This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Got it. Apologies to my assistants and anyone else I offended. Workwear sales of note for 12.5.23
Our favorites are in bold!
- Nordstrom – Holiday sale up to 50% off; 5x the points on beauty for a limited time; markdowns include big deals on UGG, Natori, Marc Fisher LTD, Vionic, and more!
- Ann Taylor – 40% off your purchase & extra 15% off sweaters
- Banana Republic – Up to 40% off select styles; up to 40% off sale styles
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything & extra 20% off purchase
- ba&sh – Up to 50% off
- Bergdorf Goodman – Designer Sale: Up to 40% off, 100s of styles added; free same-day delivery for a limited time
- Club Monaco – 25% off almost everything
- Express – 40% off everything; $39 all jeans & pants
- J.Crew – 40% off your purchase with code
- Loft – 50% off your purchase with code (ends 12/5)
- Lo & Sons – Up to 50% off plus extended return policy — reader favorites include this laptop tote, this backpack, and this crossbody
- Sephora – 20% off purchase with code; 30% off Sephora Collection
- Summersalt – Up to 60% off select styles & free scarf with orders $125+ (this reader-favorite sweater blazer is down to $75)
- Talbots – 40% off your regular-price purchase; extra 50% off all markdowns — readers love this cashmere boatneck and this cashmere cardigan, as well as their sweater blazers in general
- Theory – 25% off sitewide
- Theory Outlet – Last-chance styles 70-80% off; extra 25% off everything; readers love this T-shirt
Kid- and Family-Related Sales
- Crate&kids – Free shipping sitewide; up to 50% off toy + gift event; free monogramming for a limited time only (order by 12/15)
- J.Crew Crewcuts – 40% off your purchase with code
- Graco – Holiday savings up to 35% off; sign up for texts for 20% off full-price items
- Pottery Barn Kids – Up to 50% off toys, furniture & gifts
- Walmart – Up to 25% off top baby gifts; big savings on Delta, Graco, VTech, Fisher-Price & more
Some of our latest posts here at Corporette…
And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!
- Favorite comfy pants for an overnight plane ride?
- I’ve got a nasty case of tech neck…
- What’s a good place for a relaxing solo escape?
- What’s the best commuter backpack?
- I’m early 40s and worry my career arc is ending…
- I canNOT figure out the proportions in this current season of fashion…
- How is everyone wearing scarves in 2023?
- What shoes are people wearing to work between boot and sandal season?
- What’s a good place for a relaxing solo escape?
- What are some of your go-to outfits that feel current?
- I need more activities that are social, easy to learn and don’t involve extreme running/jumping/etc.
Cat
1) Don’t blame your assistant publicly for the problem. Praise publicly, blame privately (if at all).
2) Prioritize. In your case, maybe that means two posts per day next week, since the middle post rarely gets many comments.
3) In support of #2, make a list. Don’t let the “little rocks” take up all your time so you don’t achieve the “big rocks.”
Anonymous
+1 Not cool to blame the assistant on the internet!
Anonymous
+100
Marnielle
+1000, Kat. It’s your blog, don’t throw the assistants under the bus.
If you feel the pace is too frenetic, no shame in pulling back or asking for more help. Forget about the social media from weeks ago, it’s ephemeral and any real insights you’ll need should be tracking already in Analytics. Like Cat with a c said, reduce posting frequency if that’s resulting in more errors over time. Keep your strengths strong and your head up over the waves!
Anon
+1 IMO bosses should take the blame publicly for team failures and give praise/kudos publicly to the team for successes. That’s why bosses get the $$$.
Anonymous
Also how many assistants does it take to run a blog!? Jeez.
Pompom
+this. I winced reading this.
Senior Attorney
Yeah. Ouch.
Maudie Atkinson
I was coming here to say the same thing, but glad ya’ll meet me to it.
Maudie Atkinson
Beat me to it, rather.
Anonymous
Ditto. SO not cool to blame your assistants.
Don’t Do That
Yeah, not cool. It happens, but d*mn don’t blame her publicly. At the end of the day you’re responsible for the blog- an old boss of mine said that leadership is having the courage to accept responsibility when those under you fail.
Make a to do list of most important/less important/can be delegated/don’t need to happen now. Work on the most important first.
Anonymous
Agreed, agreed, agreed. Do not publicly blame people who work for you.
Also, drop the social media pressure on yourself.
Stop anxiety-refreshing news sites. The country will survive / implode just fine without you for a while.
Samantha Bloom
I lower my standards and winnow my priorities. (Sadly.)
Virve Georgeson
Samantha, Good answer on both counts.
Katherine S.
Definitely don’t wallow in the feeling of misery. Whatever you focus on you create more of. Spend a lot of time with children and pets. They don’t carry negativity and bring you into their blissful worlds. Exercise INTENSELY, which produces tons of feel-good chemicals. Make lists of things you’re grateful for and things to look forward to. Go out with friends who are very upbeat and positive, and enjoy a yummy cocktails. Problems gone. ;)
Pompom
Own whatever I screwed up, forgive myself and others for our collective screw ups, and plan something for the weekend. That something will really depend on my mood: if I need more fun and a distraction, then Friday night out or dinner or something with DH; if I need to recharge and/or wallow, then movies, leggings, wine, couch, puppies.
Do 1 or 2 things to proactively make next week better, even as little as making sure the laundry gets put away or I have a lunch planned and ready to go on Monday.
Anon
I read “movies, legos, wine, couch, puppies” which also sounds awesome.
Ms B
Legos are awesome, even when they are on every.flat.surface in your house!
Pompom
Y’all, now I want some legos…I already regressed a little by buying all the Where’s Waldo puzzles in one regular sized book (for pre-bed, non-word reading, sans device!)…why not legos?!
KS IT Chick
My DH has gotten into building Lego sets. The Big Bang Theory Set set, the Doctor Who Tardis Interior Set set, the Saturn V Rocket set, the Yellow Submarine Set (complete with Beatles). They’re really cool to look at, but once they are built, they have to be displayed somehow…. I had to reluctantly veto the Death Star set, as it is ungodly expensive & huge, but I was almost as excited as he was at the thought of building it.
Senior Attorney
OMG I totally want to do that.
Maybe you can take photos when you’re done and then donate the actual sets to a daycare or hospital or something?
Senior Attorney
Also: I was in Athens a couple of weeks ago and they have a Lego version of the Parthenon in the museum! So fun!
jwalk
When I have a terrible week, I acknowledge that that is what is going on and that it will be over eventually. I try to go to sleep early, with the help of sleep aids if needed to make my brain shut up. Rather than trying to tackle all the things, I ask myself, “What ACTUALLY needs to be done today?” and work on that. Then I run home to my dear SO and get all the hugs.
Virve Georgeson
It sounds as if you are close to the limit of your time/energy/emotional end-of-rope in your work in the day-to-day schedule that you have put yourself into, therefore when something extra happens there is no slack to deal with it. And you are working for yourself, you are your own boss, all your work is arranged by you…does this beg the question?
Kate
I was having a bad workweek too….last week through Monday. I had the opportunity to take a half-day for mental health on Tuesday morning….that combined with Lady Gaga’s documentary on Netflix helped!!
Home maintenance
TJ: First time homeowner here and I want to be organized about home maintenance and repairs going forward. Does anyone have a suggestion for how to keep track of home maintenance (what’s been done, when, by whom, etc.) so I have a good record to refer to in the future?
Anon
I tend to track stuff like this in a Google Sheets that is shared with my husband. You can have one big list with columns for categories, etc. or use different tabs to categorize costs. I find spreadsheets to be very flexible for stuff like this and I like how easy it is to collaborate with Google products.
Aunt Jamesina
Same, and to add on to this we keep our Google Sheets doc in a shared Google Drive folder where PDFs of any important receipts, warranties, manuals, etc. get saved.
Anon
I try to keep things in perspective. You had some wonky blog posts. It’s embarrassing but NBD. I wrote some software where bugs will literally keep trains from running. Probably a bigger deal than wonky blog posts and yet I know that other people have jobs where their mistakes cost people their lives. So I try to be grateful that my mistakes aren’t that serious in the grand scheme of things, figure out how to prevent them in the future, and move on.
Shopaholic
When I’m stressed and at the end of my rope, I just sit on my couch with a glass of wine and watch reruns of a TV show I love (currently it’s the first couple seasons of greys anatomy). It doesn’t require any additional mental energy but feels very soothing.
Anonymous
I do this too. Plus ice cream.
Maudie Atkinson
I try to attack this on two fronts. In the short term, (1) I make weekend plans I can look forward to–a massage, a blow-out, sitting on my couch reading a book, whatever it is–to help me get through. (2) In the midst of the week, I maintain my workout schedule because I’ve learned (after longer than it should haven taken) that I’m a better person if I burn off some energy. Last, I find a friend who will listen and unload.
In the longer term, with a little distance from things that I know were ultimately my fault, I look at it as a systems engineering project: What processes can I put in place to avoid the same kinds of mistakes from happening again?
Don’t Do THAT Either
For g-d’s sake Kat, just apologize without the excuses. You screwed up. Acknowledge it. Without further excuses.
Asking someone you supervise if you can throw them under the bus isn’t better. That’s not really a situation where they can say no. Spend half a second thinking about why.
Wordy
+100
Can't dig out of a hole
Yeah, I think the update makes it worse. It sounds like you are now blaming the assistants for screwing up in the first AND for giving you permission to yell at them on the blog.
Case
Thirded. Update is a non-apology and what assistant is going to say “no in fact it is not OK to throw me under the bus, boss lady!”???
Own it.
Senior Attorney
“Fine, fine, you have a point?” Really?
If you suspect you’re being unkind, you probably are. Getting permission from the people you are being unkind to (you know, the people who depend on you for their paychecks) doesn’t make it okay.
Pompom
This. Allllll this.
Gently, Kat, it sounds like you have a lot going on. Don’t complicate it with this kind of easy-to-avoid issue. You probably wouldn’t have done this in your old jobs; this isn’t so different, right? We like your work and want you to succeed, but this ain’t helping with your rough week.
Cat
Yes. Allllll the plus 1s to this.
Michima
When I have a bad day, I go for a long walk outside with my dog. Dog loves me. Walking is good for endorphins. Nature — even urban nature — helps give me perspective.
When I have a bad week, I go for a long hike somewhere not urban. All of the above benefits, plus. Then I try to have dinner somewhere funky and local, like a diner or a pub, and chat with the waiter/bartender/locals. (All this can be adapted to be done with partners and kids.) By the end of the weekend, I’ve had exercise, fresh air, bonding with beloved creatures, and stories to tell at work on Monday.