Tales of workplace princesses pour in

Six weeks ago, I wrote a column about "workplace princesses." At the time, I didn't expect it to generate a huge response.

Boy, was I wrong.

The column continues to attract readers on the Deseret Morning News Web site, and e-mails are still flowing to my inbox.

Apparently, as we'll see this week, there are engineer princesses, management princesses and even a few reformed princesses. Oh, and the princess condition just might be contagious.

But before we get to that, here's some background. My July 29 column focused on a survey of 500 U.S. workers in which 48 percent said they had a "workplace princess" in their company, and 16 percent said that princess was a man.

The study defined a workplace princess as a co-worker who had a special sense of entitlement or privilege.

One writer, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke of the princess in the "tight-knit group" of engineers with whom he works.

"She would on average take six-10 weeks of paid time off per year, even though we were allotted four weeks," the anonymous e-mailer wrote. "This may include a half-day here and a half-day there. Meaning she might come in late, take a (two-hour) or more lunch and then literally leave early or at least on time. This was maybe a (four-hour) work day at best. But I guess she felt it was good enough for her over ($100,000) a year salary."

The boss sometimes tried to find out where the princess was during her absences, but once she returned, she would say she was "in the lab." Or even, "I have been here, you must have just missed me."

Anonymous said this went on for 15 years.

"Then we got a new/old boss. This boss started asking questions, and when called to the table about her time off, she denied every second of it," the e-mailer wrote. "Everyone knew, and the boss was way too busy to follow her around, but several of us co-workers knew all the details, and it was sort of a game to try and figure out what she would try to get away with next.

"Finally, after getting questioned about her activities, we were in a buyout and she opted out (with) a two-month severance package."

That would be infuriating. And this anonymous writer is not alone.

Laura sent an e-mail saying her office has several princesses.