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After joining the company in 1988, Alison Prowse Piper rose to become a top sales executive for Anglian Home Improvements, a British company that sells windows, doors and other building products. Her sales prowess with a particular form of window fitting even earned her the nickname the "queen of double glazing." But her role with the company took a turn for the worse after she delivered her second and third children in a 14-month span that ended in 2006. Ms. Prowse Piper soon filed a lawsuit against the company that alleged "she felt 'ostracized' and her pay was cut by more than half to £30,000" as a result of the pregnancies, according to the Daily Mail. Her filing noted that one sales manager greeted the news of her second pregnancy with the comment, "Oh my God, you're not, are you? I suppose I should offer you my congratulations." When she returned to the office after delivering her third child, a manager called her work "pathetic and crap" and mocked her during a presentation. Then, after Ms. Prowse Piper complained of being excluded from important meetings, a manager scolded her for "being boring." A September ruling by employment judge Christa Christensen upheld the claims of sex discrimination, sexual harassment and unfair dismissal. Damages, which could amount to as much as £200,000 ($379,500), will be awarded later this year.

BY THE NUMBERS

TRANSGENDER STAFF

71

Percentage of heterosexual U.S. adults who agree that transgender employees should be judged solely on their job performance, according to a survey of more than 2,600 U.S. adults conducted for the Out & Equal Annual Workplace Summit, which was held last week. When asked about sexual orientation in general, just under 80 per cent agreed that job performance should come first when evaluating employees.

64

Percentage of heterosexual respondents who felt that "committed partners" of gay and lesbian employees should receive the same health benefits as the spouses of straight employees.

BEST JOB EVER

STAR WARS PEDANT

The latest issue of Wired magazine profiles Leland Chee, a man the magazine's cover says has the "best job ever." Mr. Chee's official job title is "continuity database administrator" with the licensing division of Lucasfilm. Put another way, "To Star Wars fans, Chee is ... the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Mr. Chee maintains a 30,000-entry database that contains every piece of known information about Star Wars characters, technology, weapons and planets. As he told the magazine, "Someone has to be able to say, 'Luke Skywalker would not have that colour of lightsaber.' "

WELCOME BACK

SEPTEMBER BLUES

It's not just kids who hate September. "For many workers, the start of September comes with a 'back to school' dread," according to the London Times. Management psychologist Stefan Lucks told the newspaper that, "We all come back and wish we were still on holiday. It's an extreme version of Monday mornings." Research shows people are stressed by "their place in the pecking order," said one expert. Welcome back to your dead-end job!

Craig Silverman is the author of Regret the Error: How Media

Mistakes Pollute the Press and

Imperil Free Speech.