[DRAFT] Curb Your Incompetence

[Jim the Baptist]

This issue is co-authored by Dabarastan.

The Issue
Now your pregnant assistant has gone and done it. She's really messed up big this time. You've missed yet another meeting with the Maxtopian foreign ambassador, and now he's back on a plane home already writing bad things about you on Twitcher. A few of your close advisers think it's time to have the difficult discussion and tell your assistant to pack her bags.

1- "I AM SO SORRY!" blubbers your assistant, Antoinette, lying in a distraught state on the floor in front of your desk. "Please, please, pleeease, @@leader@@, don't give me the sack. I know my emotional state has been affecting my work of late - what with that fire I accidentally started in the kitchen yesterday, and now this - but my hormones have been going crazy! You couldn't possibly send a poor, defenceless, pregnant woman out onto the street could you? When the bub's due in just a matter of days? How do you expect me to raise and support my family? Wait - oh my God - I think my water's breaking!"
Effect: @@leader@@'s conflict avoidance is sending the nation into a spiralling state of disarray

2- Your straight-talking friend, Bob Funkhouser, ushers your hysterical assistant out of the room and shuts the door. "Listen, just fire her and find a new assistant. This woman is costing you your career, your dignity, even your office kitchen. I happen to know a fantastic admin girl down at the golf club - she's efficient, thorough, makes incredible omelettes, and certainly wouldn't let you miss any high-profile meetings. Of course, the whole mess is going to result in a PR fallout - how @@leader@@ fired a needy and vulnerable pregnant woman - but you know better than anyone that it's the right career move. Plus, I'm sure it's nothing your PR office couldn't deal with, right?"
Effect: @@leader@@ has developed a reputation for being a heartless and insensitive monster

3- "Of course our PR office is top of the range, but we aren't miracle workers," interrupts Jeff Browne, head of your PR Department. "Sure, a bad assistant can cost a career, but firing her under the current circumstances is guaranteed to speed up that process with a career-ending publicity scandal. You think the public are idiots? Even with all of our positive spin, it's going to leak one way or another, and a lot more than that water over there on the floor. I say just 'disappear' her - you can tell everyone she was so embarrassed by her mistakes, she's now faded into voluntary obscurity. After all, all the limelight was too much for her to stand, serving under such a benevolent and terrific leader such as yourself."
Effect: @@leader@@ aggressively insists that 'voluntary obscurity' is a well-established reason for resignation

[Dabarastan]

[reserved for future drafts]

[Bears Armed]

If she's that close to giving birth, why isn't she on leave?

[Verdant Haven]

Is this a reference to something quite specific? It feels like this is leaning hard into some misogynistic stereotypes about women and pregnancy. The same situation could be presented quite readily in a manner that doesn't have a blubbering, begging, hysterical woman frantically blaming her hormones for somehow making her bad at a job she presumably got because she was perfectly competent before. It's also a curious addition that the second speaker is suggesting another "girl" as a replacement, and is basing his recommendation in part on her cooking skills, since that again is suggesting a particular brand of sexism that certainly does exist in some offices of the real world, but which we can't assume is present or acceptable in Leader's government.

This may be the sort of issue that needs a validity check to exclude nations with maternity leave (because as BA suggests, it sounds like she'd probably be using that option if she had it), and depending on the direction it goes, might also need checks for things like low compassion or low inclusiveness to try and catch the attitudes that are on display. 1980s corporate boardroom sexism is a valid topic of concern, and could probably be an issue in and of itself if it isn't already, but it shouldn't be assumed in players' nations.

[Cranberron]

This issue is co-authored by Dabarastan.

The Issue
Now your pregnant assistant has gone and done it. She's really messed up big this time. You've missed yet another meeting with the Maxtopian foreign ambassador, and now he's back on a plane home already writing bad things about you on Twitcher. A few of your close advisers think it's time to have the difficult discussion and tell your assistant to pack her bags.

1- "I AM SO SORRY!" blubbers your assistant, Antoinette, lying in a distraught state on the floor in front of your desk. "Please, please, pleeease, @@leader@@, don't give me the sack. I know my emotional state has been affecting my work of late - what with that fire I accidentally started in the kitchen yesterday, and now this - but my hormones have been going crazy! You couldn't possibly send a poor, defenceless, pregnant woman out onto the street could you? When the bub's due in just a matter of days? How do you expect me to raise and support my family? Wait - oh my God - I think my water's breaking!"
Effect: @@leader@@'s conflict avoidance is sending the nation into a spiralling state of disarray

2- Your straight-talking friend, Bob Funkhouser, ushers your hysterical assistant out of the room and shuts the door. "Listen, just fire her and find a new assistant. This woman is costing you your career, your dignity, even your office kitchen. I happen to know a fantastic admin girl down at the golf club - she's efficient, thorough, makes incredible omelettes, and certainly wouldn't let you miss any high-profile meetings. Of course, the whole mess is going to result in a PR fallout - how @@leader@@ fired a needy and vulnerable pregnant woman - but you know better than anyone that it's the right career move. Plus, I'm sure it's nothing your PR office couldn't deal with, right?"
Effect: @@leader@@ has developed a reputation for being a heartless and insensitive monster

3- "Of course our PR office is top of the range, but we aren't miracle workers," interrupts Jeff Browne, head of your PR Department. "Sure, a bad assistant can cost a career, but firing her under the current circumstances is guaranteed to speed up that process with a career-ending publicity scandal. You think the public are idiots? Even with all of our positive spin, it's going to leak one way or another, and a lot more than that water over there on the floor. I say just 'disappear' her - you can tell everyone she was so embarrassed by her mistakes, she's now faded into voluntary obscurity. After all, all the limelight was too much for her to stand, serving under such a benevolent and terrific leader such as yourself."
Effect: @@leader@@ aggressively insists that 'voluntary obscurity' is a well-established reason for resignation

I think it’s really good! However, I think the fact that she’s pregnant should be changed to something else (like a minor health problem?). Also, there’s a couple spelling mistakes, but considering this is a draft that isn’t a big deal.