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Address addendum to question
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Jane S Mod
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The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and they leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them. This, in turn, reinforces the stereotypical consumer for this site and minimises its effectiveness for a wider audience.

The correct approach when answering is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the intent behind comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

[Edited to address the addendum to the question]

The giving advice of "quit" has been discussed on meta.workplace a few times, and for the most part, it's really not a valid answer. You can always say, "Just quit", irrespective of the issue, so you can take it as assumed knowledge that the OP already knows this.

We try to look beyond the obvious "quit" option, which has its own huge array of potential issues for the OP, for other ways to deal with a workplace problem. Yes, there will be cases when the best option is to leave, but it is not the first place we should go when answering a question.

The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and they leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them. This, in turn, reinforces the stereotypical consumer for this site and minimises its effectiveness for a wider audience.

The correct approach when answering is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the intent behind comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and they leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them. This, in turn, reinforces the stereotypical consumer for this site and minimises its effectiveness for a wider audience.

The correct approach when answering is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the intent behind comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

[Edited to address the addendum to the question]

The giving advice of "quit" has been discussed on meta.workplace a few times, and for the most part, it's really not a valid answer. You can always say, "Just quit", irrespective of the issue, so you can take it as assumed knowledge that the OP already knows this.

We try to look beyond the obvious "quit" option, which has its own huge array of potential issues for the OP, for other ways to deal with a workplace problem. Yes, there will be cases when the best option is to leave, but it is not the first place we should go when answering a question.

Some more detail, fix typo.
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Jane S Mod
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The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and thethey leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them. This, in turn, reinforces the stereotypical consumer for this site and minimises its effectiveness for a wider audience.

The whole point of the sitecorrect approach when answering is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the point ofintent behind comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and the leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them.

The whole point of the site is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the point of comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and they leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them. This, in turn, reinforces the stereotypical consumer for this site and minimises its effectiveness for a wider audience.

The correct approach when answering is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the intent behind comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

Expand a bit.
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Jane S Mod
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The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and the leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them.

The whole point of the site is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the point of comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic.

The whole point of the site is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the point of comments.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and the leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them.

The whole point of the site is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the point of comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

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Jane S Mod
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