Polls

The recession is truly upon us — businesses are shuttering left and right, the outlook is bleak for bonuses, and the Dow keeps going down.  Yet if you read this blog, and are employed, odds are you’ve got a hefty paycheck still coming your way twice a month.  Is it gauche to be exuberant about the holidays in times such as these?  Is it gross to celebrate the way you would in a bull market?  (Multiple choices are allowed in this week’s poll.)

Photo Credit:  Presents Presents Presents!, originally uploaded to Flickr by danagraves

We seem to be getting a ton of negative feedback on the reader mail question yesterday, wherein we recommended that our reader wear dark trouser jeans to Sunday brunch at the partner’s house.  Although she wrote in to clarify her situation, we were still intrigued by the feedback.  As we noted in our original post, the partner could be inviting you to brunch to show you his new boat, or her new horse.  He or she may be extraordinarily religious and the minister will attend the brunch.  Clients could be in attendance, or possibly future employers; on the flip side, the partner’s granddaughter and her best friends could also be in attendance.  In some of these situations we still think nice denim (like the picture at left) would be entirely appropriate — for others, it would obviously be completely inappropriate.  So we thought we’d take a poll, asking whether jeans would ever be appropriate to wear to a casual, semi-work function.  Photo at left:  Anlo Odyssey Trouser Jean, available at ShopBop for $205.

These are obviously just a few situations that we could think of… let’s hash this out more in the comments.

Just for kicks:

Best Denim for the Office [Forbes]

(Sorry for the earlier technical problems!)  This week’s poll is about an office space — if it’s your own, and you have a door that shuts and blocks it from view entirely, how clean do you keep it?  (We’ll also assume, for the purpose of this poll, that you don’t have frequent clients or superiors coming to your office.)  We have friends who keep their desks bare of all paper except the immediate project they’re working on — and we have friends who have files and boxes and loose papers and half-read magazines from the commute and pens and other things lying about on the desk and the floor, as well as spare shoes, spare clothes they keep at the office (suit jackets, more comfortable pants), and various food stuffs.  Then there are the people who have the truly messy offices — the “wall of paper” offices, where you wonder how they were able to stack the files so high without the pile falling over.  All this brings us to our question today: When does messy cross the line into unprofessional?  Is it worse for women, who are more prone to keeping personal items (shoes, jackets, low-fat food items, etc) in their office?

What’s the messiest your office has been — and what did you do about it?  Has anyone brought in professional organizers or bought office furniture to hide the mess?  What’s the messiest office you’ve ever seen (and whose was it — a superior’s? junior? college professor?)

Photo Credit:  Messy desk, originally uploaded to Flickr by elliottcable

Inspired by last week’s Wolford sale at Rue La La, we thought we’d ask — do you wear patterned tights in cold weather?  There are a ton of options out there.  Our rule of thumb has always been to stick with the kinds of patterns men wear on shirts — pinstriped, windowpane, et cetera.  What are your thoughts?

Photo credit: legs eleven, originally uploaded to Flickr by tractorpirate.

Naptime, originally uploaded by Yogi

Sometimes, being overachieving and fabulous means you get a bit stretched too thin.  Like, if, say, you’re working 250 hours, running a blog, planning a wedding 300 miles away, and trying to diet/exercise well in the meantime.  (This, of course, relates to NO ONE we know.)  Anyway, sometimes push comes to shove and exhaustion overwhelms you — and it’s only 3 PM and you’ve got hours to go before you can even THINK of heading home.

Thus, our poll today:

We don’t know of anyone who regularly schedules these things, but plenty of our friends — including us — have taken a cat nap or two at the office.  The only rule we’ve really heard of is to make sure your desk is free of paper clips — those suckers stick to your forehead like nobody’s business — but otherwise, we’ve found that everyone’s got their own system.  What’s your routine?  Do you make up some excuse for your secretary or just turn the ringer off the phone, lock the door, and put your head down?  Do you stretch out on the floor or keep your head on the desk?  Have you brought supplies in — blankets, couches, sleepytime mask — to make naptime go more smoothly?  Also, what’s your average snoozefest at the office? (We like to stick to the 20 minute “power nap.”)

Comment away!

The other day we got an e-mail from a reader:

I have a question about tattoos. I’m thinking of getting a new tattoo on my inner ankle, and I’m wondering what you/your readers think about what is appropriate for the office in terms of tattoos. In terms of placement, if I was wearing a skirt and heels the tattoo would be uncovered where I’m thinking of getting it (inside of the ankle, right above the ankle bone that sticks out). But it would be a small (.5 in. x 1 in.), black, abstract design - nothing flashy. And it would be on the inner ankle, so not as obvious. Do you think this is appropriate, or is any tattoo that’s visible at work inappropriate? If small tattoos are appropriate, is there any kind of consensus on when it becomes big enough that it’s inappropriate?

Excellent question.  We’ve often thought about whether tattoos are appropriate for the working woman, and whether our friend who got a huge tattoo on her calf when she turned 18 (seriously, HUGE) has been at all limited in her career options.  For our $.02, it seems to us that a small, tasteful tattoo on your inner ankle is the limit to which a visible tattoo would be appropriate — anything on your hand is certainly out (unless it’s a wedding band tattoo or something like that), as is anything on a part of your leg or arm that would be visible.

Another $.02: those are some beautiful tattoos from the Flickr sewing tattoos group.  Flickr sewing tattoos group, originally uploaded by SwanDiamondRose

Ok.  We’ve seen a zillion things about this in the media and kind of wanted to weigh in with you guys about it, even though we try to keep this blog apolitical.  We’ve read about how Biden’s primary strategy in the debates was to “go easy on Palin” and not look like a jerk.  We’ve read people dissing her clothes, her hair, and her shoes.  We’ve heard “real” feminists talk about how the “pro-woman rhetoric surrounding Sarah Palin’s nomination is a grotesque bastardization of everything feminism has stood for,” and the few “feminist” supporters she does have have probably ruined their careers.  (Wow, and we’ve just found this great link to Jon Stewart’s thoughts on the debate.)

As a young woman working today, what do you think of all this?  We keep thinking of Dan Quayle — people called him an idiot and made fun of his hairspray, too, but we didn’t get the same sense of indignation — no one seemed to be saying, how dare he try to run for office.  So in lieu of asking about what color tights go best with a red skirt (which was going to be our poll today), we thought we’d try to get some general feelings about Palin and her run for the White House.  Multiple choices are allowed…  We know we haven’t covered everything, though, so please weigh in in comments.

Monopoly Justice,originally uploaded
by mtsofan

Okay: it seems safe to say we’re in the midst of a financial crisis.  But how is it affecting you?  Less cabs?  More sleepless nights?  More days of “breakfast for dinner“?  Take our poll and then weigh in, in the comments… we’re curious!

Yesterday was the first day of autumn — hooray!  Already around New York City we’re starting to notice women wearing dresses and knee-high boots, mostly barelegged (but some with tights).  Today we passed a girl wearing knee-high black boots, a happy yellow mini-dress, and a cute cropped black jacket.  She looked absolutely adorable.  But we also thought she looked totally inappropriate for work.

A few years ago we thought knee-high boots were 100% acceptable for work, provided they weren’t over-the-knee boots (like Julia Roberts’s in Pretty Woman).  But after a few years of working in a conservative office, we’re not so sure anymore.  Condoleezza Rice took heat a while ago for wearing black knee-high boots — even The Washington Post accused her of being too sexy, too dominatrix-like or Matrix-inspired.

But hey… maybe we’re old-fashioned.  Or crazy.  So, we thought:  Poll.