Chutzpah!

I've worked in Unemployment Insurance for most of the last 30 years, so there isn't a whole lot that comes up that can amuse me or surprise me. But this one did.

A Des Moines woman, one Emmalee Bauer, a 25-year-old total slacker, had what appeared to be a pretty cushy job at the Sheraton Hotel. And during the time she was employed there she maintained what turned out to be a pretty hefty daily journal of her activities at work. Most of which consisted of descriptions of how she was slacking off and not working.

She started writing it out in longhand, but when her manager finally told her to stop keeping the journal on work time, she started keeping it on the computer instead. "That way, there isn't any way to tell for sure if I am working really hard or I am just goofing off," she wrote one day.

And when they finally discover her, they fire her. Yeah, big surprise there, all right.

So what does she do? Files for Unemployment Insurance! And during the course of the hearing over whether she should be allowed benefits, the journal, which ran to some 300 single-spaced pages when printed out, is entered into evidence.

Check out the Des Moines Register article on the case and read some of the entries introduced during the hearing.

The whole thing reminds me of that archetypal chutzpah story of the axe murderer who chopped up both of his parents and then pleaded with the judge for leniency because he was an orphan.

I kind of feel sorry for Little Emmalee, since with all this negative publicity it's going to be kind of hard for her to find another job. Especially one with all the perks of the one she lost.