Ask Bing: How can I handle my bipolar boss?

I have a bipolar female boss, she can talk and BS for 15 min straight (whether you wanna hear it or not) when she is in a good mood, but if she sees someone else chatting will disrespectfully tell that person to shut up. How can I tell her without getting myself fired that we don't want to hear her exaggerated stories, and that the way she talks to her employees is not professional?

A: Uh... you can't? But seriously. You can't. What you CAN do, I suppose, is make such a good friend of the woman, learn to ride her moods, and then, several years from now, when you are both sharing a white wine and beet salad in some trendy restaurant that charges for water, tell her that there are times when her high good spirits can annoy her team.

Crazy people need to be corrected just like anybody else, but the guidance needs to take place in an atmosphere of love, respect and enormous tenderness. People who are incredibly insensitive to others are often those who are MOST sensitive about themselves. Go figure.

Until then, I'd say put up with the good moods, try not to feel too bad during that bad ones, and realize that these swings have NOTHING at all to do with you. If you don't take crap like this personally it tends to annoy you less.

Hi Stanley...I'm hoping you can help a youngin' like me. I've recently graduated college and have for the last six months been a receptionist for a film company. What I wanted was a job to pay the bills while I pursued writing. What I got was frustration and enough headaches to deplete the world's supply of aspirin.

My boss made me work long hours, gave little pay, and plenty of abuse. I'm going to leave it all behind temping (also not that great but at least the hours are more normal) but I have no self esteem left. After day after being told I'm an incompetent human being, I now believe that maybe I am. Other people in the office can handle it but why not me?

How do I get the confidence to get back into the work force or am I one of those "dreaded" employees you write about time to time.

Never let them rob you of your self-esteem! You rock! Seriously!

Look, I sort of mean it. People who work in business get used to taking crap and not letting it penetrate too deep. You're young. You feel things. You are not deadened to the world. You take things personally. These are all good things for a writer. Don't lose any of them.

You have found yourself in a business -- the film business -- full of bullshit artists and fakers. They exist by pumping bogus products into the ecosystem and seeing what floats. They yell a lot at each other and out-macho each other when they have nothing else to do. Mostly the stuff they make is junk and half the stuff they say they're going to do they don't. They're the ones who are lame, not you.

Temp for a while. Maybe you'll find a place where they do something worthwhile and respect people, understand that each person has things they do well and things they have trouble with. From that temp job, you may graduate into a permanent one. Or not. Keep moving. Keep writing. And don't let the bastards get you down, bro!

I want to know exactly what I want. What I want to become. I have dreams of becoming Big business man. I don't know how I can reach this goal.

I love this letter. I imagine this person, who is in the Middle East somewhere I will not disclose, to be about 23 years old, finished with regular schooling, constantly seeing people in town cars and Mercedes flashing by. He wants into that world, but has nothing but his ambition and brains, no particular business training, and a world of confusion about what he wants out of life. Ah, to be 23!

Okay, sir. I suggest you go into Sales. Sales is the pathway to money and senior management in most cases. If you are a bit of a dreamer, and it sort of sounds like you are, try Marketing. Marketing is a lot like Sales, but more vague.

But get a suit. Look in the papers. Talk to your relatives. Talk to people you see on the bus. Find something you think you can do and stick with it. And never lose your ambition to be a Big business man. That alone is 50% of the game, in the end.