Al Franken
Al Franken is an Emmy award-winning television writer and producer, a New York Times best-selling author, Grammy-winning comedian and the host of "The Al Franken Show," the flagship program of Air America Radio. In 1975, Franken was part of the original writing staff that created "Saturday Night Live." Franken remained with the original show until 1980 and then returned in 1985. He stayed for another 10 years, leaving after the 1994-1995 season. Franken received four Emmys for writing and a fifth for producing. His newest book, The Truth (with Jokes), debuted at number one on the Times bestseller list when it was published in October 2005. Franken grew up in Minnesota. He has been married to his wife, Franni, for twenty-nine years. They have recently moved back to Minneapolis from New York City and have two children. Read Al Franken's hilarious guest commentary below. Just a Simple Misunderstanding By Al FrankenAs someone who used to be a mere employee and now is a boss myself, I can see where many of these stories are the result of a simple misunderstanding. If examined in the proper context, many of these cases reveal examples of "good" bosses, whose attempts to set good examples were simply misinterpreted. Take for example Absent Alice, whose new manager graded her attendance "needs improvement" despite the fact that she had missed only one and a half days in fifteen years. What Alice didn't realize was that her new manager was Cal Ripken Jr. who worked 2,632 days in a row. Cal was simply trying to impress Alice with the importance of a work ethic. Unfortunately, she took it the wrong way. Admin Anonymous took her boss's compliment all wrong as well. I can see how she came to the conclusion that his telling her she'd be a "knockout" if she "were a little thinner" was an obnoxious, insensitive and stupid way of saying she was overweight. But it was actually his way of saying, "Since I'm leaving, it's okay for me to make an awkward pass, because now it can't be interpreted as sexual harassment." If you think about it, that was very thoughtful of him. While I'm sure that Lawyer/Servant from New York is a fine lawyer, it seems that he/she doesn't understand something very basic about business: a boss is judged by his car. Think of how impressed clients of Lawyer/Servant's place of business must have been with his/her boss's unscratched Mercedes. That's good for business! And, thus, good for Lawyer/Servant! Finally, let's take a look at Abuser Friendly from Arizona. Her husband was seriously ill. That had to be a very traumatic time for her, and chances are, she wasn't thinking straight. Her boss, no doubt sophisticated in the ways of the world, knew the hospital might need her to make important decisions on her husband's behalf. But in order to do that, it's quite possible that the hospital itself would need proof that she was actually married to her husband, even if he was insisting that she was his wife. By making her provide proof that she and her husband were indeed married, her boss thoughtfully put the onus on himself instead of the hospital, with which it was important to preserve a trusting relationship. What a guy! So now that you can see it from the boss's perspective, you can see there really aren't any bad bosses, just bad employees. At least that's what we like to say in the executive washroom! Al Franken
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