Titi....I would guess that the major reason your colleagues don't want to give you any input has to do with hidden resentment of you on their part. I'm sure they are not happy that their boss is a woman and, to make worse, you're a woman who can think for herself. Most men feel threatened by women such as you, LOL. I assume they think that since you wanted this job so badly that you should be astute enough to have all the answers. It's important to keep in mind that men can only focus on one thing at a time; they can't see the broad picture of things all at once, lol, so they can't understand that getting their input is a facet of your job. Their focus is doing their own jobs and doing those jobs better than, merely, 'well' and that may be a stretch for some of them, LOL. Their problem is now they have a tough boss supervising them, and that adds to their resentment. Have you tried networking with the bosses of other departments within your newspaper organization? Ask them how they have handled similar situations. Look of advice from other supervisors; they will be the best sources of solutions that work because it's obvious the other writers aren't going to give you any input.

Add me to the list of people who are reading your articles! One of the things I like best about how you approach writing them is you report the competitions without inserting your own biased opinions. You don't use an article as an excuse to get up on the soapbox and spout your impressions of what is wrong with skating, today. Instead, you let the comments of the skaters say that for you. I thought it was very telling that in two of the articles the skaters were complaining that they couldn't figure out why they got the scores they did. It doesn't take too much additional thought to decide that if the skaters are clueless about the results, and most of the fans are, too, that something is not right with CoP and the decisions of the judges. In any case, yours is a clever approach to reporting.

Irina....That sucks, majorly, about your job situation. What other options are available to you? I'm completely unfamiliar with the medical profession in Romania, and the options for employment, but I'm fairly certain it isn't like what it is in the US. Is private practice an option, or joining an alreadly-established group of doctors? In the US it is common for several doctors, with related specialties, to set up practice together. For instance my doctor heads up a group of women doctors and, among them, are three internists, a general practioner, an OB/GYN, a diabetic specialist, and a geriatric specialist. With these inter-related specialties this group can handle a large variety medical issues. The only thing they don't address is matters for children. Is there anything comparable to that in Romania?

Mary C.

mary the medical system in ropmania is very different i think.
i am what here is called " a family doctor " . i am the first contact with doctors for pacients. in order to go to a specialist a pacient has to come to me. i must assess if they really need a specialist or if it's common problem that i can take care of. i am the one that send them to do lab analalysis also.
so the only place i can do my actual job is in a family practice. family practices have a weird status. we are kind of private but we are paid by the state. i realize that is kind of an oxymoron but that's how it is.
so i must get myself a family practice. but i can only have one if i have 1000 pacients otherwise the state does not pay me. but it's tricky to get 1000 people just to suddenly decide to come be your pacient. so i must find someone who wants to retire go work with them first. but the way it works here is that generally people either leave their practices to family or to someone willing to pay them a huge amount of money, like around 5 to 9 euros per pacient. but you can pay and then loose the pacients because there no way to force someone to remain your pacient.
plus, the job i had was very far away from where me and my husband leave. so i want something that would allow me to come home after work. right now i was living in 2 places. from monday to wendsday the place iw ork and the rest of the days in my town with my husband.

i realise this is way complicated. and i really don't even know where to start.

Yikes, irina, from what you've written I doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of options. On the one hand it would be important to be wealthy to buy another doctor's patients but to find a doctor who would be willing to sell his practice would be a difficult task. The US concept of a family doctor is somewhat different in that "family doctor" refers to someone who has the skills and training to assess people whether they are very young or very old. However, those doctors do pretty much as you do---assess the condition of the patient and decide whether to treat them or send them to a specialist for advanced care. The difference is primarily in what the doctor wishes to do---see a lot of patients of all ages with all kinds of medical issues or confine their study and treatments to one or two specific areas. Patients have the option of choosing what kind of doctor they want to care for them. Some will want a family practitioner while others will want an internist. Many women in the US use their obstetrition/gynocologist as their primary care physcian instead of using a family doctor or an internist. Internists, generally, have followed a course of study pertaining to adults while the family doctor has knowledge spread over many age levels from shortly after birth to very old age.

With the economy around the world in the dire straits it is in, I do hope you find a job before too long...and definitely one in the same city as your husband. This business of 'x' number of days in one city and the rest of the week in the same city as your hubby is not ideal, by a long shot, LOL. Your husband must be a saint to put up with that, LOL.

Mary C.

It differs in France, we choissisons our family practitioners and we give the choice sociable security, we are meiux reimburse if we make so, if we take one of these associates we are less reimburse (it is a bit moronic but it is so)). The family practitioner can "send" us to specialists to have better one diagnoses, care.. I am followed by my doctor and a specialist for my renal problem. Pregnancies can be also followed by the doctors, personally, I was followed at the beginning then an obstetrician and I gave birth for my three children in a private private hospital (thanks to my very good mutual insurance company which had taken care of everything, lol), I also prefer being followed by a gynéco even if I trust to my doctor traîtant! lol!

I saw information that Romania and Poland were "touched" by cold and I hope that everything goes well for all our members Polish er Romanians !
At present, we have some snow..

C'est différent en France , nous choissisons nos médecins de famille et nous donnons notre choix à la sécurité sociable , nous sommes meiux rembourser si nous faisons ainsi ,si nous prenons un de ces confrères nous sommes moins rembourser ( c'est un peu crétin mais c'est ainsi )) . Le médecin de famille peut nous " envoyer" à des spécialistes pour avoir un meilleur diagnostics , soins .. Je suis suivi par mon médecin et un spécialiste pour mon problème rénal . Les grossesses peuvent être suivi également par les médecins ,personnellement ,j'ai été suivie au début ensuite un obstétricien et j'ai accouché pour mes trois enfants dans une clinique privée (merci à mon excellente mutuelle qui avait tout pris en charge ,lol) , je préfère également être suivi par une gynéco même si j'ai confiance à mon médecin traîtant! lol!

J'ai vu des infos que la Roumanie et la Pologne étaient "touchés" par le froid et j'espère que tout va bien pour tous nos membres polonaises er roumaines !
En ce moment , nous avons de la neige ..

Today is a sad day for me. This morning I had to take one of my older cats, B.B., to the veterinary's office because he hasn't been eating very well. He's been on and off medication over the last year or so for what we thought was a sinus problem which eventually became asthma. This morning the vet ran a blood test on him and found that his white blood cell count is extremely high. He also took an x-ray of his abdomen because he discovered the the cat reacted in pain when he made his intial exam this morning. The result of the x-ray is not good news. B.B. has a massive tumor on the top of his intestine; it's tucked up underneath his rib cage on the right side of his body. The vet thinks the tumor is pressing on his right lung and reducing its capacity which is having a detrimental effect on his breathing (this is what we thought was asthma symptoms). The tumor is also affecting the cat's appetite because it is pushing on his stomach, and it is probably negatively affecting his ability to move his bowels. The cat was also extremely dehydrated although he has been drinking a lot of water in the past two or three days.

So, due to B.B's age (he's nearly 13 years old), the only thing which makes sense is to euthanize the cat. I brought him home for the weekend to spend time with him before he is no more. The vet gave him intraveneous fluids and and a pill to stimulate his appetite. On Monday I will take him back to the vet's office for the euthansia procedure.

For all of you who have cats, do me a favor, hug your cat every day because you never know when 'something' will happen and take them away from you forever, and photograph your cat often so you'll remember him/her when the cat was healthy and vibrant.

Mary C.

Mary, I am sorry for your cat and I understand what you feel! Last year we "lost" our cat and it was a big grief!
My elder daughter made this terrible decision d' to euthanize her "Madison" because he éait seriously ill!
Courage Mary!

Mary... Im sorry for you and your cat...

Mary I'm so sorry about your cat. I will definitely hug Slinky.

Its always so tough to loose a beloved pet.....

Mary I understand your effort because I have myself a cat and I would not know how to say what I would feel if I lost it. Courage and then, I know thin consolation, but say to yourself that it has better there where it is That to suffer... Even if it is us who suffer then.

Courage and Hope always.





Je comprends ta peine car j'ai moi-même un chat et je ne saurais dire ce que je ressentirais si je le perdais. Courage et puis, je sais maigre consolation, mais dis-toi qu'il ait mieux là où il est qu'à souffrir... Même si c'est nous qui souffrons alors.

Courage et espère toujours.

Mary C., I'm so sorry... It must be a tough decision to make. I've got a cat who's nearly 16 years old. I've had him since I was only 6, and now he's truly part of my family. For the past 7 years or so he's been battling the growing tumor in the right flank, to no avail. This spring we thought we would lose him, he was just lying flat and breathing short shallow breaths. Of course, we took him to the vet, who told us there was a kidney problem, which we subsequently dealt with. It took us several visits to the vet's office. On the last day the vet told us that our cat had to be operated on to have the tumor removed, but there wasn't an emergency, and we had some time to think things over. As it happens, there were other family issues to keep us busy, and we forgot all about the operation. Plus, we're not sure that it would go smoothly, bearing in mind the age of the animal. It was tough, the decision between letting him pass away here, surrounded by familiar scents, warmth and his beloved toys, or letting him die on a cot, frightened out of his wits, with nobody around, 'cause I sure wouldn't be able to stand and watch. Unanimously it was agreed that we'd wait, and part of me felt relieved at the news, but part of me still wonders if we're making a huge mistake and that we should've let him go.

Ladies, once again Im here with my professional issues

There is this guy Ive already mentioned, the guy who used to be my kinda friend from the uni and who used to write to my students magazine and now he happens to work for the sports department. This guy who writes snake-eye instead of hawk-eye, you know.

Somehow I try to make him more active because he seems to be kinda distracted and he is checking millions of websites daily but he is lost when it comes to writing. Before the Olympics I have to make a 16-page Olympic supplement and as this guy came to the newspaper to replace the guy who covered ice hockey, I asked him to interview someone from the Slovak ice hockey team, player, coach, anybody. Actually there is not too much option, as all players but one play abroad (mostly NHL and KHL), but this one player is in Slovak League and the coach is at home, as well. I gave him this task before I left for Tallinn, so he had more than three weeks for it.

He decided to interview this player, not the coach, I said I dont care if its the coach or the player, I just need the interview. Then I went to Tallinn and when I came back another colleague told me this guy tried to convince him to do the interview instead of him. I said that I want especially this guy because I need to see how he deals with this task, because he still thinks its enough to surf the internet to do journalism. No, it is not. So I was waiting what this guy would do.

He finally decided to travel to the city where this player plays. He didnt ask our photographer who could take him by car (and who could take photos as well), because he "didnt want to get him involved". And when the day of the planned trip came, he "felt a little bit ill and didnt want to go outside", so he didnt go. He hoped that he can meet this player on the official press briefing of the Slovak Olympic team when they left for Vancouver, but alas, this player will go with another plane, so he wasnt present on this press conf.

So he failed to interview him but he took its okay to compile an article from agency news instead of the interview.

As we had a big Olympic meeting on Thursday where we discussed all the things how we would cover the Olys, I didnt want to make a big fuss about this just before this meeting. But Im quite mad and I asked the editor-in-chief as well to come and talk with this guy. Now its obvious he doesnt take me serious, he simply thinks we are just friends or something, and Im not his boss.

Its like catch 22. This guy is not able to do this work, but there isnt anybody else and we simply need him because three people are not enough for this work. So he thinks he can do anything, because he wont be fired.

Im seriously planning to give him some financial punishment to make him realize he should do what his boss tells him to do...

Titi...What a mess! I think you are more than justified in cutting this wanna-be journalist's pay. He sounds like a lazy bum to me. It's obvious this guy knows he's got you between a rock and a hard place in that he is fully aware you need him (and can't afford to take the time to find someone more competent right before the Olympics) and so he thinks he can do as he pleases. If he doesn't feel like searching out an interview subject and conducting the interview, he finds some lame excuse (like a feigned illness) to get out of it. The best way to get the attention of a jerk like him is to drastically reduce his income. Tell him---when he produces the articles he was hired to do---he'll get paid. Until then, he gets next to nothing. Of course, you will be risking the liklihood that he'll quit but with the worldwide economy in such a mess he'll have a hard time finding a new writing gig and that, alone, may turn his head in the right direction. In any case the sports department can't afford to have some two-bit lackey on the payroll. Maybe the other writers on staff can lean on him, lol. They can impress upon him how pissed they'll be if they have to do his work for him because he refuses to do his share of it.

Mary C.

titi, the guy is an ass. not only he is unprofessional but he wants to take advantege both of your friendship and of the fact that you have no better option now. grrr!!! fry the bastard !!!

This is one really dumb guy!