Smatters

 I enjoy reading the advice column by Cary Tennis on Salon. He seems sensible. People haven’t changed much since the days of Ann Landers and Dear Abby, but Cary does manage to put a modern spin on things. For example, a lot of his stories have to do with business relationships.

Recently, he posted one on slander by a former co-worker. While I doubt I’ve ever been slandered myself, I’ve seen it happen to others. Cary’s advice was pretty succinct: stick to the facts, and only bring it up with specific people whose opinion you value. He also linked to a couple of other blog posts on the subject I found especially valuable.

The first is from a column in the Virginia Pilot by Daneen Skube. This one tells a similar story, and gives similar advice. But I especially like this one because it shows how to take the moral high ground: to try to be generous in describing another person’s bad behavior. Leave the anger and cruel wording inside where others won’t see it.

The second one looks like it’s hosted on a link farm with a few bits of nice content interspersed – don’t read it on a tablet or you’ll be clicking through a lot of ads by accident.

It’s on the web site “Chron” in their small business section: Slander & Libel in the Workplace by one Linda Ray. This one is more pointed on the legal details, so it’s also useful.