by Solange Lopes | Jun 8, 2014 | Career
News – visualphotos.com
Happy happy Sunday! Hope everyone is having a great Sunday and enjoying the summer weather!
As we’re relaxing and getting ready for the week, here are some of our favorite articles and posts this past week:
- Black Enterprise reveals to us in their analysis that as baby boomers see job gains, millenials on the other hand, face stagnation;
- And for the job hoppers out there, Black Enterprise’s Janell Hazelwood relieves some of our fears by sharing with us that according to a recent survey, employers are more accepting of job hoppers:
- Just in time for graduating season, Fast Company tips us on how the class of 2014 will find jobs;
- Wondering if tech industry sexism is finally disappearing? Well, not exactly, as HuffPost shares with us how this “tone-deaf” sexist ad is biting TechWeek Chicago in the butt;
- In high-tech news, there’s a new innovation we wouldn’t mind using, the high-tech headband that can make your stressed brain happy again, via Forbes;
- In more spiritual news, Essence’s Coach Felicia gets us uplifted and shows us how to get to the upside of conflict;
- We couldn’t help but going “yes” when reading about LEGO Introducing its first female scientist playsets, via Refinery 29;
- In natural hair news, Mahogany Curls (we love Mahogany Curls) explains 5 ways to prep for the summer;
- Last but not least, our own The Corporate Sister tells you that no, you don’t have to choose between career and motherhood.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to each and every one of you for your continued support. Much love, and happy Sunday!
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 6, 2014 | Career
Linen Safari jacket – $108 – thelimited.com
TGIF! We’re dreaming of exotic escapes today, so our fashion excursion is taking us on a safari with this linen safari jacket from The Limited!
Love love this linen jacket in mid-weight linen twill, with its notched lapels and buttoned epaulets! So stylish, and so “right on time” for summer! Perfect to pair with the coordinated pants for work, and the coordinated shorts for the week-end, both available at The Limited!
A great addition to your summer wardrobe! It’s $108 at The Limited!
Seen a great, office-friendly fashion pick you’d like to share? Please post a comment below, or email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 6, 2014 | Career |
Career choices – atlantablackstar.com
Happy Friday! TGIF!
There’s been a lot of controversy lately around women having to choose between career and motherhood. With the pressures of a successful career piling up on a minority of women, and the sense that career opportunities are really too far and few in between for women, the sense of an impending choice is all too real, all too often…
“I can just sacrifice and do this for a few years, then I can have my life back!”, or “If I don’t seize this opportunity now, it’ll never happen again!”, or even “If I get pregnant now, I’ll never be able to achieve my dreams”, are just some of the thoughts going through many a corporate sister’s mind, as we consider the possibility of motherhood against the narrow career path for women.
While we’ve seen some women for whom delaying motherhood has somewhat worked, allowing them to reach high levels in their careers before “settling down”, we’ve also witnessed cases when choosing career over motherhood has translated into heartbreaking infertility stories. By age 35, a women’s chances of conceiving decreases, with a 20 to 35% chance of miscarriage. Yet again, some corporate sisters would have preferred having children earlier in hindsight, mourning the time lost and having a hard time grappling with time-consuming careers and families.
Is there a right choice to be made here? Is there a right or wrong answer to this perennial dilemma? I don’t believe there ever will be. Simply because there should not be a dilemma in the first place. Because we, as women, mothers and professionals, should not have to choose between nature’s course and achieving our dreams. It’s because society, and ourselves, have been imposing this pressure on our bodies and lives, that it has now become one additional (and weighty) limitation.
It is up to us to change the dialogue and teach society and companies alike (and ourselves in the process) that there should be no choice required. That both career and motherhood may be par for the course, and that neither ought to cancel the other out!
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 5, 2014 | Career
madamenoire.com
In our after-hours feature today, we were wondering what your “after-hours system” is, that is, if you even have one! What do we mean by an “after-hours system”(as you’ll notice, we have a bunch of “corporate sister-isms”, or more or less corny catchy phrases that more or less capture the essence of our uber-busy, overpacked existences).
So back to the “after-hours system”! In other words, once we real corporate sisters get home after a hopefully productive, definitely grueling day at the office, do we have a well-oiled, engineered system to get us through our personal, family and house-related tasks effectively and efficiently? Or do we just go through the motions, barely making it through the evening, before (un-graciously) collapsing in bed? And why would we even need a system? Aren’t we just wired to perform perfectly at work, and follow up with a comparably stellar performance at home, maybe even fitting some beautifying fitness in the mix? Right? Wrong!
After years of drowning under the pressures and demands of work and home, I’ve decided I simply can’t keep pretending I’ve got it all under control. Judging by the overflowing laundry baskets, makeshift menus and “forgotten” doctors’ appointments, I needed a system! And frankly, the prospect of spending sunny week-ends creatively expanding my family’s clean clothing options, not so appealing!
So instead of going through the motions and delaying the inevitable, I pulled out my smartphone, gathered my team family and got to work! Sundays andTuesdays are Cooking days (read 30-minute meals), while Mondays and Wednesday evenings are laundry nights. The rest of the nights are for leftovers, and ordering out. And Friday night is family night, so no chores whatsoever, even if the sink is piled up with dishes or we have to come up with makeshift pajamas…It is what it is… And when late nights at work, kids’ recitals or emergency grocery runs come to disrupt the “system”, we take a deep breath and compromise!
Do we stick to the “system” on a consistent basis? Hmmm….we do our best, let’s put it that way. Yet one thing is for sure, we’ve regained a good chunk of our week-ends, and we feel a tad bit less underwater…
Do you have an “after-hours” system?
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 5, 2014 | Career
Close the Gap App – she negotiates.com
For our coffee break feature today, we absolutely wanted to talk about the Close the Gap app! We recently ran into it on Twitter, and literally thought: “Wow!” An app that acts as your own personal or business coach, helps you define your goals, build your support network and even negotiate your salary! Pretty revolutionary, huh?
We love the concept, and as corporate sisters on the lookout for new innovations helping everyday career women like you and I to make it further and higher in our careers, we think this is a darn great step in the right direction!
Collaboratively designed by the founders of Take The Lead and She Negotiates, this app is simply, in the words of my two-year old, “awesome”!
Check it out more below:
Your thoughts?
The Corporate Sister.
