- Must a 76-year-old woman stay silent about Earl quietly hanging up on her?
A 76-year-old woman writes that her son's best friend Earl, 55, who does small jobs for her and emails with her, quietly hangs up the phone when she gets long-winded — never mentioning it afterward. The hosts find Earl's chrome-plated nerve hilarious but advise her plainly: stop being so windy, set a 15-minute timer, and set expectations up front ('we have thirty minutes'). The letter widens into a tender reflection on aging: elderly people who depend on others for help often suppress normal interactions for fear of losing that help, so helpers should explicitly say 'my help is not conditional.' One host urges listeners to spend time with older people — visit a nursing home and just listen. Ben then meditates on the fleetingness of career status, recalling starting in the annuity business at 20 and realizing that the moment he left that job, none of his expertise mattered to anyone — 'your whole life is a vapor.'
More on Work
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Dear LFTP 1: loud coworkers, the joining-in manager, and the Psalm 126 follow-up
- How should employees handle loud, disruptive coworkers whose manager joins in?
Mike reads the first Dear LFTP letter: a shared workspace where one department talks nonstop about non-work topics, and their manager joins in rather than correcting them — the writers are desperate for a reasonable work setting.
From No. 593 · Do You Hear What I Hear
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Dear LFTP: the rain cloud and the value of work
- How can I get out from under this rain cloud at work - do I want too much out of life?
Mike reads the second letter: a woman in her early thirties, happy in marriage and new house, but miserable in high-stress tech marketing - 'How can I get out from under this rain cloud?
From No. 577 · The Spirit, the Goldfish and the Way
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Dear LFTP: the boss who assigns personal errands to his only employee
- How do I refuse my boss's personal errands without losing her job?
The second Dear LFTP letter: a single mom of two, the only other employee in a small office, says her boss increasingly assigns personal tasks unrelated to the business — the…
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Dear LFTP: the paramedic's overtime fight
- How do I address my wife pushing me to work more overtime while spending her own vacation without me, without starting a fight?
A paramedic writes that his wife pushes him to pick up twelve-hour shifts while taking none herself, citing housework, and spends her vacation at theme parks without him.
From No. 516 · Pastor Rico Suave