The town of Jeannette, Pennsylvania, has taken a hit from the economic situation. They’ve been forced to lay off some of their city workers – including several police officers and a police dog. That’s right, y’all – a dog. A dog named Wando, specifically. I hope that his layoff compensation plan includes a steady supply of rawhides and cars to chase.
Monthly Archive for September, 2010
Last week, many beauty and style bloggers participated in No Makeup Week, forgoing makeup and photographing themselves in the process. I was one of the bloggers who didn’t take part, however. No, it’s not because I love putting eyeliner on at 8 AM when I’m still groggy and liable to poke myself in the face by accident. It’s because I almost never wear makeup to work, which would make participating in the exercise kind of pointless. There are several reasons for this (overwhelming laziness being chief among them), but a huge factor is the fact that I work in an all-female office.
That’s right: B5 Media, the company that owns The Gloss as well as our sister sites Blisstree and Crushable, does not have a single male working in the New York office. We have between 10 and 14 women in here every day (depending on which interns are in). A lot of people like to think that a large group of women can’t work together and that cattiness and backstabbing will inevitably ensue, but that hasn’t been our experience in the least. We’re lucky enough to work in an informal, close-knit, open office. Most of us dress casually to the office – no sweatpants, but no suits. Because we spend most of our day looking at computer screens instead of meeting with clients or vendors, we only have to dress to impress each other. As a result? I come in to work barefaced 99 percent of the time.
Working in an office full of women doesn’t make me feel like I have to dress better or get skinnier. Instead, it makes me feel like no one will care if I have blotchy skin or limp hair. More likely, one of my coworkers would lend me her favorite hand lotion or concealer if I needed it. My coworkers and I talk openly about everything from our relationships to our gray hairs. Part of the reason for that comfort is because we work at a startup, where a small group of core employees worked round-the-clock to launch three sites in a period of weeks. At some point, between late nights coding and early mornings trying to get a jump on the headlines, you have to lose your vanity.
That’s not to say that everything about our office is sunshine and roses. There are definitely disagreements, but that has to do with the fact that we’re all people with opinions rather than because we’re people with vaginas. It’s also pretty entertaining to watch how people react to walking into our office. A male janitor in our building calls us “the lady office” without a hint of humor. Guests who come into the office for meetings sometimes ask why there aren’t any guys in our office and start peeking behind doors, as if we’re stashing our male employees in the coat closet. And there are also plenty of people who don’t notice, which I consider the biggest achievement of all.
Every workplace is different, and I’ve worked in enough of them to feel pretty lucky about this one. And the reason I’m talking about what it’s like here is to refute some of those old notions that women can’t work together without becoming catty bitches, or that we dress up out of some desire to make other women jealous of us. Sometimes, we just go to the office to work.
This post also appears on The Gloss.
Want to get promoted? Can’t while there’s another coworker standing in your way? I’d advise you to ignore advice from Neil Weiner. Weiner, a school handyman, wanted to get promoted to custodian. But he couldn’t as long as there was currently a custodian, Eddie Thompson, doing the job. So what was Weiner’s brilliant plan? To put a bunch of kiddie porn on Thompson’s computer and try to get him fired. Luckily, it didn’t work, but Thompson had to endure several weeks of suspicion and abuse from concerned citizens before his name was finally cleared.
In other news, I bet Gary Glitter is already figuring out how to use this defense in the future.
Senator Harry Reid referred to his colleague, Senator Kristen Gillibrand, as ‘hot’ at a recent fundraiser. Since Reid’s the majority leader, he could be seen as Gillibrand’s boss. So CNN went to the street to ask people how they’d feel if their boss called them hot.
What happens after you work for a celebrity? As this site knows, there are any number of possible outcomes – you could end up like Marc Cherry, taking your assistant contacts and running with them until you become the boss, or you could be Alli Sims and spend the rest of your life attempting to grasp fame via your tenuous connection with a star. Rick Stanley, though, chose an entirely different path. The stepbrother and former personal assistant/bodyguard of Elvis Presley, Stanley battled drug and alcohol addiction and eventually found religion. Now he’s an evangelical preacher who travels the country telling his story. Also, he has a website. And, as you’ll see at right, a book.
Fashion Week just wrapped up here in New York. Some shows, like Rodarte, got great reviews. And some shows, like Zac Posen, did not. But lest you think the person who designed the clothes had anything to do with the show’s negative reviews, you should remember that it is always the assistant’s fault. According to Page Six:
Insiders say Posen’s executive assistant, who also managed the designer’s p.r. for the past few months, quit a week before the show. Then his casting director walked out three days beforehand. Insiders described Posen’s show as “disorganized,” with some VIPs, including Claire Danes and Kristin Cavallari, not having seat assignments.
I work in the mostly-male aviation industry. I’m the receptionist and assistant to the CEO of a company dealing with huge numbers of helicopter pilots. I was fully aware of the horny, “give me a piece of that ass”, attitude of pilots and males in general, but I had no idea what I was in store for.
The CEO (while friendly and a genuinely nice guy) is infamous for cycling through PA’s. First he dates the girl. Then, he impregnates the girl. While she is on maternity leave, a new girl is hired. Not long after, he dumps the previous and starts on the newest HOPA at the front desk. Right now he is on cycle 4…. and I’m cringing at the thought.
That’s not even what bothers me though. The worst man in the company is the newest hire.
A frat boy fresh out of college, he interned at the company for a few months, and was hired on as another assistant. He was fun to work with at first, but after he got his first pay check well….
It started out small: “Hey can you help me do (insert simple, 30 second task here)”
I’d readily agree and show him how.
Then it became: “Hey, I’m going to need you to run to (store) and pick up (item) while I’m at lunch, thanks.”
And finally: “Hey, clean this.”
This kid is Waaaay too big for his britches.
I’m in the process of hiring a receptionist so I can focus on the PA part of my job. New Kid was helping me sort through hundreds of resumes when he drops this bomb:
“We can’t hire a guy to take your place, because that would be like hiring a male waiter at Hooter’s.”
Continue reading ‘Horror Story: Too Big for His (Orange?) Britches’
Is Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, an even scarier place to be an intern than Conde Nast? The New York times reports:
A 21-year-old photography intern for a newspaper in Ciudad Juárez was shot and killed, and another intern was wounded in an attack Thursday at a shopping mall parking lot, their employer said. The shooting comes a week after the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report documenting the deaths or disappearance of more than 30 journalists since Mexico began a crackdown on traffickers that have left more than 28,000 people dead. Eight journalists have been killed this year, the group said. The pair of interns, from El Diario de Juárez, were attacked in their car by gunmen firing several rounds, leaving Luís Carlos Santiago dead. His unidentified companion was being treated at a hospital.
Our thoughts are with the intern’s loved ones.
What do chick flicks have to teach you about work? Lots, like “don’t take your bad day out on your cat” (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and “never cry at the office” (A League of Their Own). – Flavorwire
A quarter of women in the UK say they hate nicknames at the office. The most hated nicknames include “love,” “babe,” and “hon.” – The Daily Mail
Is it a good idea for a boss to play a joke on his employees by bringing a “poop cake” into the office? The answer is always, always “No.” – The Stir
Not getting enough sleep, combined with working late, makes for unproductive employees. If you need be, I’ll be napping under my desk. – Huffington Post
The Black Cloud, The Feeder, The Jezebel. No, they’re not pro wrestlers – they’re some of the coworkers you should never, ever be friends with. – Lemondrop
The Grateful Dead have a lot to teach us, and not just about drugs. They’re great managers! – The Atlantic
One upside of the recession? Failure doesn’t really mean what it used to. Yay? – Newsweek
Has anyone contacted you via Facebook claiming to offer you a job? Like most things on the internet, it’s probably a scam. – BizJournals
For some reason I have yet to figure out, Real Housewife of DC and White House party crasher Michaele Salahi has a personal assistant. – Monsters & Critics
