It burns when I J

[Delilah]

For those of you who are fortunate enough not to have met my acquaintance prior to this forum, I am an adult human of the female flavor, so adult that some (Mac, you son of a bitch) would call me old. I have had decades to perfect the art of playing normal.
I think it is fair to say that I can easily fool people into thinking that I am an extravert, or that I have those *suppreses gag reflex* feeeelings that I hear so much about, but the J. Oh dear lord, the J. I just. Can't. Do it, Captain!
I mean, I see other humans do it all the time, I study them like the lab rats that they are, I mimic that set brow and definitive "Yes!" or "No!" that they so casually vomit up like so much of last nights cabbage, and every single time I do it, I hear this person, this fucking weird little alien voice follow up with "well, unless you are saying that you want to have sex with that donkey, then that's a little different. I mean, donkey fucking is wrong "in general" but if you have a special bond with Doris the donkey, well, it's not my thing, but who am I to judge?"
What the fuck, Del? Really?
I am pretty god damned tired of being able to see and accept so many different points of view. No, I don't agree with them, but a passionate and reasoned argument is just so fucking delicious.....
Does anyone have any P-ness shrinking advice/medication that you can share. I am desperate, I have bitches to slap.

[C.J.Woolf]

Can't help you there, Del. As I see it, extreme P-ness means you can be on both sides of the argument and be right both ways. Even if the other guy is also right, you're twice as right! You just can't beat that.

But the fucking big world conspires to spoil our fun. You can argue both A and B, but you can seldom do both X and Y. The big world demands we all be J's.

[Anon]

I very rarely care enough about someone's opinions to be able to passionately argue my side (if I have one) on something, and that has a lot to do with it for me, I think. Unless I think that I can actually convince them of something, it's not really worth the effort. Unlike a lot of people here, I don't find debate to be enjoyable. That said, I do think that it's fun to just take whatever side tells you the most about someone.

[Delilah]

C.J. You sir, have a remarkably well developed Pness, and it is clear that you embrace it fully., but I am in the awkward position of needing to be Pness free on occasion. For instance. I have to reprimand and fire people fairly often. I can't say "this is your last chance" with any disclaimers and have any credibility with the rest of the staff, but, what if the next time they call in sick it's because their house was overrun with rabid lemurs. and the night before I just happened to read a story about a rabid lemur invasion that only effects .02% of the local populace and I know from that same story that it just so happens to be on their very city block? Now, I know that there is an excellent chance that this employee is very well aware that their block has been overrun by rabid lemurs, I also know this employee is a big fat fucking liar, but how do I draw a line and say that THIS story is a lie THIS time if they have a really enthralling tale of lemur attacks on their housemates?

[C.J.Woolf]

That's the big world for you. You'd prefer to only 99.98% fire the employee who tries to abuse your credulity on the subject of rabid lemurs (and how clever; who doesn't have it?), but the vast J conspiracy insists that you're either fired or you're not.

[Delilah]

I would just like to leave it a tiny bit open just in case they are telling the truth, say, they can show me a positive rabies test, or they have a Youtube video of their sibling being mauled (with the correct time stamp of course. I'm not an idiot)

[Roger Mexico]

I dunno, bearing in my mind that a good 50% of people don't seem to bother remembering what other people said to them in conversations might help. Just nod and say "yeah, yeah, OK" even if you didn't hear the question, and your odds are still pretty good.

[Polemarch]

I think it comes down to a well developed ability to abstract.

Facts simply exist, and our brains try to create concepts and stories to conjure with, due to the sheer magnitude of facts that we'll never understand. A J deals in facts. Outcomes, rigid yes's and no's that can be measured.

A P tends to very easily imagine or construct interpretations of the world that are NOT binary, but rather, complex and subtle. For a P, truth is not measured in facts, but choices. And since we have the power to make those choices quite arbitrarily, we prefer not to make them at all. Why eliminate possibilities, when we can have it all?

The trouble is potential. We have love affairs with potential. Knowing that we can see every side of an issue, we choose no side at all, we see through the materiality of the issue, realize that it's constructed, linger in the meaninglessness of existence. Aware of the fact that we're in a giant sandbox, we tire of the sand. This is troublesome when it comes to actually accomplishing things, which tend to exist in the binary world of facts, not the constructed, abstract world of ideas.

Wait, did you want advice? I don't have any advice. I actually need the same advice you do.

[Hephaestus]

C.J. You sir, have a remarkably well developed Pness, and it is clear that you embrace it fully., but I am in the awkward position of needing to be Pness free on occasion. For instance. I have to reprimand and fire people fairly often. I can't say "this is your last chance" with any disclaimers and have any credibility with the rest of the staff, but, what if the next time they call in sick it's because their house was overrun with rabid lemurs. and the night before I just happened to read a story about a rabid lemur invasion that only effects .02% of the local populace and I know from that same story that it just so happens to be on their very city block? Now, I know that there is an excellent chance that this employee is very well aware that their block has been overrun by rabid lemurs, I also know this employee is a big fat fucking liar, but how do I draw a line and say that THIS story is a lie THIS time if they have a really enthralling tale of lemur attacks on their housemates?

Credibility is an interesting thing. It's important to acquire it--so that when need be, you can throw it away. If this employee has let themselves be known as a big fat fucking liar, then I'd say, fire them whether or not their lemur story has credibility. Pics and it still didn't happen. Polaroid made a printer. There is no video or picture evidence in the world that has any credibility anymore. If they get fired because they weren't credible when they actually had an emergency, that's the price of their being such a big fat fucking liar.

[Delilah]

I completely agree with that, and I have no problem reprimanding and firing people who have already proven themselves as liars and fucktards. I may be a P, but I have no problem drawing that line in the sand when someone tries to take advantage or assumes I'm am idiot.
My most recent issue with letting things go is this employee, we will call her liar liar pants on fire, LLPF for short. In the time I have been here she has lost a total of 3 sets of building keys and currently has her 4th. After the second loss I had all the employees sign an key agreement saying that if they lost them they would pay for replacement, get a reprimand in their file and their final pay would be withheld until the keys were returned. The agreement has only come into play with a couple of other termed employees and has always worked out. But with LLPF when she lost the 3rd set, I have her a replacement set without charging her because she had only asked to use them for a short time and said they would be returned to me within days. Okay, so a bunch of shit happened, I forgot about them for a couple of weeks, then she had some time off work, a couple more weeks. When she came back she gave her notice. I was happy because that is one less person I will have to fire. ( I've already reprimanded her for several different things, including lying, and I demoted her, so she was at the top of my list).
So, her last scheduled day she called in sick ( no surprise) and I texted her and asked her to return her keys by the next day, she said she would but didn't and claimed she was too sick. So I asked again the next day, same thing. The next day she claimed she had given the keys to a other employee to return, who was, of course, on vacation, which she claims she was not aware. Whatever.
So the next day was payroll, and when I reminded her that her payroll would be withheld she lost her shit, and rightfully so, I mean, it's her money, right? I'd be pissed too.
I did withhold her check and she is fucking furious, but I caught myself thinking that had it been another employee who was less of a lying fucktard, would I have? Or would I have given them a break? I would have given them a break, because that's what I do. Maybe she was too sick to come in? Maybe she didn't know the other lying McLiar pants was on vaca? I don't know, I just know, in my head, that had she not been such a piece of shit in the past I would not have followed my own damn rules, that I enacted, and kept her money. Also, in giving her the 3rd set and not charging her, I have already undermined myself and if she chose to fight it, would she win? Yeah, probably. And that sucks for me.