It's the first month of the year -- time for fresh starts, bold resolutions and all that stuff. But you have a new year to-do list that runs halfway across the office, a backlog of email, and tasks left over from slacking off around the holidays. It's enough pressure to trigger a nervous breakdown. What's a stressed-out, overwhelmed office worker to do? Purge and prioritize.

Question: The owner of our company has hired several of my friends, based on my recommendation. He trusts my judgment because I have been with him ever since he started the business 10 years ago. The last person I recommended was "Angela," a woman whom I have known for 15 years.

Today, my friend asked for advice. He caught an employee in a lie. When he asked the employee to work on Saturday, the employee said he was going out of town. And of course, the inevitable happened: My friend heard a secretary talking about how she ran into the guy with his kids at the movies over the weekend.