The Diary of Our Own Jimmy Bracken: As the complaint department, I specialize in satisfied customers.

It was an exhausting day; more so than usual lately. In addition to the expected daily sapping of my inner core, there were a couple of surprises.

These thoughts may seem disjointed at first, but bear with me. My day, today, has me thinking about harmony. It's so elusive.

But why?

Of course, I cannot guarantee inner harmony, either for myself or those nearest to me, whether family or in the workplace. There's a lot more to it than my own selfish wish that the world make sense every now and then.

Dynamics are funny. The way I feel about it is that my own team can be fractious and dysfunctional (after all, I was an A's fan way back when, in the 1970s), but when it comes down to it, there needs to be unity when it matters. On occasion, things happen that merit a response, and any team manager who does not have his players'/employees' backs probably will not be successful in the end.

This is why in a benign and grandfatherly way, dear reader, I'd like your as indulgence to mark some turf. I own a business, and I have employees. As hard as they try, I know there'll come a time when they make mistakes. Experience also has indicated to me that at times, they'll have not made mistakes, and require a vigorous defense when improperly accused.

Hell, the same might even apply to me on widely scattered occasions. Fortunately, I'm not wrong very often.

Either way -- and this is the point -- I genuinely expect and respectfully request that (a) comments and thoughts about these employee issues will come to me, first, before being aired publicly elsewhere, and (b) that comments and thoughts ostensibly about my employees that actually are about ME and not about them will be handled in like fashion ... by coming to me. Not unlike Shaq, I'm the Big Aristotle. We can reason together.

Thank you very much.