I once did data entry stuff that required looking at wills and property deeds, and I once had a will in which someone left NOTHING to their kids “for reasons that are best not discussed here, but are known to all parties involved”.
My great great grandmother's will had a similar line. After dividing up all her possessions among her children and grandchildren, the last line was simply "And to my daughter who left her son and husband for a life of sin, I leave nothing."
i have in multiple occasions used the phrase
“there’s not really a way for me to rearrange the words to make the situation more palatable”
one that i have heard but never used was “i don’t have enough crayons or construction paper”
I once had to tell a Lyft driver on the phone, "I'm Asian, have grey hair, and am wearing a red tiger print tracksuit. I honestly can't describe myself in another way that will help you find me."
GOD, I work for attorneys, and I WISH WITH MY ENTIRE HEART AND WHAT PASSES FOR A SOUL I could tell people this, when I've asked for something 100 fucking times for 6 months, and they're still like, "lol, here's the corner of a W2 with no visible name, year, or income. the financials you wanted!"
example from real life, and unfortunately it was an attorney outside our firm, so I couldn't say what I wanted to say, which was "Thank you for Jimmy Hoffa's W2. Please let us know when you will be providing YOUR CLIENT'S financial information, as requested and required by statute."
Oh my GOD. I had thematically similar conversation with a group of people at my job last week, I actually said "I am running out of words to explain what I need".
Years ago some sales guy pitched his software to me. Already said that I've discussed this with higher ups and they weren't interested.
Then he asked if he could ask for my higher up's contact to discuss (1/2)
And I told him, "English isn't my first language, so perhaps somehow it's lost in translation that we're not interested in this software"
Dude stopped chasing me again (2/2)
Several times I have had to repeat something my (female) coworker has already told them multiple times and used the phrase "Alright...now as a man, (says exact same thing my coworker just told them). Does that make it any clearer for you?"
Sad how often that shuts them up.
"I know no way of using the English language to make it clearer to you." is the one of the most impressively assertive things I've ever read, I think! 🤭
I shared this with two coworkers. Letting them into the existence of my Bsky (had to b/c I had to give you a h/t) was boundary crossing but WORTH IT. Thank you for sharing.
