The super-badass Cyndi Lauper tried to be an assistant once, but it didn’t really work out. About the job, she says:
I tried to work in an office. Apparently, my clothes weren’t right. I was a Gal Friday the 13th. I would answer phones and people would call up very upset. Then they’d call back screaming and yelling because I had to go to the file room and I would get sidetracked. I used to fall asleep reading the mail. I didn’t want to. But it was so boring to me and I hated it.
Oh, Cyndi. Want to be the first honorary member of the administrative professinals’ union we’re going to start?
What would an STA week be if we didn’t end with some kind of Lindsay or Naomi-related post?
Page Six reports that Lindsay Lohan will be starring in Labor Pains, a movie about a girl who pretends to be pregnant so she won’t get fired from her job. While there’s no release date announced yet, we think Lindsay is wise to use office humor to her advantage. I mean…it worked for us.
I quit my horrible temp-to-perm job on Friday. It was, as expected, both a nightmare and a thrill ride.
It’s hard to describe the final straw because it seems so minor, but it was the last of a hundred insults that had been digging into me since the first moment. Here goes:
On Thursday, I worked on a PowerPoint slideshow for a presentation that my boss would be showing to a client later that night. On Friday morning, when I asked how it went, my boss thanked me and said it was great. It was the first kind word I’d heard out of anyone’s mouth in two weeks. Yay, me.
Later in the day, one of the higher up women who I’d never met walked up to my desk and this conversation took place:
Higher up woman I’d never met: Hi, can you email me that presentation from last night?
Me: Sure. Do you want the PowerPoint slides or do you want me to send a PDF?
Woman: PDF it. I don’t want anyone changing it.
Me: Sure thing. [Woman turns around and walks off.]
Me: [To her back] Oh! What’s your name so I can email it to you?
Woman: [Doesn’t turn around to answer me] [Mumbles her name] [Continues walking]
Me: Excuse me? I didn’t hear you.
Woman: [Keeps walking]
Continue reading ‘horror story: the name and blame game’
Oprah recently threw poet Maya Angelou a party for her 80th birthday. While tons of celebrities in designer gowns were there, Angelou wore a red and white lacy dress that was designed by her personal assistant, Lydia Stuckey.
Not only is Angelou a pretty badass old lady, she’s helping her assistant get publicity for her fashion career. Is there nothing this woman can’t do?
In case you’ve been on vacation in Turkmenistan the last week or so, you probably heard that Mariah “Mimi” Carey and Nick Cannon got married last week. While most media outlets were taken by surprise and assumed the wedding was unplanned, there are now rumors that the whole thing was well-organized and also kept a secret. Perez Hilton reports that Mariah’s assistant flew out to the Bahamas a week ahead of time in order to help plan the wedding. I call bullshit on Mariah only having one assistant. Which one of the entourage was sent to plan the wedding, leaving the other eight to sort shoes and carry breast tape?
Also, did she get paid extra for her wedding-planning duties, or is that all in a day’s work for Team Carey? Someone really needs a primer on the combo job.
First Bruce Springsteen honored his late assistant, Terry, by penning a song in Terry’s honor and premiering it on what would have been his birthday.
Now, the Pet Shop Boys are doing a concert to honor Dainton “The Bear” Connell, who was killed in a car accident last year. Even though the band is working on an album, they took a break to play the London show for their former assistant. Connell’s wife, Mandy, and his two children were present at the concert.
Points for the celebrity bosses who have paid tribute to their assistants. Maybe more bosses–famous and otherwise–could stand to learn from these examples.
According to a study reported by the BBC, a third of employees admit to having been hungover at work. Another one in ten admit to still being drunk at the office. The thing that’s awesome about this article (and what makes it clear that it has a UK perspective on drinking instead of a US one) is that they blame the office culture, not employees. Among the reasons cited for employee hangovers/drunkovers:
- Having to be at work too early in the morning and not getting enough sleep
- People drinking to cope with pressure/stress related to their jobs
- Not enough people having the option to work from home
I swear, the people quoted in this article are people after my own heart. Witness this quote from Prof. Cary Cooper: “This is not about social drinking. This is about the long-hours culture we have in this country. It’s the jobs where there is most stress - long hours, high expectations, short-term contracts and bad management - where you get the most excessive drinking.”
Someone addressing the changing needs of the workplace instead of blaming employees? Dr. Cooper, the next time you’re on this side of the Atlantic, beer is on me.
Keith Josef Adkins wants to tell you about his stint as “a disgruntled assistant to a top-notch writer” who he’ll only describe as “a woman, African-American, lived in California and the musical predecessor to Rock-n-Roll was the muse that made her pen go buck-wild and win a few top-notch awards.
“The real doozy was the time she reprimanded me in front of a group of grad students for sabotaging her career. I was given the responsibility of removing an overabundance of praise from a story by a student of color. Her rationale: she didn’t want the other students to think she was playing favorites based on ethnicity. Well, apparently I screwed up. During a group reading, another student noticed an area on the story where things looked smudged. My employer was livid. In front of everyone, I was accused of setting her up to fail. For trying to destroy the career of an African-American writer.”
There’s also an anecdote about how he started a fire in her kitchen, but that’s not nearly as dramatic.
–Via GalleyCat, with an update here.
Our stance on workplace dating tends to be “don’t,” just because of all the drama that can ensue. That said, if you’re willing to chance it there are certain guidelines to follow. While this Yahoo article is written for men who are trying to date a woman in their office, it has some general rules everyone can learn from:
- Spend some time in group settings
If you’re going to date someone at the office, you don’t want to just have a hookup or a fling, because it’s not worth it. Make sure this person is relationship material by testing the waters. Go out with them and a few other coworkers for lunch or happy hour. Having other people around is also a good way to buffer any potential “those two are hooking up” rumors.
You know that Corporate reads your email, and don’t think that’s going to stop happening if you and a coworker develop a personal relationship. Make sure you don’t put anything in an email you wouldn’t want your boss to read. “Can’t wait to see you naked tonight” and “Your ass looks so good today” are two examples of things not to say in email.
- Introduce your office crush to your friends gradually
Again, if you’re going to date at work, you should do so gingerly. If you think this person’s worth integrating into your social scene, do it with caution. Try one or two of your close friends first and move out from there. Some people like to keep their work persona and their real personality very separate. Dating a coworker will cause those two world to crash into each other.
It never fails to amuse me when people ‘figure out’ stuff we on STA have known forever. It probably has to do with the fact that people with the cash to conduct workplace studies aren’t people who had to work as assistants. Anyone want to give me a bunch of money to tell you stuff I already know?
Anyway, today’s no-brainer workplace study is entitled: “Stressful jobs cost workers and employers.” You think?
Let’s sum it up. People who are stressed out leave their jobs. They’re also way more depressed. That’ll be six thousand bucks.