A while back I had been laid off, along with a thousand or so other people, when the company I worked for decided to move their corporate headquarters to Boston. At the time, I had a sick dad and could not relocate, so I had to find a new job. I hate looking for a job and after a few months of pretending to look, a friend told me there was a position in her company. I interviewed, was offered the job, and, despite the significant pay cut, I took it. The woman whose position I was taking was moving to Tennessee, but she was going to stick around for three weeks so I would have the rare opportunity to be fully trained before taking over the job.

It was benefits administration, which although somewhat complicated in verbiage, was not exactly rocket science. But I had never done it before, knew no difference between an HMO, PPO or POS plan, so I was really happy that I would be trained for three whole weeks before being left to my own devices. The idea was that I would sit with Mary Lou, in her cube, and work with her while she did the job so I understood the process.

Mary Lou was a lovely, jovial person who was easy to smile and had a great sense of humor. I liked her immediately. This particular company had a business casual dress code, but Mary Lou preferred to dress up. She was a big girl, and it was obvious from her wet hair in the morning that she showered each day before coming to work, but she did not launder her business clothes each time she wore them. She also kept a fan under her desk.

The first day I smelled the smell, my first thought was, 'Who brought rotten dog food into work?' By the afternoon, when things had the opportunity to stew a while, I was getting lightheaded and having a difficult time concentrating. I went over to my friend's desk for a consultation. I had been on the job for three days and couldn't possibly go to the boss to discuss the problem. Lucy, my friend, told me to go back to Mary Lou's desk and she would come over in a minute to assess the situation.

"Oh! My! God!" Lucy yelled, covering her face with the piece of paper she had in her hands.

"What! What!" yelled Mary Lou, alarmed?

"Oh, nothing," said Lucy nonchalantly, immediately turning around, marching straight into our boss' office and closing the door.

Five minutes later, the boss, Diane strolled by the cube. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she cursed under her breath, "Oh Sweet Jesus Christ Holy Mother of God!" then walked away. Mary Lou looked

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