Love story

Dear Dr. Lovemonkey:

I’ve been an avid reader of your column since its debut, and I just wanted to share a couple of thoughts with your readers, particularly those who find themselves in deep personal quandaries about their love lives.

And right after school, at the relatively young ages of 22 and 21, we married.

We just celebrated our ninth anniversary and, as sappy as it sounds, we love each other more than ever, and tomorrow, we’ll love each other even more. Our life together has required sacrifices, of course, but I can honestly say that we have never argued about money or our overall " direction " as a couple. Please offer my letter as an example of a success story, one that took lots of work — but one that is providing my wife and me with a life’s worth of blessings. Maybe some of your younger readers will draw inspiration from us.

Keep up the good work!

— Blissful

Dear Blissful,

Thanks for the inspiring letter. You are indeed a fortunate person to have had as long and fruitful a relationship. It is also good to hear testimony about a fabulously successful marriage. Because the nature of this type of column is to listen and try to make thoughtful suggestions to people who are having difficulties, one could easily embrace the notion that we humans are all fairly dysfunctional and troubled. It’s sort of like working in law enforcement or (to a lesser extent) a newsroom, where most of the issues you deal with have to do with crime, violence, bad behavior, and tragedy.

Thanks for lending our readers and myself some much needed balance.

Dear Dr. Lovemonkey,

I work in a large retail store and, a few months ago, they hired another person to work in my department. I have had good relationships with virtually everyone else that works in my department, but this person is different. First of all he does almost no work at all, making my workload all the more heavy. I have tried to gently mention this to him a few times, but it has made no difference. In fact, everyone else in the department has complained to management about this person because they have been similarly victimized but, so far, management has done nothing.

Last week I observed this person doing something else that is strictly against store policy. There is a coffee pot in the back room that is only for employees and I saw her go and get cups of coffee for a couple of friends of hers that were in shopping. Later, I saw her actually making out with a worker in another department (also strictly against store policy. All this is spelled out in the training manuals).

I don’t want to be someone who goes and rats out a fellow employee, even if this person is almost totally worthless. What should I do?

— Tired of It All

Dear Tired of It All,

The fact that the person is not doing his job and has been apprised of this situation numerous times by a bevy of other employees (and still, nothing is done) is something that is curious to Dr. Lovemonkey. That alone makes this person a drain on the company. Dr. Lovemonkey would have no problem reporting the coffee and public display of affection violations to management. The longer this person stays there, the worst store morale will be affected. It would be a service to the store and its hard-working employees to get rid of this person as soon as possible. There is no reason that I can think of that you should show loyalty to someone who shows no loyalty to anyone else and is doing actual harm. Loyalty is for those who deserve it for some reason and I don’t see the reason. Turn him in. Things will be better if the store is aware of just how much this person is exploiting the situation.

Send questions and romantic quandaries to RUDYCHEEKS@prodigy.net.