by Solange Lopes | Jun 13, 2014 | Career |
Flare skirt – $148 – jcrew.com
TGIF, and happy lunch break! Today, we are “flaring” with admiration for this flare skirt in super 120s wool from J. Crew! Loving the fit-and-flare shape of the skirt, as well as the fact that it’s tailored out of one of the finest merino wools, thus great for summer!
I would pair this skirt with a short-sleeve top just as pictured on a warm summer day, or tuck an elegant button-down shirt for added sophistication. This skirt is a great choice for work, with its knee-length and elegant draping! It’s $148 at J. Crew, and is available both in Regular and Petite.
Seen a great, office-friendly fashion pick you’d like to share? Please email corporate@thecorporatesister.com, or leave a comment!
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 13, 2014 | Career
rollingout.com
Happy Friday! TGIF!
The week-end is upon us, and so are many social events, parties and other festivities to attend this season! Between graduations, birthday parties, weddings and other cultural festivities, keeping up with your career and social agenda can be a tough act!
And of course, incidentally, it’s always also the time when deadlines at work are piling up, the baby catches a cold, and you just remembered you missed the deadline to renew your license? Really? Yes, really…
I have to admit that at times, juggling the demands of work and my family’s social agenda has been challenging. In many a minority’s community, traditions and rituals take an important place (and quite a bit of time), and family is really a village (both in size, complexity and schedule)! And for those of us who live in the real world, drawing a clear line in the sand delineating work and personal is close to impossible. So what is one to do when the line between career and social is blurred, and there are (only) 24 hours in the day?
1. Get Real! This is real life, so time to get real! Gone are the days when you could attend multiple functions throughout the week, hang out on week-ends with the extended family, take care of work and home, and still remember where your own head is at! You cannot do it all, and neither should you! So take yourself out for coffee and have a chat with your overachieving self about what you can reasonably do, and what your tired self can no longer handle! And start passing some precious NO’s around, so you can save your sanity…and your career!
2. Get some help! I remember trying to plan the perfect birthday party for my baby, make sure I invite everyone and have the perfect party favors! Or trying to hang out with the girls after work and partying it up right before a department meeting the next day! Fast forward a few years and a ton of mishaps, now I’m booking a kids’ venue for the kids’ birthdays, and making sure someone else drives me to the girls’ night out…oh, and never before a departmental meeting…Just sayin’…
3. Get organized! Forget the last minute days when you could remember things in a snap, and get ready for a meeting in a cinch! The whole “flyin’ by the seat of your pants” concept, gone, right along with your natural abs! While I haven’t totally given up on my impetuous nature, I try to limit stress attacks by planning and getting organized ahead of time. Attending a family function after work? Pick up times and outfits are planned ahead. Night before the department meeting? Sorry girls no late night girls’ drinks…Just sayin’…
How do you keep up with your career and social life?
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 12, 2014 | Career
Nailed It Desk Organizer – $58 – uncommongoods.com
Sunday is Father’s Day, and you know as busy as you are, you may have been planning for it, yet haven’t had a chance to actually get to it…
Well, for those of you still wondering, here is a great idea for a Father’s Day gift, that we stumbled upon on uncommongoods.com! The Nailed It Desk Organizer is a conversation piece, what with its unusual design, recycled steel and salvaged tool parts! Loving the originality of this gift that will make everyone smile, including the dad in question (please tell him it’s a not a real hammer…)!
It’s $58 at uncommongoods.com, and is ready for next day shipping too 🙂
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 12, 2014 | Career
Stretch cotton sailor pants – $69.50 – loft.com
It’s lunch break time! We are in a nautical mood today, so we’ve picked these stretch cotton sailor pants! It’s always tricky to find a nice pair of well-fitting, flattering white pants for the summer; we all know how revealing white can be (i’ve had my share of unfortunate white fashion experiences…)
Loving the chic wide leg and nautical details of these elegant pants, making them very office-friendly and super fashionable! The Julie Fit is also a curvy fit that is really flattering to curvier corporate sisters like myself. It’s $69.50 at Loft.com!
Seen a great, office-friendly fashion pick you’d like to recommend? Please share with us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com or post a comment!
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 12, 2014 | Career
galleryhip.com
Happy Thursday!
Hope all my corporate sisters are well and striving along as we come near to this week’s close!
Speaking of striving, after so many years fighting to be successful at work despite unfair race and gender-based prejudice, we tend to raise defensiveness walls which can at times stand in our way to success.
From my own experience in Big Corporate, I know I’ve exhibited more defensiveness in some cases than was necessary. Due to our experience with race and gender-based prejudice, we may at times mold our thought process, and resulting reaction pattern, to excessively rely on defensiveness in many a professional situation. I know I have…
Yet I’ve also come to understand that while prejudice is real in many a corporate or other professional setting, it’s also not always about race or gender. Raising our defensive walls at work can certainly have its benefits, yet it may also hinder us from leveraging the feedback we may be receiving from colleagues, superiors and even simply situations at hand.
How do we then differentiate between the positive and negative messages we get from our professional environments, so as to respond accordingly? Is it even possible to tailor our response to the many changing factors at work in our professional environments? And really, is being defensive hurting us more than it actually can help us?
While I strongly believe that each one of us has a responsibility to leave our workplaces a bit better than we found them, we must also carefully pick where it is most productive to expand our hard-earned energy.
Raising our defensiveness walls to ward off prejudice may be necessary in some instances, yes! Yet choosing to act instead of reacting, and responding with stellar performance instead of defensive words or actions may not only ward off prejudice if need be, but also set a positive precedent in all cases.
Do you think raising our defensiveness walls may at times stand in the way of our success?
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 11, 2014 | Career |
Muller Greek corner yogurt – mullerquaker.com
It’s coffee break time, and incidentally, snack time as well! Just about that time to grab your wallet and rush to the vending machine, right? Wrong!
Observing a healthy diet is hard enough as it is! Now observing a healthy diet between 9 and 5, while you’re dealing with the stress at work, attending pizza lunches and desperately trying to avoid your co-worker’s cupcake-themed birthday celebration, is literally close to impossible…I said close, because there are ways to get around the 9-to-5 diet trap and actually manage to eat well…healthy snacks at work (at least, reasonably so, baby steps here….)
So instead of your usual M&M’s peanut candy (and stop arguing that you don’t eat the yellow ones), here are a few tried-and-true mid-afternoon snack alternatives that will keep you satisfied and feeling a bit better about that bathing suit shopping trip this week-end (arrrghhhh!):
- Yoghurt : Love, love Muller Greek Corner greek yoghurt and peach combo, tastes like a treat, and at 140 calories, feels like one too;
- Larabar fruit and nut bar,love love the key lime pie flavor;
larabar fruit and nut bar – she knows.com
- Dark chocolate: enjoy a few squares (we said a few, not the whole thing…);
- Hummus and carrots is a nice alternative if you’re craving something salty;
- Salsa and blue corn tortilla chips for an “Ole” snack time;
- and for those who are better than I am at packing their snacks, almond butter or peanut on celery sticks or an apple (working on this one).
And please, you, yes, you, get away from the vending machine…
Do you have other suggestions of healthy snacks for work?
The Corporate Sister.
by Solange Lopes | Jun 11, 2014 | Career
Delphone heel – $98 – nastygal.com
Hello again….For our lunch break today, I’m going on a limb, and departing from my usual classic mid-heel, conventional pump for work. I’ve been eyeing these Delphone stacked heels from NastyGal.com for a while, and decided it should be our unconventional fashion pick this week!
Loving the comfortable yet height-lending stacked heel (I do need it!), and the style of the front buckle! And need I mention the cushioned insole! If you’re a corporate sister constantly on the go, yet unwilling to give up on style or comfort, this may just be the pair for you! It’s edgy yet office-friendly, alluring yet comfortable, and just perfect for summer!
It’s $98 on nastygal.com, and is even available in pink (I’ll stick to black for work, but have to admit the pink pair did make me swoon…)
Seen a great, office-friendly fashion pick you’d like to share? Please email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com, or post a comment!
The Corporate Sister.
