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One freelancer was troubled by Monday's anointment of Conde Nast as the company that treated her sort best in 2005. "Was this posted as a joke," she asked. Flummoxed freelancer then forwarded this tale:

This one department [at Conde Nast] has a weekly status meeting. Usually the attendees at this meeting are just the department head and some of the managers. However, at this one particular meeting, the entire department was invited because lunch was being ordered. A department-wide email was sent out saying, "EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, is invited so COME!"

So the food arrives, an email is sent to the department AGAIN saying "COME NOW! FOOD's HERE!" Peeps arrive at the meeting and someone DECIDED that there wasn't enough food for everyone. Their solution?

Decision Maker: There's not enough food for the freelancers.
Freelancers: ............ ????!!!!

And so the freelancers don't eat.

But don't you get it, little 'lancer? At No. 2 Time Warner, they would have eaten the freelancers.

Earlier: Conde Nast: Special Friend to the Freelancer