ByKat Hours Updated
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What Would YOU Like to See on Corporette?

I thought I'd take a departure from our regularly scheduled programming to ask you guys what kind of content you'd like to see on Corporette that you're not already seeing. I've been brainstorming some ideas for new articles — some based on magazine headlines! — and thought I'd throw out a few:

  • Free Yourself: How to Go Braless at the Office
  • How Far Will You Go For YOUR Boss? Using Your Feminine Wiles to Get Ahead
  • Are You Ready? Nine Ways to Prepare Your Office for a Zombie Attack
  • Five Ways to Meditate During Rush Hour
  • The Best Shops for Professional Walk-Of-Shame Clothes
  • Awk-ward: How to Recover After You've Projectile-Vomited at the Company Party
  • Looking Professional, the Kardashian Way
  • Sheryl Sandberg's Nanny's Top Recipes!
  • Boost Your Career By Appearing as a Contestant On The Bachelor
  • Roundtable: Princeton Mom, Ellen's Dad, and Above the Law's Top Commenters Tell You What You're Doing Wrong With Your Life
  • (series:) What's Kat's Toddler Up To Today? (alternate titles: Adventures in Throwing Sharp Objects Because You Feel Like It and How to Not Sleep, Ever)
  •  Which Disney Princess Are You? Take This Quiz to Find Out!

I can't decide which one to tackle first! Which one is your favorite? Do you guys have any other great ideas for new content? 

97 Comments

  1. I would love to see a post addressing asking for a raise in the “You’re Lucky to Have a Job” economy. I’ve done a lot of research on asking for raises, and despite thinking I’m doing everything right, I am still paid 40% less than the market rate for attorneys in my area. Surely there are some successful people who have gotten raises!!

    1. Sorry for the April Fools break, but yes, there are and we’ve heard their stories! You are certainly not alone on this. There is a resource by an ABA task force put together on this and also another, very practical article we recommend on the self-review process, a key related issue. Don’t think can post the links here without the comment being rejected but happy to email you these resources if you want, just shoot us an email and we’ll send over to you. Would love to help how we can!

      1. You can comment one link at a time, you just can’t comment a whole bunch of links without going into moderation.

    2. I vote for the zombie preparedness, since this is something that I think about constantly while at work. I’d love to compare notes with other readers.

  2. That roundtable idea looks very promising. Mr. Barshevsky is always eager for opportunities to be among his true intellectual equals! Be warned, though–he won’t come cheep.

    And thanks for the link!

    4. I can’t tell you how many times I have read ELLEN’s comments and thought…is she real? I have even considered asking in the comments if she was a real person, but I didn’t want to offend anyone. So ELLEN is just a troll? Because…seriously with the FOOEY business.

      2. She cannot possibly be real. I would LOVE to see a series of posts from her Dad, offering his wise life advice to the rest of us.

  3. So this is actually not an April Fools — I do have basically the biggest crush on my former boss…who is married with three kids…but I definitely want to keep working for him when [if] I go back to my old job. Is that a really bad idea?

    1. I have a huge crush on my current boss. He’s not married, but he does have a pretty serious girlfriend. In some ways it’s great (because yay, I’m paid to hang out with him!), but it also breaks my heart a little every day. I’m seriously considering leaving a job that I otherwise really like because of it. I guess it depends on your relationship with him, but I would really think about how you would handle working with him. It’s a lot harder than I expected it to be.

      1. I may be taking movies too seriously (ahem, 27 Dresses), but I would be worried that you would lose some of your ambition and self-worth if you work for someone you seriously have a crush on. For example, will you be nervous (or more nervous than usual) asking for a raise, or a day off? Will you keep working there even if your skills have developed? Do you really like the job, or do you like hanging out with him? Etc.

    2. I would not put yourself in that situation. It could become too tempting to get involved with someone off-limits. You may never intend to act on it, but you never know how things will play out.

    1. OMG I didn’t look closely at first, and now I am giggling like a maniac!

  5. Where did Gwyneth get that outfit? And how can I pull that off in my creative office? (I’d need a skin moisturizer rec too.)

    1. Why not take the photo one step further and pull off _everything_ in your creative office? Working women: Save your money for retirement AND simultaneously strike a blow for gender equality re going topless! Best. multitasking. ever.

      2. Ooo, good point! Then I’d just need good underpinning for winter (and of course, fleece tights from Walgreens). It’d save on hemming pants and skirts.

  6. threadjack. I bought the Reiss angel panel dress in indigo, and I love it (I think Claire wore it in an episode of house of cards which makes it even more awesome). I’m between sizes and sized up, so it’s definitely not too small. It’s a viscose/elastine material, super comfy and looks like it’ll hold up well. BUT it wrinkes a lot around the waist/hip area by the middle of the day from sitting down, even though it’s absolutely not too small. would a slip help with this? my other reiss dress (also acetate) does the same thing :(

    1. no idea why I said acetate… the other dress is also viscose/elastine, so like a thick semi-stretchy material.

  7. How about:

    Nude-for-You: When Is It Appropriate to Disrobe in the Office?
    9 Outfit Ideas for Shark Shorts
    Lawsuited: 5 Tips for Suing Your Employer
    Going Natural, or Your Deodorant is Eating Your Brain Cells

    2. “New office trend: Kitten heel ankle boots, or channeling My Little Pony”

      (I am not sure, but I think I co-opted this from a book called “The Meaning of Sunglasses”, which is hilarious, by the way)

  8. Is it awful that I really want to see a post on professional walk-of-shame clothes? My mind is exploding at all of the possibilities…

    1. Is it bad that I’ve had firsthand experience? The one time that happened I rolled up to work in the same stuff I wore the day before and hoped no one would notice. No one commented so I told myself that it flew under the radar.

      1. Hahahahaha actually I keep spare clothes in my office closet for this very purpose. It’s better than the fashion magazine solution which is to borrow a guy’s white dress shirt and belt it.

      2. When I was walk-of-shame aged many of my male co-workers kept a spare tie in their office, so they could wear the same thing with a new tie.

      1. +1000

        But only if one side is blue and green polka dots and the other is a plaid print of some type.

      2. Only if it has a pink & white candy stripe liner. But you can’t wear it inside-out, even if it is raining.

  9. Zombie attacks are serious business guys. We shouldn’t joke about them. Do you know where YOUR nearest blunt object is?

    1. Not an April Fool’s joke…. my best friend and my boyfriend both have bug out bags with supplies and weapons. She watches The Walking Dead to strategize.

      1. Bug out bags are a little wacko, but are fairly common and even encouraged for military/diplomatic families living in unstable conditions, so I don’t think of them as all that crazy, even if in the US the worst emergency you’re likely to encounter is a natural disaster like a hurricane or earthquake.

        But getting survival advice from The Walking Dead? Half the cast dies every show! THAT’s just nuts.

  12. Sorry to be an April Fool’s Day downer, but I think “Sheryl Sandberg’s Nanny’s Top Recipes” is the kind of dig at successful working moms that doesn’t belong on this site. But perhaps I’m missing an inside joke or something?

    2. You are missing satire. Its a dig at people who make fun of Sheryl Sandberg for having a nanny.

      1. Maybe I’m overthinking this. I just thought it was a dig at Sheryl Sandberg for it to be “so funny” (akin to vomiting at the holiday party) that she has a nanny who cooks for the family. Like taking her down a notch because she’s not the one making dinner every night. It just felt like a cheap insult to me, of the sort that you wouldn’t make about a man. I get that she’s been criticized for being privileged, but isn’t one of her big points that you can’t work in these jobs without lots of help?

        1. It was the least funny of the options. I think it was a dig at the NYT article about people who hire nannies and then pay for them to go to cooking school. Which is a dig at like 10 people, and if any of them are reading this website then I finally know who buys the Monday posts.

          1. Yes, I read it as a dig at that ridiculous NYT faux-trend article, and by extension at all the NYT faux-trend articles. My fave of late was Hipsters Wearing Monocles. And no, I am not making that up.

        2. I thought the dig was because she never talks about the help that she has. Clearly she does have lots of help and probably never makes dinner herself, so it’s funny that the recipes are coming from the nanny and not from her. IRL it might even be “Sheryl Sandberg’s Personal Chef’s Favorite Recipes”.

    4. I’m a working mom and thought it was funny. I don’t see it as a dig on her specifically, or working women with nanny generally – more a dig on every “famous busy person’s recommendation for how to do something that they themselves probably don’t actually do themselves” article ever written.

  13. I would like to see a special place on Corporete where profesional women like me can discuss the dificultie’s associated with balance work and a career with home and family issue’s. Personaly, I think I have figured out the work thing pretty well, but the personal family side is a mess. FOOEY! Men are so dificult to figure out and I would LOVE to hear from women who have been abel to harness their men (like Rosa) and have a good family life as MARRIED HUSBAND AND WIFE, so that the wife (me) can enjoy a home life rather then haveing to bill 6600 hour’s a year so that the manageing partner get’s rich on his 53 foot boat or whatever it is. In my case, I think the manageing partner just think’s of me as a billeing machine who can generate alot of revenue so that he and Margie can live big at the Hampton’s while I slave away day and night to keep up my billeings. A place on this websight where women can trade tip’s on how to handel men would be great Kat! YAY!!!!

  14. 7 Tips for Making Lucite Work in the Boardroom
    You’re Too Pretty: Ways to Uglify Yourself for Success
    Need More Sleep? Here’s How to Take a Shower and Shave in Your Work Bathroom (Ok, I might be interested in reading that one for realz)

    1. re: “You’re Too Pretty” — A female executive coach told me a couple years ago that successful professional women often have difficulties with female staff members who are less educated and accomplished and that it happens more often and is more severe when the professional woman is pretty and petite and the staff member is not pretty and overweight. Chew on that for a minute.

      She said that the staff members usually retaliate against the pretty, petite, successful professional by gossiping about her, two-facing her, telling untrue and harmful stories about her to her peers and superiors and other generally “mean girl” behaviors.

      What are we supposed to do with this? I mean this seriously.

      2. I was going to go “anon for this” and then decided to just post anyway. At a previous job, I had a serious issue where I COULD NOT PLEASE one mid level female attorney. No matter what I did she chewed it up and spit it out. I was concerned that her opinion of me would impact my overall review and I also felt she was purposefully sabotaging me.

        My official firm mentor sat in on a meeting or too and kind of shrugged saying “not sure what more you can do.” I ended up meeting with an informal mentor (one who became a natural mentor, not one assigned) who was very high up in the firm. He got visibly uncomfortable in the discussion and then finally said something like “look, I don’t know how to say this. She has an issue with young attractive female associates. Particularly happy ones. Particularly blonde ones.” I never asked and wish I had – why the heck was I assigned to work with her then if the higher ups knew this? To torture both of us? I was reminded that she had just returned from maternity leave and to give her some slack. Eventually someone else would be hired for her to pick on.

        Sure enough a young, attractive blonde paralegal was hired and she proceeded to pick on both of us.

        I eventually left that job (for other crazier reasons believe it or not). Women like that do exist, but are thankfully very rare.

        1. Gah. It’s terrible that the offender’s same-level colleagues knew she went in for this kind of bullying and didn’t call her on it.

        2. I hate to say it, but I have to agree, they do exist. I had a classmate who always said she was “too pretty and perfect” (literally) and that’s why she never landed a callback, so I get why we’d like to snark this off too. But I worked in a small, almost entirely female firm; the senior associates and one of the female partners were always friendly, professional, and good with both praise and criticism, but another female partner wouldn’t have rented me an extinguisher with interest if I was on fire. I spent months and months agonizing over what on earth I was doing wrong before a female associate told me basically the same thing Blonde Lawyer said: she felt threatened by any female “competition” (a bit of a stretch since she was the established rainmaker, I didn’t even reach on the totem pole yet) and there was nothing I could do about it.

          I also left- the work environment it created throughout the firm was just too toxic.

          1. Yeah, I think this does happen once in awhile. Our society seems to want to think that of pretty, nice, and smart, women can only ever have TWO of those traits. So if you seem to be a more well-rounded package, you must be a raging b*tch with an entitlement program who needs to be taken down a peg or two. Reminds me of a college friend who is insanely gorgeous, hard-working, smart, and genuinely one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Many women who meet her initially suspect she’s either dumb or mean, and want to gossip about her.

      3. I heard this from one career coach for young women, too, and it was very depressing to hear that kind of “advice”.

      4. Exactly my point! Women are supposed to put up with this sh*t? Imagine telling a man he is too good-looking for his job. Studies (please don’t ask me where, don’t remember off the top of my head) show that taller, fitter, better looking men go further in their careers. Yet women are penalized?!

        1. It’s been some time, but I remember there is a study that examined males and females in executive positions and reached the conclusion while the higher women climb up the corporate ladder, their appearance become less important for career success, while it’s vice versa for men, and better looks award men more than they award women the higher it goes the corporate hierachy! And then women still get picked out …

      5. I have been having problems with a secretary at my firm and I suspect it is for this reason (and I feel extremely full of myself for saying that) because there is literally no other basis for her acting the way she does. Thankfully it is not my secretary, but she borderline caused a scene the other day when I asked her a question and refuses to acknowledge my existence if I see her in the bathroom/kitchen etc.

  15. is a woman. Behind every successful woman is one or more other women (nanny, day care teachers, au pairs, grandmothers, the nice ladies at Bojangles who cook us dinner). I’d like for us to consider another option:

    Sister Wives — is one right for your family

  16. Sadly serious comment, but I saw a pic of Mary Barra in this morning’s business section and noticed how nice her hair looked… then realized I would never notice the hair of a male CEO. Sorry to be so serious, but just waaaah.

    1. This is funny to me because I totally notice that stuff about male executives. When I first saw a picture of our CEO I thought WOW WHITE HAIR and that he looks like he’d be short.

      I think it has to do with lots of exposure to these conversations re: we notice X about women but not about men, so my brain automatically seeks out those things about men as well.

      1. Yup… I was thinking how her hair looked pretty great and obviously she can’t take 45 minutes doing her hair, so she must have someone do it for her (I picture her taking early-morning conference calls while someone primps and sprays), then thought “a man would never have that problem”.

    2. Dilbert has always noted the importance of Executive Hair to a man’s success.

  17. More recommended topics:
    1. Accessorizing Gray Hair
    – Which go better with tennis shoes and brandished umbrellas: flannel granny gowns or Little House on the Prairie calico dresses?
    – When attending a meeting, do you take a cup of hot water (with lemon) or a can of Ensure?
    – Is it better to cover those ash-colored locks with a shawl or a black, broad-brimmed, pointy-crowned hat?

    2. Accessorizing Godzilla
    – Comparison: Do Birkenstocks or Dansko clogs work better for stomping on buildings?
    – Roundup of the best regimes for caring for your green, scaly skin
    – Honey-with-lemon, ginger tea, and other home remedies for keeping your RAWR in top form

    1. Comparison: Do Birkenstocks or Dansko clogs work better for stomping on buildings?

      Neither. Clearly, the correct answer is Vibram Five-Claws.

  18. Happy April fool’s day! But on a serious note, I’m less than a 32A cup (as in very flat, I probably don’t need a bra) and have back problems that make any strap across my back very uncomfortable/painful. In the winter time I wear enough layers that I don’t have to worry about “perkiness”. I’ve recently discovered small stickies at TJ Maxx made solely for this reason. I haven’t tried yet, but they seem promising. Just thought I’d pass along the tip for any ladies who had problems with “perkiness” and for whatever reason didn’t want to wear a padded bra.

    1. As someone similarly built, I wear many layers in the winter and scarves in the summer with the ends covering any signs of feeling cold.

  19. Wore a sleeveless black and white faux wrap dress to my banking job in London and got mistaken for a PA when I went to meet someone on another floor! I found it infuriating that this person assumed I must be support staff because of my dress and possibly bare arms. I’d been looking forward to 20c weather and bright sunshine but this ruined the day for me.

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