The author informs that the year 2004 begins her 13th year as writer of the column "Working," originally titled "Working Life." Over 12 years, she has received a virtual hefty bag of emails in response to different columns. A small deluge was about the column "Stop the Ma'amness" (February 2002), in which she explained why she abhorred being addressed as "ma' am" by waitpersons and the like. Other Working columns have been essays about something that happened to her or someone she knows (that also has relevance to the workplace) or some topic that she must expound on or bust (such as the ma'amness issue), again with some relevance to the workplace.