There's not a lot of news on Christmas...

But we can start getting pumped up for Sunday night's game!  As you know, it's winner-take-all.

This might be because of my own biases, but that letter seems real.  It certainly does not describe conditions that seem extraordinary or implausible, according to the other sources quoted in the article.  Also, the English is sufficiently terrible in a way that seems hard to replicate by an American.  I don't know... it's heartbreaking if it's real, though.  Someone took a huge risk to write that letter and send it here, and his reward is people speculating on Facebook whether it's real.  (As a note, I first tried to open the link on my phone, and the page said the link was no longer available, so I had a snarky comment about how apparently it was not.)

The Yahoo article is definitely not real, though.

As for your secretary, I would say that she views you as too junior to pay much attention to, and her position is probably reinforced by the fact that junior associates often underutilize their secretaries.  As a result, your requests fall to the bottom of her list.  It might be useful to try to make time to chat with her or try to use her for time-sensitive requests more often, if only to establish that she is your secretary and she has to pay attention to you.  It seems kinda wrong for her not to pay attention to you, but the problem is that she can get away with it since you are so junior.  But you need your secretary and will only need her more as you get more senior, so you have to get her either to like you or to respect you enough to pay attention to what you need.  Believe it or not, this problem is not especially uncommon with secretaries, and it's our first lesson in how to manage people.  My current secretary is amazing and incredibly helpful, but my secretary last summer was not especially interested in going out of her way to do extra work.

(I would like to note that I do in fact view her behavior as problematic - I'm not rationalizing or justifying what she's doing.  I'm just noting that this is a common problem, and if my suggestions don't work, then you should definitely note it in her reviews and/or tell her superiors that she is terrible.)

On that note, Merry Christmas!

B