I guess I do have a line.

So one of my recruiters called with a temp assignment that would go through the end of the year. Not my dream job (executive support, some office management - you know the kind of culture you're dealing with when they specifically list as one of your duties "replace toner in printers." Yes. Masters of the Universe, but they can't change a cartridge.)

But the pay was above average for temp work, so I thought it might be worth trying to go in and start my personal radical revolution. I asked how big the office was.

"I'm not sure. It's Big Well-Known Wall Street Investment Firm." (Not its actual name of course, but every single person in every industrialized country has heard of them).

Crap.

I asked if I could call her back, then did some research, not wanting to lump all the bad guys together. But what I found was that BWKWSIF is one of those places that made my stomach turn -- took government money and then paid out bonuses. Not to its very top execs, but to enough that I just couldn't make excuses. Plus, who wants to work for a firm that is that arrogant and self-deluded? Who wants to change their toner?

So I called back my recruiter and told her that for that long a term I didn't think it would be a good fit. (That sounded better than "seriously, most of the firms you represent should burn in hell.")

I'd rather spend my IRA on my mortgage than swallow the gall that I know would rise in my throat as I prepared the well-padded expense reports of these people. And I know myself well enough that at some point I would, Tourette's-like, blurt out some snarky comment about good thing my tax dollars bailed them out so that they could go to an expensive lunch.