are still tense here, a good 4 months later. She's stopped her bitching, but now that I know what kind of lazy ass person she is, I can't stand her - and a lot of my colleagues can't, either. It's changed our office environment permanently. And this is strictly because one person decided they wanted to bitch about the boss behind her back. And a NEW HIRE at that - imagine what effect a top manager would have on the working environment and the rest of the employees!!

I think James did the right thing. It has nothing to do with the H2. His manager could have brought up anything - vacations, his wife (in which the guy likely would have walked off with a broken nose), etc. He chose something he knew was dear to James on purpose and went with it. It wasn't a slip up - that comment was intentional.

I say good riddance to bad trash. What's wrong with "yes men"? It's called a team environment. That's a GOOD thing in business.

Stacy