http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...der/index.html
Wednesday 1.28.04
Suddenly, with only competence and faithfulness as fit topics for conversation, the Capitol's entire secretarial pool went silent
UPDATED EACH WEEKDAY!
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About the columnists:
• Tom Baxter
• Jim Galloway
We're not sure what prompted it, but Frank Eldridge, the secretary of the state Senate, has fired off Memorandum No. 01132004 to all secretaries under his command.
They are no longer to hold conversations discussing who in the state Capitol is a witless boob or who is sleeping with whom. Both topics are considered great sport, and not just among secretaries.
"Slander involving senators, lobbyists, staff and other secretaries is cause for dismissal from employment," Eldridge wrote last week. "Rumors lead to an unprofessional and unproductive work place."
He even provided guidelines. "For example, saying that someone is unqualified for their job position or that someone is having a sexual relationship with someone other than their spouse has been determined by the courts of our state to be slander," Eldridge admonished.
The man in charge of the Senate's bureaucracy did admit truth as a possible defense.
But Eldridge reminded secretaries that it would take only a complaint from one senator, confirmed by himself, for them to join the growing ranks of unemployed state workers
((Wonder if he heard some of the secretaries talking about him...or maybe he's upset that they aren't!