Boss

Resigning. Giving two-weeks notice. Whatever you call it, it's imperative that you quit your job gracefully. I was recently reminded of this when a colleague received an e-mail forward of a resignation letter of a lawyer, who detailed how much he hated his job. This lawyer provided a list of tasks he found tedious and went on to say why. (The fact that this resignation letter got away from the recipient and spread via e-mail to outsiders is another story.)...

Donald Trump has surprised the audience with double firings in the past on The Apprentice, but never for a sillier reason than on Sunday. Explaining why he had pitched the idea of go-karts at an event for Lexus, Derek classified himself as "white trash," in a joking way. Trump seized on this, declared it stupid, wouldn't let it go, and finally, impulsively, fired him. And you thought you had a crazy boss.

What would you do if your boss asked you on a double date? It sounds a little weird and awkward, but that scenario happened to a friend recently. The supervisor asked my friend if she and her significant other would go on a double date with the boss and her mate. My friend was so taken back by her manager's request that she blurted out, "Yeah, OK," and quickly changed the subject. She's hoping her boss doesn't bring it up again. In our increasingly casual workplaces, how close is too close when it comes to relationships with our bosses?

The kid is nervous. He's totally lost, his mind full of "what ifs?" and "what abouts?"He's never been to a movie premiere, never had to hold the door for the Hollywood crowd, never had to find his place among doctors, lawyers and society insiders milling around inside the Senator Theatre lobby.He's just an usher. It's an anonymous kind of job, low-key and low-stress. Somehow he ended up at the door for last night's world premiere of "Liberty Heights." Somehow he got picked to wear the oversized burgundy doorman's jacket, complete with matching hat, white shirt and black bow-tie.

A Baltimore man was convicted Monday night in an armed robbery of $4,000 from his former employer, a Jessup moving company.Clarence E. Cherry, 27, went to his former employer, Magic Movers, with another man about 8 p.m. July 24 and demanded money.He was wearing a homemade mask, but the disguise didn't work. At one point, one boss said, "What in the hell are you doing, Clarence?"Jurors in Howard County Circuit Court took about five hours to reach a verdict. During closing arguments, Assistant State's Attorney Debra Saltz urged jurors to convict Cherry because the two victims, his former bosses, recognized him.Public defender Louis P. Willemin argued that witnesses couldn't positively identify Cherry and might have been mistaken.

If you've ever felt those "take-this-job-and-shove-it" blues, you might drop in on Richard Dresser's "Below the Belt," at AXIS Theatre. This darkly comic take on corporate hell is guaranteed to make almost any job look better by comparison. But you have to be quick about it; this is the last chance to catch the play's Baltimore premiere.Mark E. Campion plays the boss, and Steve Sawicki and Larry Malkus are his unfortunate employees, under Brian Klaas' direction. Joel Shepherd's ambitious set design is influenced by the movie "Brazil."

I am meeting with an important client to discuss continuing a lucrative advertising contract for our company. My boss, who also happens to be my father, says that a pin-stripe suit is the only way to go.I want to look business-like but not too severe. I think a pin-stripe suit will make me look totally uncreative.How can I lighten my look without upsetting the boss?In one way your father is on target. Suits in menswear fabrics are right in step with fashion today. These include stripes, checks and plaids.

Keeping their distance: Give business travelers a choice, and they'd rather sit with a colleague than a boss while flying. That's the finding of a national survey of 1,000 business travelerscommissioned by the Shuttle by United. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents said they prefer to sit with another employee rather than a supervisor. East Coast passengers are more likely than West Coast travelers to ask to sit near the boss. Airline executives theorize that because flights in the East tend to be shorter, traveling with a boss is more palatable.

Good evening, and welcome to "Someone's Gotta Do It," the show about the unsung heroes of the holiday season. The show that asks: Who changes the hay in the live-animal manger? Who sneaks Santa behind the mall for cigarettes? Who scales the skyscraper when the lights spell Happy olidays?Each week we give credit where credit is due as we bring you the story of a humble, behind-the-scenes holiday soldier. Tonight we're pleased to present the valiant tale of Barbara Bandel, a k a the Woman in Charge of Planning the Company Holiday Party that the Boss Started Talking About in August.

The Baltimore Board of Estimates meeting adjourns, and City Councilman Robert Curran turns to a visitor standing near the dais. "Are you waiting to see 'The Boss?' " Curran asks."The Boss" is Baltimore Public Works Director George G. Balog. The son of an Essex restaurant owner, the 57-year-old engineer and lawyer has risen to become, some would argue, the most powerful man in Baltimore.He commands an army of 6,000 employees and controls an annual budget of $500 million, including $160 million in coveted city contracts.

Chris Amos always had a routine when he closed up at night. To make sure there was no one lurking outside the liquor store in Fullerton's Putty Hill Plaza Shopping Center, Amos would leave first, check the parking lot, and wait for his boss to walk out of the building and get into his car safely. "I wouldn't leave until he did," said Amos, 28, who had worked at the store for eight years. But on Thursday, his boss, Joon Am Kang, was alone in Putty Hill Liquors when two men wearing stockings as masks burst in about 9 p.m. and demanded money, police said.

Lettie Holman swears on Bruce Springsteen's soul patch that Ticketmaster automatically kicked her over to its high-priced TicketsNow scalper site when she was trying this week to buy seats for The Boss' tour stop at Washington's Verizon Center. Ticketmaster says she and others who make similar claims are misremembering or lying. So it is that, even before it starts, Springsteen's newest tour has become a public relations disaster for him and America's best-loved concert-ticket monopoly.

If you have been affected by the economic swings of the past few years, this may be a good time to consider starting that small business you've always dreamed about building. Ask yourself, "Can I be my own boss?" Try to objectively assess the pros and cons. Running a business is different from working for one - even if you are an experienced manager. Every responsibility - generating new work, paying taxes, locating office space, buying paper clips - falls on you. That is in addition to doing the work itself.

Washington -- Has anyone ever put more heart into live rock than Bruce Springsteen? "Is there anybody alive out there?!" The Boss yelled Sunday night before he and the famous E Street Band launched into a raucous version of "Radio Nowhere," the hit single about a rudderless and alienated society from the newest CD, Magic. In front of a sellout crowd of 20,000 at Verizon Center, Springsteen and the band delivered a wildly energetic, hard-driving performance, with nine songs off Magic (including "Gypsy Biker," "Magic" and "Livin' in the Future")

Critic's Pick -- Sam (Bret Harrison) wants a break, but his boss, Satan, has other plans in Reaper (9 p.m., WNUV, Channel 54).

Resigning. Giving two-weeks notice. Whatever you call it, it's imperative that you quit your job gracefully. I was recently reminded of this when a colleague received an e-mail forward of a resignation letter of a lawyer, who detailed how much he hated his job. This lawyer provided a list of tasks he found tedious and went on to say why. (The fact that this resignation letter got away from the recipient and spread via e-mail to outsiders is another story.)...

On this Labor Day weekend, it's worth remembering that America prides itself on being built on the backs of its hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone citizens, who have created in a few short centuries a world superpower from the sweat of their labor. This feat is all the more impressive since virtually everyone involved in the process worked for a "boss," and it's a known fact that in recorded history, anything that gets done happens in spite of the presence of the one in charge. The first "bad boss" story no doubt circulated five minutes after the spear factory HR rep informed his fellow caveman that a saber-toothed tiger bite isn't covered by disability insurance if it happens during lunch hour.

Bosses are really mean these days, or employees are really thin-skinned. Lawmakers in four states are considering legislation that would give workers grounds to sue their superiors for being, basically, jerks. Bookstores are stocking bad-boss advice tomes, including Snakes in Suits and Was Your Boss Raised by Wolves? The AFL-CIO even has an online contest that takes entries for the worst boss in the country. Are relations between workers and management really in such an awful state? Maybe.

Belvedere Square wraps up its outdoor series of concerts on film with a documentary of Bruce Springsteen rocking out in Dublin. In We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, cameras follow the Boss and the Session Band on the final stop of the 2006 tour. The original album was a favorite of many critics, and the tour ramped up the material creatively. But the Seeger Sessions may put off Springsteen purists. The tour featured music by radical folk musician Pete Seeger, not songs penned by the Boss himself; the E-Street Band is nowhere to be found.

Promising a bright ending to the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre's season is a delightful frolic through the jazz age, Thoroughly Modern Millie. The Broadway show, which won six Tony awards in 2002, has its genesis in Richard Morris' 1967 film musical about irrepressible 1920s flapper Millie Dillmount. The movie starred Julie Andrews as Millie. It was turned into a stage musical decades later after lyricist David Scanlan persuaded Morris to take on the stage adaptation. Morris died in 1996.