My son (29) passed away in August due to an accident.  He lived two states away and my husband and I flew to his side.  I sent an email to my two bosses and copied HR that I would be out of town for an undetermined length of time, but I would keep them updated and I did. After one week we decided to take my son off of life support and he eventually passed four days later.  I am thankful to have had the time with him to say goodbye (he was in a comatose state, but I believe he could hear me).   Without question this has been the hardest, most difficult time of my life.  

Two week's later I arrived back at work, I was surprised by the non-acknowledgements.  We are a small company (60 employees) and several people greeted me with "how was the vacation?"  This was so uncomfortable for me, to have to explain.  I wish that an announcement had been made.  I was sent a potted plant from the company.  I received no cards or offers of condolences.  It was as if it never happened.

The things that I have appreciated the most are the cards of remembrances of my son, the condolences from parents who have a lost a child, and just the sympathetic smile.   I received cards from people I didn't know (they knew my son and read about it in the papers) and they were so appreciated.  

I say send a card.  It helps you not feel so alone.

Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin) from 9 to 5

What I love most about Desk Demon is the dialog, different opinions and expertise!  Please help settle a dispute between two admins here in my office.  
Thanks!

Which one is correct?

1) Papers placed in the blue bin under your desk is not collected by the janitors. Each employee is responsible for emptying their paper recycling into the shredding bins.  

2) Papers placed in the blue bin under your desk are not collected by the janitors. Each employee is responsible for emptying his/her paper recycling into the shredding bins.

Though I find the punch true and funny, as a native American I sort of cringed while reading......

I too have been amazed at the media coverage.  Since I'm in the SF Bay Area, I sort of expect to hear about it a lot.  But I noticed it's also on the network news, the grocery store tabloids etc...  I wonder if it was a woman of color would it have gotten the exposure?

I have a friend who said after seeing headlines of the Peterson case day after day... don't people want to know about the war?  Why is this front page news?  Her son is in Iraq.  

I personally don't believe in the death penalty.  

Some sobering stats:
American Military Deaths in Iraq: 1291
American Military Wounded: 9765
Iraqi Civilian Deaths: 14770

Does anyone know the UK stats?  What about non-Iraqi civilians?

I am more appalled by the conduct of the military than in the media.   Here's a great article from the New Yorker that first broke the story.  
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact