When it’s cold, it’s easy to look more formal at work. You’re already all covered up and wearing thick, non-transparent fabrics. But with summer coming (or if you live in someplace other than the Northeast, summer might be there already), you start trying to walk that line between cute summer attire and proper work dress. You can always throw a cardigan over your sundress or stick flip-flops in your bag while you sport loafers at the office, but … what about shorts? One article examines the trend-that’s-now-too-longstanding-to-be-a-trend:
In May 2006, when shorts first started making their way into city offices in the US, The New York Times’ Ruth la Ferla put it down to an easing of workplace dress standards.
“Dress codes these days are as elastic as a bungee cord, expanding to accommodate all manner of once unthinkable workplace infractions,” she wrote. “This year that increasingly flexible standard has stretched to encompass shorts, of all things.”
La Ferla too had waved them off as a passing “infraction”. A faux pas. One that we’d all laugh about later. She too was wrong.
As for your office, my general attitude about dress codes is “wait and see.” If someone higher up than you can get away with wearing shorts, then you’re good to go. Otherwise, you can try wearing a pair but keep a pair of pants in your bag just in case the office manager gives you a dirty look and you feel like you might be veering too far on the side of informal. Just, whatever you do, don’t wear a skort. No one can pull that off.
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.
Lost your job? Got your hours cut? Either way, there’s a trend on the rise among the gainfully underemployed: recession booty. In other words, if you’re stuck at home all day, you might as well have some hot body to keep you company. And, if you’re bored and tired of reading the want ads and watching The People’s Court reruns, why not have sex with somebody in order to keep yourself occupied? I mean, hey, it’s a nice way to compensate for having to give up your gym membership.
Crocs are one of the scourges of humanity. They come in bright colors that look good on no one, are made of this weird hard plastic that is actually bad for your feet (despite their claims that Crocs are ’so comfortable’) and bad for the environment, and they are responsible for half of the abomination that is The Crugg. Now, the newly introduced hole-free Crocs At Work line is designed with the ‘medical professional’ in mind. “Available in black, navy and pearl, Crocs Specialist’ introduces fun and style into the workplace, is certified by US Ergonomics, is odor and bacteria resistant and can be easily cleaned with soap and water,” says a press release.
Look, fine, maybe nurses like Crocs because they do well on a hospital floor or something. Mario Batali thinks they’re great for chefs, although I suspect his endorsement of Crocs as kitchen footwear is a cover for his absolute lack of style.
Would you be able to get away with Crocs as acceptable footwear in your office? If so, where do you work, and do you have photographic evidence?
I love Margaret Cho. I once got to interview her when she spoke at my university. She complimented my boots. (I still have them, because obviously when Margaret Cho compliments your boots, you have to keep them forever.) Now, she’s back on TV with The Cho Show, a reality show in the vein of Kathy Griffin’s My Life on the D-List. And just like “Team Griffin” (Kathy’s assistants Jessica and Tiffany) plays a major part on her show, The Cho Show features Margaret’s assistant, Selene Luna.
If Selene is half as funny and cool as Margaret, she’ll make a great sidekick. However, one identifying detail stuck out to me: Selene is a little person, just like Chelsea Handler’s assistant Chuy. If InStyle thinks two celebrities doing something is enough to count as a trend, well, then, damn it, I hereby announce that it is a trend for female comics to have little people as their assistants. I wonder if Selene will get a book deal next…
It seems like “life coaching” is one of those fad professions that’s not going anywhere for the time being. (Remember Terrence, Paris’ life coach on Gilmore Girls? God, I loved that show.) Now, some life coaches are specifically focusing on careers, combining motivational speaking and corporate strategizing. “The coach’s job is to see things about you that you may be blind to yourself,” says career coach Fred Horowitz. An interesting side note: Horowitz was apparently ‘certified’ at a place called Coach University. Is that like when McDonald’s managers have to go to Hamburger U?
If you’re an assistant, you probably can’t afford a career coach, and you’re probably also the person who needs one the most. So what can you do instead? Get some type-A friends who can support and motivate you. You might be able to find a mentor either on your own or through your company who can give you advice specific to your industry and also give you a heads up about advancement opportunities. Search criagslist or a social networking site for your field and see if they have meetups, networking events, or other social functions.
Or, you could just call Terrence, even though he’s a fictional character.
A recent study found that less than half of American workers think that their office encourages or fosters creativity. The Workplace Democracy Association, who sponsored the study, found that at least a quarter of workers are in a “dictatorship” situation at the office, meaning that they are expected to fall in line with commands from someone in an absolute position of power.
This news shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who is or has been an assistant. In fact, the boss/personal assistant relationship kind of defines “dictatorship”–they’re the general, and you’re the lackey who picks up dry cleaning and makes lunch reservations.
So how can we make workers feel like they have a say in what happens between 9 and 5? 80 percent of respondents wanted the ability to make their own decisions about how to do their work. 18 percent suggested that they new employees be hired by a group of coworkers instead of a single boss. If they had called STA HQ to ask our thoughts, “treating us like human beings instead of drones” would have been high on the list, as would “no yelling, throwing things, or name-calling.” Come to think of it, the latter would really be appropriate for a kindergarten as well.
Ashley here. I recently came back from my first vacation in, um, three years. Surprise, surprise, but I’m having a really hard time actually getting back into this whole work thing. Checking email gives me a headache, sitting in on meetings gives me rigormortis of the ass, and trying to work on “deliverables” doesn’t get beyond staring at an empty Word doc, eventually wiping drool from the corner of my mouth and deciding to go get my umpteenth coffee of the day.
At first I figured I just wasn’t into the job, but – and I do realize the blog I’m writing this on – I actually like my job. I like vacation more, of course, but my job definitely does not suck. So what gives? Why am I not well-rested and able to concentrate?
I blame Post-Vacation Depression Disorder (or PVDD), an anti-email, anti-meeting, anti-cubicle malaise that most of us pick up after a really excellent vacation. While there is no immediate cure, PVDD is definitely grounds for a mental health day, so feel free to use it to prolong that vacation one… more… day.
It’s really hard to escape buzzwords at work–after all, that’s why STA even has a “buzzword” category in the first place. The BBC asked readers from around the world to submit their least-loved office terms. Here are a couple of the standouts:
- My employers recently informed staff that we are no longer allowed to use the phrase brain storm because it might have negative connotations associated with fits. We must now take idea showers. I think that says it all really.
- In my work environment it’s all cascading at the moment. What they really mean is to communicate or disseminate information, usually downwards. What they don’t seem to appreciate is that it sounds like we’re being wee’d on. Which we usually are.
- I work in one of those humble call centres for a bank. Apparently, what we’re doing at the moment is sprinkling our magic along the way. It’s a call centre, not Hogwarts.
- The business-speak that I abhor is pre-prepare and forward planning. Is there any other kind of preparedness or planning?
- The latest that’s stuck in my head is we are still optimistic things will feed through the sales and delivery pipeline (ie: we actually haven’t sold anything to anyone yet but maybe we will one day).
A recent survey of 18-24 year olds in the UK (no word on whether they were assistants) got some stats on what people do at work when they’re not working. 80% of 18-24 year olds log onto social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, jDate, etc), 63% download music, and 58% watch videos on YouTube during working hours.
About 40 percent of people in this group said they would quit a job that banned personal internet use, and another 20 percent admitted they would be annoyed.
I wish I had the option of quitting any job that banned me from looking at my email. However, I think it’s pretty unreasonable to assume everyone is working 100 percent of the time they’re at work. Even if your boss can’t figure out how to use the intertubes, he or she is taking a personal call on their work line or reading the newspaper. When you force people behind a desk for eight or more hours a day, how can you expect their attention never to waver?
To his credit, the CEO of Telindus (the company that commissioned the survey) said, “An outright ban on personal internet usage is clearly not the right approach to tackle a sluggish corporate network.”
Oh, that reminds me: speaking of Facebook, join the STA group!
