LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Listen up — being bossy is just fine
4/1/2014I loved Suzette Hackney’s op-ed column about girls being bossy (“Listen here, there’s nothing wrong with girls being bossy,” March 18).
As a registered nurse in the nurse practitioner program at Wayne State University in Detroit, I know that being bossy is part of the job. As a mother of two daughters, I know that being bossy is part of that job.
Being bossy doesn’t mean being overbearing, controlling, or disrespectful of others. For many of us who were lucky enough to have a mother who was an expert disciplinarian, being bossy was defined as expressing the rules and wishes of the queen of the house — Mom — in a respectful, firm, and calm manner with no room for back talk.
Men can be bossy, too. Anyone can be bossy. That usually means the person has leadership qualities that can get the job done — just like the women at the Milestones Award luncheon Ms. Hackney mentioned.
BARB RESTORICK
Sylvania Township
Bossiness starts with politeness
I thank Suzette Hackney for the interjection of common sense about being bossy.
I have a sister who has always been bossy, and it serves her well as a successful attorney. I have another bossy sister who manages the bookkeeping and finances at a manufacturing business.
We don’t need girls — or boys, for that matter — to shrink from the term, but to embrace and manage it. Almost everything that involves actions by more than one person works better when someone steps up and takes charge.
I’m a boss at work and at home in the kitchen, but I learned a long time ago to start by speaking politely. It’s not that difficult.
WILL SZABO
Perrysburg Township
UAW to blame for failing at VW
In response to the March 15 Readers’ Forum letter “UAW stands against the 1%”: The United Auto Workers had unrestricted access to Volkeswagen’s Tennessee workers for more than two years. The UAW had plenty of time to make its case for the benefits of a union, and failed.
It was not some right-wing bogeyman, as the letter writer and others claim, who caused the vote for a union to fail. Union representatives didn’t or couldn’t make their case.
I am a retired member of UAW Local 12. My union reps would have got up, dusted themselves off, and tried again, and not blamed others for their failure.
If this is what UAW leadership has become, maybe there needs to be a major housecleaning from the union president down to the stewards.
DANIEL GRAY
Defiance
Money’s good, but a day off will help
In response to your March 11 article “Jeep will hire up to 1,000 for part-time work; Regular employees need a break, Chrysler reports”: Workers at the Wrangler portion of the Chrysler’s Toledo Assembly Complex do get some Saturdays off.
I work on the Cherokee line, and because we are in launch mode, we are working every Saturday. Although the extra money is good, getting at least one Saturday a month off would do wonders.
KEVIN BARKER
Potter Street