Tipsters tell us that the receptionists—who sit on each floor to greet and announce visitors, receive packages, and answer phones—will have their last day on Friday. Sad! They’re naturally some of the most popular people in the building, being the only ones with a professional obligation to smile at everyone and act civil and useful.
On top of that, this move is probably a part of CEO Charles Townsend’s latest round of company-wide cutbacks, but it can’t be saving Conde that much money—the receptionists are some of the lowest-paid (if not the lowest-paid) people in the whole building.
Sounds like a sad day over at Conde Nast – just last month they tightened the budgets of already-overworked assistants. If you’re one of the laid off receptionists and want to share your story, email me at contact@savetheassistants.com. I wonder why it is that the people who get fired are always the underpaid admins, not the overpaid executives whose bad business decisions got the company in trouble in the first place?
If you were recently laid off, one of your biggest concerns is probably figuring out what to do about health insurance. Well, Walgreen’s has just announced a plan to provide some free services to their customers who no longer have health insurance. Their in-store Take Care clinics (check online to see if there’s a clinic in your area, as not every city has one) will offer free clinics for allergies, respiratory problems, skin conditions, and more.
Free services will be offered only from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Walgreens said it will not offer free checkups, vaccinations or other injections because it is focusing on providing services patients might otherwise get at an urgent-care center or even an emergency room.
Patients must present proof they are unemployed, including a federal or state unemployment determination letter and an unemployment check stub. They will have to sign a form at the clinic saying they have lost their jobs and health benefits. If they find a new job or get new health insurance, they will no longer be eligible for free care.
Spouses and children are also eligible for free services if they don’t have insurance of their own.
Points to Walgreen’s for recognizing a need in their community and trying to address it. While the program is currently just an “experiment,” let’s hope that they decide to keep it going for awhile. There’s no clinic in New York yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. You can check out the store directory here.
If you’re unemployed, it seems far more fun to sit around all day constantly updating Twitter than scouring the job ads yet again. Well, Mashable (the folks behind Twitter) wants you to be able to do both at once. Check out their tips for using microblogging as a way to find a job:
Write about your job search. Some people who follow you may not know you personally and therefore might not know that you’re looking for work. Updating your followers about your job search might encourage someone to send you a link or connect you to a person they know, and every little bit counts.
Include a link to your bio/resume/LinkedIn page on your Twitter profile.
Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want a job recruiter or potential boss to see. If you’re applying for a job, most employers know they have to Google you. Remember that if they find your Twitter, they’re going to go through it, so you might want to reconsider liveblogging your bikini wax or using Twitter to talk shit about your ex.
Use a picture of yourself as your avatar. That way people will know it’s your actual Twitter.
Consider getting a second account. If you simply can’t resist using Twitter to update people about your sex life or how much you love Rock of Love, maybe you should get a second friends-only account that requires people who want to follow you to ask permission.
The economy has hit everyone hard – even also-ran reality “stars.” That’s why VH1 darling Tiffany “New York” Pollard has had to suck it up like the rest of us and go back to work.
Except…not exactly. Her new show, New York Goes to Work, will feature New York trying a variety of blue-collar jobs, from fast food employee to mortuary beautician. (Reality Blurred’s Andy Dehnart correctly identifies the show as “some kind of half-assed Dirty Jobs knock-off.”) If she does well at that week’s assigned job and pleases her bosses, she gets a $5,000 bonus.
I wonder if this downgrade means she still gets to keep her assistant? That’s the only part of this new series I find at all interesting.
Last night, I actually watched an episode of The Celebrity Apprentice. Last night’s task had the celebrities (who include Joan and Melissa Rivers, Brian McKnight, Dennis Rodman, poker player Annie Duke, and more) running hotels. This meant they had to do everything – from cleaning rooms to working the front desk. Most of the humor of the episode came from watching these people, who normally are guests in swanky hotels, having to wait on picky, prissy guests who demanded last-second front row seats to sold out Broadway shows and dinner reservations at A-list restaurants like the Waverly Inn. I have to admit, the whole episode gave me wonderful schadenfreude as I watched Khloe Kardashian prepare room service and Tionne Watkins (aka T-Boz from TLC) clean bathrooms. Some of them (like Tionne) had good attitudes about the whole thing, and some of them were totally horrified by doing the work of commoners. Basically, celebrities got a small taste of what their assistants’ lives were like. And I loved it. The entire episode (it’s an hour and a half long, so maybe save this one for when you get home) is here:
I’ve just cleared my entire schedule for tomorrow (although, when you’re unemployed, you don’t have much of a schedule to speak of beyond “wake up” and “halfheartedly look at online job ads”), because I simply must attend The Unemployment Olympics. Held in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, events for the Olympics include the Fax Machine Toss, the “You’re Fired!” Race, and – my personal favorite – Pin the Blame on the Boss. If you, like me, live in New York and want to participate, you must bring proof of unemployment with you – your state unemployment card, a letter from your former employer, or a stub from an unemployment check will all be accepted.
Seriously, I cannot decide whether to be thrilled this exists or pissed that I didn’t think of it first.
A lot of celebrity personal assistants I meet tell me that they’re only doing the job to earn enough money that they can then go live their dream (buying a beach house, helping orphans, traveling the world in a kayak, whatever), only to never end up doing it. Elana Weber, however, is a notable exception to this troubling rule. Weber spent several years working as the personal assistant to composer Danny Elfman, who is best known for composing music for tons of films and TV shows, including the theme for The Simpsons (and for being related to crazy-ass Jenna Elfman). Now, Weber owns and operates a green furniture store in Pennsylvania. The shop, Material Witness, “is dedicated to organic, safe and sustainable design.” Plus, she makes these things called EcoSmart Fires which sound awesome – “These little units can heat up to 400 square feet and come in a multitude of shapes and sizes. Since they are ventless, they can be placed in a fireplace without a working flue or just about anywhere.” They’re crazy expensive, but I really want one. Hey, Elana, want to help out another ex-assistant?
Normally, a story about movie mogul/dude with four assistants Harvey Weinstein would not be that interesting to me. Sure, it’s kind of cool that he bought the rights to this screenplay about John Lennon as a teenager growing up in Liverpool even though I’m still scarred from seeing that Lennon musical that lasted about a week on Broadway a couple years ago. But then, this happened:
But for Harvey Weinstein, the acquisition of the film – now shooting in and around Liverpool – was more personal. For the veteran film impresario, being involved with a Beatles project was the equivalent of coming full circle. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Weinstein was a skinny, long-haired, bell-bottomed teenager, he worked at Apple Records’ New York office. The highlight of his job involved running errands for McCartney and picking up Lennon at the airport. For a 16-year-old Beatles fan, full of Hollywood dreams, it was nirvana.
So, Harvey Weinstein used to be an assistant?! You’d think the guy would have a better sense of assistant karma or something if that were the case.
“I have to admit that I still pinch myself that having started out as Paul McCartney’s assistant, I’m now Paul McCartney’s friend.”
Once again proving that my own unemployment is rich fodder for other people, the New York Times reports what the contents of my trash can could already tell you – when the going gets tough, the tough get sweet tooths.
In a rare case of someone doing well during this economy, stores like New York’s Dylan’s Candy Bar and Economy Candy are reporting upticks in sales as adults indulge their candy habits. Those who have been recently laid off or are earning less money are finding that candy is a quick – and cheap – high. In particular, they’ve been buying candy that they loved as kids, from Violet Gum to Mary Janes to Tootsie Rolls. [My own drug of choice is strawberry or cherry sour punch straws, and at my old job they were my favorite form of cubicle speed.] Just last week, I had an entire conversation with a friend about how awesome Bubble Tape was and how confounding it is that no one’s bringing it back. Maybe articles like this one will convince people that Bubble Tape is seriously due for a comeback. Til then, I’m just reading it and getting hungrier.
Lindsay Lohan, assistants, and cars are a pretty bad combination. First, Lindsay got a DUI when she was in her car trying to chase down former assistant Tarin when she quit suddently – that incident brought us a whole wave of joyous things, including Lindsay’s mugshot and claiming that she was wearing someone else’s coke-in-the-pockets jeans. Now, Lindsay’s assistant (she wasn’t named in the article, but I assume it’s longsuffering PA Jenni Muro, who reportedly once rescued her boss from drowning in a bathtub) has apparently ran LiLo’s brand new Maserati into a parked car. The car, which Lindsay bought after finally getting her driver’s license back, cost $100,000. Repairing that will probably cost more than Jenni makes in a year.
Gawker.com is reporting that publishing behemoth Conde Nast (home to Vogue, Vanity Fair, and other illustrious titles) is laying off almost all of their receptionists.
If you’re unemployed, it seems far more fun to sit around all day constantly updating Twitter than scouring the job ads yet again. Well, Mashable (the folks behind Twitter) .jpg "new york goes to work")
The economy has hit everyone hard – even also-ran reality “stars.” That’s why VH1 darling Tiffany “New York” Pollard has had to suck it up like the rest of us 
I’ve just cleared my entire schedule for tomorrow (although, when you’re unemployed, you don’t have much of a schedule to speak of beyond “wake up” and “halfheartedly look at online job ads”), because I simply must attend 
Normally, a story about movie mogul/
Once again proving that my own unemployment is rich fodder for other people, 
