(FORTUNE Magazine) – HAVE AN MBA OR A Ph.D.? If so, don't mention it on your business card or e-mail signature --at least that's the consensus among the many hundreds of you who wrote to take issue with the expert I quoted in the Sept. 6 issue (see fortune.com). Who'd have thought it was such a hot-button topic? "I cannot imagine a bigger business gaffe than to put 'MBA' after one's signature," writes San Francisco executive recruiter Jon Holman. "It sends a signal of low self-esteem. (I am a Stanford MBA, by the way, so no sour grapes here.)" Adds Marc Effron, a global practice leader at Hewitt Associates, "I have an MBA from the Yale School of Management, but if I received a résumé that had 'MBA' listed after someone's name, it would hit the circular file immediately." Gulp. As for flaunting a doctorate, don't do that either. A reader named Bill B. sums up the majority view thus: "Unless you are in an academic setting or you hold a professional degree that indicates licensure (CPA, M.D.), lose the letters." Noted.

In response to the Aug. 23 query from a reader who was fired by way of an answering-machine message without being told why, I heard from a truly startling number of people who had suffered the same fate. Sheesh. "Keep records of your performance reviews and bonuses at home, not in the office," urges a reader named Cris, "in case you can't go back to your desk to retrieve things." By the way, did you know that an employee who has a personal possession taken out of his hands--as in the case of someone whose camera phone was snatched away by a security guard (Aug. 9)--can sue the employer for assault and battery? And yes, according to reader Alan Bloom, general counsel at Maxicare Health Plans, the employees do win.

If my mail is any guide, HR people's ears must be burning. Asking for their help in correcting an inaccurate performance review (Sept. 20) is, in the eyes of most readers, inviting the fox into the chicken coop. "Worker bees in the corporate world know that HR does not work to assist their cause," notes a reader named Krista in a typical rant. Human resources people are "just sitting at their desks to preserve corporate interests and assets in the event of a lawsuit."

Many thanks to all who sent comments on brainteaser interview questions (Sept. 20)--including the hundreds of you who pointed out that the chain puzzle could be solved in one cut, not two (just make a single cut in the third link). Several people recommended that anyone who wants to know more about puzzle questions at Microsoft, where this whole craze began, should check out How Would You Move Mount Fuji? Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle ($14.95, Little Brown), by William Poundstone. To a Microsoft standard brainteaser--"Why are manhole covers round?"--software engineer Robert Kennett answers by replying, "Why assume they're all round?" He says he's been hired by every interviewer (and there have been several) to whom he posed the question. In Nashua, N.H., where Kennett lives, the manhole covers are triangular.