Dear The Tank,
Can I ask my stalker to write a letter of recommendation for me?
I know it sounds crazy but he’d write a really good one and I need the job. You could say no one knows me better, right? And he used to be my boss before I let him kiss me and put his hand up my shirt after that night we went out for drinks and I told him all about my breakup with Eric. Then he started calling me into his office all the time and just staring at me, and I had to ask to transfer to a different department, and he followed me there. I mean he was there, either outside the ladies room or in the kitchenette or standing in one of my colleagues’ doorways, more than he was on his own floor. Then I found him on the same subway car as me, and he kept walking behind me all the way to my street. One night I opened my window, and he fell down the fire escape. His pants had been around his ankles when he tried to climb down the ladder. An ambulance came and the police came. That’s why I had to quit that job. But I worked for him for four-and-a-half months before that, so he can genuinely speak to my professional qualifications.
I guess it could seem like I didn’t care about the restraining order anymore if I asked him. But I can’t seem to even get an interview anywhere.
What should I do?
—Renee in New York
Dear Renee in New York,
Good on you that you are so eager to work that you would consider this certifiably insane option. Unfortunately, you’re a whistle blower and a troublemaker and no company will want you. Kind of a lousy double standard, isn’t it? But that’s the way the world works. Life has never, not once, been easy for women.
That said, there is still a place for you, young and endeavoring as you are. I suggest a low-paying canvassing job with a do-gooder organization such as Clean Water Action or the Sierra Club. They are mostly run by lesbians and men without genitals.
—The Tank
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The Tank is inspired by Gracious Living Without Servants, the new novel by Wall Street Journal writer Brenda Cronin. Juliet, the heroine of that novel, makes all kinds of bad choices that end up making life way more interesting. Read the first chapter.
