by Solange Lopes | Dec 20, 2013 | Career
www.aldo.com
Talking about shoes (please read our post on the soon-to-be-available numbing spray for stiletto-addicts), this ALDO shoe has me doing the Happy Shoe Dance! It’s my shoe crush of the day, and it’s running out of stock pretty fast! Gotta love the sophistication and sleekness of this shoe! The golden buckle at the back just gives it that oomph factor, making it as striking in the boardroom (preferably with a chic yet understated suit or dress) or at any holiday celebration…
It’s on sale online and available for $52.49! Need we say more…
Have you seen a great, work-appropriate shoe that you’d like to share? Please send us an email at thecorporatesister@gmail.com?
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Dec 20, 2013 | Career
shoesinsession.com
Lunch break fashion alert!!! For all the corporate fashionistas who’ve had to suffer in silence their love for stilettos, suffer no more! According to Fashionista, there is a new spray out there, appropriately dubbed Heel No Pain that promises to literally soothe your achy feet for up to three hours! Wow!
How in the world is that possible? Well, thanks to this numbing agent known as Licodaine HCI, which is apparently also much used by athletes to numb muscle pain.
I’ll be running in my stilettos to get this miracle spray in two weeks, when it becomes available on the manufacturer’s website at biochemistry.la, and at Walgreens ($15 for 1oz) and Foot Locker ($32 for 4oz)!
Have you seen a great product you’d like to share? Please email us at thecorporatesister@gmail.com!
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Dec 20, 2013 | Career |
Photo: theblackceos.com
‘Tis the season to celebrate Christmas, and many of our other human values like joy, peace, gratitude and…. diversity? Nope… As busy a time as the holidays are, especially in the office, everyone is much too preoccupied by their own agendas, and fitting their own overcrowded lives into what I like to call the “Christmas box”. It’s this mix of traditional religious, personal, and societal beliefs and expectations that make everything, or everyone else not connected to these beliefs and expectations, basically… an outsider.
Whether you happen to celebrate Kwanzaa, Yom Kippur, or any other holiday (or lack thereof) at all, you’re expected to have the “holiday spirit” in the traditional sense of the word. Very few managers actually ask their employees if they actually celebrate Christmas, or how they celebrate it for that matter, because it’s just assumed that they fit in the traditional “Christmas box”. Corporate functions and other office events around the holidays are centered around the same tradition of celebrations and gift-giving. We exchange gifts, talk about Santa, and complain about our impossible shopping schedules, without realizing at times that some of us do not subscribe to the same beliefs, lifestyles or traditions. Not to dampen anyone’s “holiday spirit”, as I myself do celebrate Christmas…Yet I have many sisters, friends and co-workers of various cultural backgrounds, with differing religious and personal beliefs, whose diversity outside of mine has made me reconsider my own, and learn to expand the meaning of it, especially at work. For example, my dear friend K. is Jewish, and starts her holiday celebration in September at Yom Kippur; for her, the “holiday spirit” means that she has pretend to subscribe to all the office cheer in order to fit in. My girl A. celebrates Kwanzaa every year(for those of you reading and wondering what Kwanzaa is, it’s a week-long celebration honoring African heritage in African-American culture observed from December 26 to January 1), and although she has been working in the same office for a few holidays now, her manager still doesn’t know what the holidays mean to her…
What we have to realize, as corporate sisters, managers, or otherwise participants in the corporate world, is that any minority point of view, belief or tradition, in or outside of the office, is an opportunity to acknowledge and also celebrate diversity. And as people, minorities or otherwise, it is our responsibility, and also our privilege, to step outside of our own “Christmas boxes”, or any other box we’ve cozied ourselves in, and expand our horizons. Because after all, if we don’t train ourselves to see diversity (when it’s staring at us in the face day in and day out), we won’t be able to manage it, let alone succeed around it.
And really, if we really (I mean really) mean it when we say with such good cheer “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”, then we may want to consider how we are making this world, or our own cubicle corner for that matter, a better place. And that may just be a matter of helping someone else fit in, asking someone else how, if and what they are celebrating, and opening our corporate minds to allow new concepts, new people, and new ideas to fit in…Isn’t that what the holiday cheer is about?
Are you looking for ways to address diversity issues at work this holiday season?
by Solange Lopes | Dec 19, 2013 | Career |
V. sent me an email earlier asking if it should be expected that employees will take time off around the holidays. Well, really, it depends.
While some corporate environments are more flexible when it comes to time off around the holidays, others are much stricter and make no distinction between the holidays or any other time of the year.
So it’s definitely one question that should be asked of our managers, and by extension, of human resources. Since it can be more a matter of corporate culture than anything else, better to ask sooner than later. We even recommend tackling this type of questions as part of the interviewing process, in case you are one of those who pre-plan holidays away.
And just to cover our corporate derrieres, planning and requesting the time off ahead of time always helps clear any potential misunderstanding. In stricter environments, considering offering to work remotely may also be a solid negotiation point.
Luckily, many offices are virtually “dead” over the last week of the year. Otherwise, we can always thank the gods of technology for remote internet connection…
Are you asking for time off this holiday season?
by Solange Lopes | Dec 19, 2013 | Career |
www.jcrew.com
I’m always scrambling to recharge my electronic devices, from my work Blackberry to my personal phone, to the Ipad, Ipod, and other I-something’s…Either I forgot the charger, misplaced it, or let someone borrow (and not return) it….Sounds familiar? Well, that’s where the Triple C for J. Crew Universal Charger comes in, with its sleek design and compact shape.
Priced between $19.95 and $29.95, not only does it make a stylish and useful gift, but just like everything else, you may just HAVE to get one for yourself…One for you, two for me, one for you…
Have you seen a great product or accessory that you’d like to share? Please post a comment below or email us at thecorporateister@gmail.com!
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Dec 19, 2013 | Career |
‘Tis the season for letters to Santa, right? And although this endearing exercise is usually reserved for the honest thoughts and desires of innocent children, we thought we could also borrow some imaginary Santa’s ear for a while…or we could just wish out loud…
Dear Santa,
I know I haven’t written to you in a long time. And although the rumor out there is that you don’t really exist, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt this time. This Christmas, I don’t want any particular gift under the tree, not even my favorite shoes or purses. Or even extra vacation time or savings money. This year, I’m asking for answers, Santa. Answers to some questions that have been staring me in the face ever since I saw my own mama going to work and come back home all sad….Ever since I started growing up, got out of college and started on my own professional journey. Answers to simple questions like: “Why is it so hard for women, and minority women, to succeed professionally?”, or “Why is it that, as a woman, hard work, dedication and sheer commitment to one’s work is not quite enough?”, or better yet, “How have we managed as people to allow concepts like “gender gap”, “glass ceiling“, “sexism”, or “racism” to enter an educational and professional space that should be open to all?”
How can we keep leaning in, when we keep getting pushed out? And how come everywhere we turn, there are unending talks of female empowerment and closing the gender gap, yet still so many of us are dropping out of the corporate ranks to find this natural balance we keep yearning for? Oh, and about this work-life balance, could you please send us some kind of magic scale to fit our professional and personal lives in? So that success is not just reserved to a select few among us (who are still expected to produce new results while playing by old rules), but to many more of us? To many more women across the board, strong, powerful, diverse women, women who CAN change the world, one career at a time, one company at a time…
I hope you read this letter when you have some time. I understand that even you may not have all the answers, but if we could just get a sign or two that our voices are being heard, then we may be on our way to a world where my daughter will not have to choose between her family and her work….Where all of our daughters will not have to act like men to build professional success….Where we can all play by rules that are fair, equitable, and just for everyone….
And while I understand that you may not answer this letter just yet, maybe not for this Christmas at least, I will pass it on to my daughter so she can keep reminding you (although I have a feeling you won’t forget)….
The Corporate Sister
by Solange Lopes | Dec 18, 2013 | Career |
Photo: dreamstime.com
‘Tis the season for gifting! Whether at work or around family and friends, we tend to want to get a lil’ something something for everyone. However, when it comes to the corporate world, and more specifically to our supervisors and/or managers, we may need to slow our jolly gifting rolls and think twice about it…
While some may argue that deciding for or against buying a gift for the boss depends on the type of relationship you have with her or him, I, on the other hand, would tend to agree with one of my favorite no-nonsense career bloggers Penelope Trunk: Do not buy the boss a gift!. And this for many different reasons…
You don’t want to look like you’re a kiss-you-know-what: especially in corporate team environments, the last thing you want to do is set yourself apart as the kiss-hmmm(you get my drift). If you must offer a gift, try and do it as a group, or limit your spending to a minimal amount, preferrably under $25.
You don’t want to put the boss in an uncomfortable position: you know when someone just is too kind to you and you don’t really want to tell them that their kindness is a bit overwhelming? Well, that may be the kind of situation you might end up putting your boss in, when you step in the door with your elaborately wrapped gift. While he/she may be genuinely appreciative, they also have to consider things like conflicts of interest and general team perception. Besides, shouldn’t the gift giving happen the other way around? Just sayin’….
Last but not least, you can still show your appreciation for the boss…in a different way: a nice handwritten card will do the job, and show your boss your genuine gratitude, without seeming too over-the-top. And if it could be done as discreetly as possible so as not to give everyone the wrong impression, even better…
Will you be buying a gift for your boss?
The Corporate Sister
