Michael Ann Dobbs's saved articles

I like to ask prospective employers, “Why is this position open?” One time I asked this question in an interview at a then top-5 accounting firm, I learned the pressure had been too much for the previous manager, and I would be supervising her if selected. In other words, I’d have to manage someone who would… Read more

A note to hiring managers. We know that you receive scores of resumes and not everyone will get an interview. However, those who actually get the opportunity to sit down with someone should receive some form of communication after, even if we don’t get the job. Read more

I’m the same way. In fact, I am currently going through a bankruptcy (long story) and I find it funny when I tell people and they act like it’s a big secret or hush their voices when talking about it. I just don’t get it. Read more

EXACTLY. My tiny, asymmetrical breasts look like they belong to an unfortunate 12-year-old, probably because my mother was exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals when I was a fetus. Why did it take five lactation consultants before one finally went, “Oh...yeah. That’s why your baby isn’t gaining weight”? Fertility… Read more

Its terrific, not expensive, can be idealistically grown, helps create a routine (for everyone frankly), doesn’t take up much room at all, etc. I wish I could make a grown man version for myself, but I dont’ want to iron everything out that morning. Maybe I can make a ‘hanging’ variant. Read more

I feel you. When my baby boy was 8 months old, I started telling him that he wasn’t entitled to women’s personal space or time. No idea if it’s taken yet. Read more

We didn’t always say nice things, and sometimes we were downright mean. Sometimes I just vented about frustrating experiences in an immature, hateful, and foolish way. It was in particular a breach of trust to post intimate details about lovers. I was naive enough to think it’d stay anonymous, and I was wrong. Read more

Yeah, the whole “wife is a shrew” trope is sooooo damaging to both girls and boys. Like, boys who grow up thinking that women are terrible will do terrible things to women.
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I mean, I’m a reasonably intelligent and wildly overeducated person, and before I tried to get pregnant (at the ripe old age of 32!)I thought I knew pretty much everything I needed to know about my reproductive system. But I didn’t. I didn’t know how to track my fertility via changes in my cervical mucus, the position… Read more

I own 3 stethoscopes, and used all of them during the course of my bedside nursing career. I bought the first one when I was accepted into nursing school, since it was part of the “required uniform” for student nurses. If I showed up to clinicals without it, I would be sent home. When I graduated and accepted a… Read more

As much as I think the situation is BS (and I really, really do), I hope the media coverage allows her to find another hospital to both deliver and have the procedure. It’s super short notice, but for her health and the welfare of her family, I hope someone out there is willing to take on a new patient in such extreme… Read more

Considering this has spawned a large discussion, people talking about it and changing minds and bringing attention to an issue, it seems silly to argue that it’s not worth “national news” (or in other words, a blog that happens to be national because it’s on the internet). Clearly it’s had an impact and frankly, I… Read more

Why does anyone ever argue “it doesn’t bother me, so it shouldn’t bother you either”? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Read more

This is too exhausting. Read more

Having an unconventional, unusual, risky, or rare experience (porn, mountain climbing, making every Julia Childs dish etc) is insufficient preparation for writing good prose. I wish more people got that. Read more

On my first gyno visit I got shamed by the nurse that I wasn’t 100% sure exactly how many days had passed since my period. She made me feel like an irresponsible idiot. Luckily I didn’t take it too personally and just decided this nurse was super bad at her job, but seriously, stop scaring the teenagers out of going… Read more

So you’re saying I shouldn’t pour that pot of boiling water down the drain to strain my pasta, right? Read more