I am really annoyed by how many career advice articles out there relating to tattoos sound as if they were written by my grandmother. I mean, the “advice” for careers that you can have while still having semi-visible ink and/or piercings is always confined to “barista,” “bartender,” and “tattoo parlor employee” [such as Kat Von D, below]. Most of these articles fail to acknowledge the fact that tattoos are more and more common these days, and that includes not only employees but bosses and people in management positions. Sure, if you work in a corporate law office or something you probably can’t get away with that giant neck tattoo you’ve always wanted, but the rules regarding visible tats have really changed in the last few years.
This CNN article, while still a bit stodgy, is positively ultramodern when it comes to discussing tattoos in the workplace. This story deals with not just whether visible tattoos are OK but whether men and women have to follow different standards about body art. While lots of employers are coming around, there are plenty more who haven’t.
After finally returning home from one of the most wonderful days that I’ve ever spent with my mom and uncle (he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer but never missed a beat on enjoying life), we all did some silly cheer because we finally were turning on to my mom’s street. Then *boom* my uncle drops dead in the backseat!
When I called my boss to let her know what happened, I actually had to just leave a simple message for her to “please make sure call me back”. When she did call, this how the conversation went:
Me: Hi. Thanks for calling me back. I just need to let you know that my uncle unexpectedly had a heart attack on our drive home yesterday. He died instantly.
Boss: Uh huh, and how does this effect the team?
Me: (Silence)
–Submitted by Mercy, South Carolina
While Garfield hasn’t been funny in years (although Garfield Minus Garfield is brilliant), the strip’s creator, Jim Davis, continues working. Garfield turned 30 last week, and in one of the laudatory articles about Davis we got to meet his assistant-cum-PR-director, 24-year-old “Paws Inc” veteran Kim Campbell.
“I sometimes think about how it’s changed my life,” said director of public relations Kim Campbell, a 24-year employee who first left a job as a cable television service office manager to become Davis’ personal assistant. “I just got lucky.”
She had met the cartoonist at a party, then received his job offer a couple months later. Since then she has befriended celebrities, learned lots about the entertainment business and even been a co-writer of the Garfield Thanksgiving Show, for which she received an Emmy nomination.
“If you show an aptitude for something, he’ll give you a chance at it,” Campbell said.
My own thoughts on Garfield nonwithstanding, I think it’s pretty cool that a woman in her early 20s was plucked from a mindless job and is now an Emmy-nominated producer. It’s nice to see someone in the twilight of his career, who has made a ton of money and really never has to do anything for anyone if he doesn’t feel like it, helping out someone who is just entering the workforce. This would probably be the place for a nine lives joke, if I wanted to make one.
If you live in New York, pick up today’s New York Observer and check out the article by Doree Shafrir about the plight of publishing-industry assistants in the city. It features some great quotes and commentary from Lilit. You can check the article out here. There’s also an excerpt on Radar and some commentary on Jossip, who refers to Lilit as an “‘industry help’ godmother.” We are now going to call her that all the time.
You may not know who Mark Walberg is, but you’ve probably seen him on TV. Not to be confused with Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg, Mark L. Walberg has made a career hosting shows like Joe Millionaire, Anything for Love, the dearly departed Shop Til You Drop, and the current Moment of Truth. However, he got his start as one of us– an assistant at Dick Clark Productions.
I guess he only had to answer phones long enough til someone spotted him and thought “this utterly generic man is the TV host I’ve been looking for all my life!,” but hey, if I had the choice between hosting an embarrassing midseason replacement reality show or being an assistant, I’d probably go with the former.
44-year-old Brit Ian Usher, who lives in Western Australia, recently went through a messy divorce and decided he wanted to start his life over again. So he came up with the idea of putting his entire life on eBay so he could use the cash to refinance a new beginning. Among items on the block: Usher’s three-bedroom home in the suburbs of Perth, a car, a motorcycle, a Jet Ski, kite-surfing equipment, and Usher’s job as a sales assistant in a rug shop.
I have to admit that I was pretty tempted to bid on Usher’s life, until I saw that the current high bid is $1.7 million. Honestly, if I could sell my own assistant job for that kind of cash, I’d do it and be on the first plane to Australia.
Today’s Publisher’s Lunch (a newsletter for people in the book industry) announces the upcoming publication of a book by Chuy Bravo, who is comedienne Chelsea Handler’s personal assistant.
Chuy Bravo’s LITTLE NUGGETS OF WISDOM, containing approximately 90 “nuggets” (pitched as a cross between fortune cookie sayings and Jack Handy’s Deep Thoughts) and photos of the lovable nugget [Editor's Note: Chuy is a 'little person'] himself, to Jennifer Bergstrom at Simon Spotlight Entertainment.
Sadly, this post cannot count as a Former Assistant Done Good, as Chuy remains an assistant. That said, it’s pretty cool that Chelsea helped him get a book deal (Chuy’s announcement was part of a bigger post about Chelsea’s new book, so it’s obvious what’s going on).
It’s not enough that Mike Myers has to torment all of America with his interminable ads for The Love Guru, he also has to torment PAs on the set of Conan O’Brien. Myers, who is known for being difficult, reportedly “sent a team of interns on a wild goose chase for Silk nondairy creamer, Twizzlers and raspberry seltzer. Then he sent one of the interns back out to get him a new drink when he realized his seltzer was not the brand he requested.”
While that’s a dick move, it’s not as dick as other stories we’ve heard about demanding celebrities. I mean, a male PA on The View had to go shopping for little-girl low-rise panties. I’m sure there are better Mike Myers stories out there than this one, but at the same time, I really can’t pass up an opportunity to snark on The Love Guru.
According to a recent study, 19 percent of office workers have stolen supplies from the office. Of those, 22 percent report feeling guilty about it.
To that I say…only 19 percent? Really? I mean, I’m not talking about stealing laptops or anything, but pens, Post-Its, and even toilet paper should be considered fair game. If your boss is allowed to have a company car and have his brand-new iPhone paid for as a ‘work expense,’ then by all means you should take home a three hole puncher. You should consider yourself the Robin Hood of the workplace.
You can see more detailed results–and who is lying–here.
