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Stanley Bing
It's a jungle out there -- and Stanley Bing has the shocking reader questions to prove it. In some of this year's 'Ask Bing' highlights, he helps folks contend with thorny issues like porn-surfing bosses and unwanted workplace advances.
10. The boss' son is lazy
I work for a very small company, where one of my co-workers is my boss' son. I've only been here for about four months, and in that time, the son has shown up at work maybe half the days. He took three weeks off to go for a sailing trip for example, and hasn't been in yet this week (today is Thursday) because he had an argument with his girlfriend.

When he does come into work he brings his dogs, even though we work in a laboratory, and then uses the dogs as an excuse to leave early. He never works more than a six hour day, and when he is here he spends most of his time on Skype and his new iPhone.

On top of all that, I know that he makes 33% more than I do. I want to tell his dad (my boss), "I work at least 40 hours a week, I'm here every day, and I'm productive, what the hell?"


Are you smoking something? This guy is going to be the head of the company one day. It has nothing to do with merit. It has to do with Dad. He's giving the kid "a taste of the business" before he ups him to vice president, then to executive vice president, then to COO and then, when Dad is ready, to the CEO of the whole thing.

Guess what he'll do then? Spend most of his time on Skype and his next-gen iPhone. Just do your job and work hard and get there the old fashioned way -- by being fantastic and noteworthy. Of course, he's doing things the old fashioned way too, but that's beside the point. And don't waste any energy being aggravated about this thing. You think George W. Bush is President right now because he was just the best man in the United States for the job?
Last updated December 20 2007: 1:13 PM ET
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.