We’re on the record as believing that no one should work between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Let’s be honest: even if you go to work, you’re probably not doing any work, unless online shopping counts as work. So let’s kick off the Week in Review with some workplace distractions:
And if you’re feeling somewhat more introspective and want to ponder life’s great questions, we might suggest:
Have a lovely, luge-friendly weekend.
In the nonstop crazy world that is celebrity assistantdom, this week didn’t disappoint. We got a retroactive horror story from Hunter S. Thompson’s former assistant, British songstress Lily Allen reportedly considered an assistant job, and P.Diddy picked a new helper on live TV.
We also haven’t missed out on a second of the coverage of assistant Natavia Lowery, who admitted to murdering her boss, celebrity real estate broker Linda Stein, which inspired us to coin the term going assistantal, which is the new “going postal.” How can you prevent yourself from going assistantal? We recommend staying healthy, not putting up any red flags, and when you’re going through a particularly bad day, reading this story of an assistant saved or this of an assistant who shamed her boss without having to kill him, for inspiration.
We leave you with these parting words: be good to yourselves, and each other.
It’s been a busy week over here at STA. Here are the highlights you may have missed in our flood of content this week:
We’re going to try and get out of Dodge a little early today, and we hope all of you do the same as well. As we prepare to celebrate Labor Day (hey, wait…a day for laborers? like us?), let’s comb through the best of this week’s happenings.
Topics to debate in the car:
STA is taking Labor Day off–we’ll see your bright and shiny faces on Tuesday, September 4th.
We set out with a few goals for this week. Happily we managed to complete all of them. Yay, us!
- Further our “quit your job and take up a water sport” campaign? Check. Also spoke highly of working at home option.
- Burst the bubble about working for a cultural icon/media tycoon? Check.
- Cross the aisle and get some workplace advice from “the other side” (i.e., bosses… shudder)? Check.
- Feature the phrase, “It’s horrible for the celebrity to have a revolving door of assistants…having assistants coming in and out of your life is a detriment to the talent.” Check.
And have a great weekend. (Check.)
Let’s start with this week’s celebrity assistant roundup:
Britney’s former assistant got subpoenaed and ratted Brit out to the tabloids all in the same week! Oprah’s assistant works crazy hours but is also pretty well compensated, and successful producer Nancy Junoven swears that she liked being an assistant. Clearly, times have changed.
In the meantime, we’ve provided some insight into why your boss might hate you, and you helped us (well, the Lilit half of us) be a bigger person.
Also? We hit our 300th post this week! Lucky number 300 was entitled Cope with the Job Blues. Appropriate, don’t you think?
We never would have made it to 300 without you guys. Thanks for sharing your smarts–and your horror stories.
As New York City tries to keep its head above water, we assistants are metaphorically doing the same thing. Here’s what the week brought us:
We learned a lot of lessons–for example, when to quit, when to fight, and what never to do on a job interview.
We also found out that even football players can be assistants when they grow up, Jessica Alba may or may not have the herp, and that CEOs only associate with other CEOs–and their assistants.
Hope that wasn’t too much for you. Maybe you should take a break from all that blog-reading and do work. Or browse new stuff on eBay. Your call.
This week saw major excitement in the world of celebrity assistants. It’s starting to seem like working for Naomi Campbell might be one of the safer bets.
Britney fired her latest victim after only three weeks, but not before her former cousin-assistant decided to launch a pop career of her own AND help K-fed with his custody battle (but we’re not savethefamily.com, so you’ll have to consult the Googles for more coverage)…
There was even more excitement in the concrete jungles of Los Angeles, as rumors flew around about Lindsay Lohan giving chase to her freshly-”let go” second assistant, only to end up busted again and smacked upside the head by an enraged mother (allegedly).
Back in what is looking more and more like the normal world, we played with toys, learned all about the three faces of Mimi (not LaRue, unfortunately), learned a valuable lesson about gossip, and found out that former assistants can find true love in the form of Steve Martin.
Oh, Steve Martin, you make it all seem worth it… Sigh.
This week, we at STA learned that there is one good thing about going to work in the summer: your office has much better a/c than your apartment. So stay cool, assistants, and breeze through this week in STA land.
Horror story roundup: age discrimination at the library, a creepy sleepwalking boss, and the stealth assistant job.
In the universe of celebrity assistants, CaCee Cobb stepped out on her own(sort of), and fired NBC anchor Stone Phillips bought his assistant a car. What has your boss done for you lately?
Finally, don’t miss our interview with Free Food for Millionaires author Min Jin Lee, who dishes on job searches, the value of connections, and wants to give away two free copies of her book to STA readers. Free stuff and helpful advice? Not a bad way to kick off the weekend.
Yes, we’re exhausted too. Maybe we should curb the Friday afternoon office drinking.
This week has been surprisingly positive in STA-land. The evidence:
