Interesting: the Le Pliage now comes as a briefcase. I’m interested to hear what you ladies think about this — on the one hand, it is a sleek look (and one that, I think, has become associated with quality), and it’s very lightweight, just like all of the other Longchamp nylon bags. On the other hand — I’m not sure I want my important papers in a nylon briefcase. Still, I think it’s a great option to keep in your bottom drawer at work (or even at the bottom of a larger tote) for those days when you just need to bring home a few papers that won’t fit in your regular bag. The briefcase is $95, and available in six colors. Le Pliage Briefcase Note that the regular Pliage bag is in our Hall of Fame. (One day I hope to make it its own page on the site, but for the time being it’s a growing category.) (L-2)This post contains affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!
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Workwear sales of note for 3.22.23:
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off full-price pants and shirts; extra 30% off all sale styles
- Athleta – 20% off shorts, swim, linen & more
- Banana Republic Factory – 40% off everything; extra 15% off purchase
- Boden – Up to 50% off
- Brooks Brothers – Clearance styles to 70% off. Some pretty serious markdowns!
- Express – Extra 40% off clearance for up to 60% off
- J.Crew – 25% off your purchase; up to 50% off special-occasion styles
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 50% off everything; extra 15% off 3 styles; extra 20% off 4 styles; extra 50% off clearance
- Sephora – Up to 50% off select beauty
- Talbots – 25% off regular-price dresses, skirts, accessories & shoes
Some of our latest posts here at Corporette…
And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!
- What are your favorite parts of a typical day?
- At what point in your life (age, income level, whatever) were you able to take an annual vacation?
- What shoes can I keep at the office to go for mid-day walks (that go with everything)?
- How do you release stress or trauma that’s stored in the body?
- What are the best “networking for women events” you’ve ever been to?
- I feel like we’re burning through any savings we acquire…
- I hate my job and make 30% of what DH makes – should I quit?
- What do you keep in your office?
Anonymous
Immediate threadjack – following up on the phones discussion this afternoon, what protections do I have, if any, if my company subsidizes part of my personal phone bill? I don’t think they back anything up on the phone specifically – I just use it for work calls when I travel and for direct access to my email.
Anonymous
ETA: they do subsidize it monthly whether I travel or not- so for instance they pay for 50% of my phone/data plan , and I pay for add-on’s like a text package myself. In litigation (which happens from time to time), could my phone be caught up?
in-house life
Yes.
Gail the Goldfish
2 pet questions. I’m using a professional pet sitter for the first time and one of the things they ask for is an amount you’re willing to spend for any emergency vet visits (pre-authorized limit in case I’m on a plane and they can’t get in touch with me sort of thing). I honestly hadn’t thought about it. How much have people spent on emergency vet bills? What’s a reasonable number, assuming I can afford it (I have cats, not dogs, if that makes a difference)? Second pet question for those of you with cats–when you’re out of town, how long do you feel comfortable leaving your cat with a bunch of extra food and water without anyone checking on them? I’m fine leaving them overnight, but if I’m going to be gone more than 2 days, I want someone checking/cleaning the litter boxes. On the other hand, my friends just left their cat for almost a week with her automatic feeder/waterer, which seemed a little long to go without cleaning the litterbox and having anyone check in to me, but maybe I’m way off base here.
mascot
We have dogs. I think we put down $1000 or $1500? We also had a card number on file so the vet clinic would know they were getting at least some payment. However, our only emergency vet visit experience (not with a sitter) was way less than that. My thought was that if the dog had some traumatic injury, they could get seen/stabilized without having to wait on my cue.
Anonymous
We’ve spent $1,500-2,000 for emergency service (eating poisonous flowers). I would only go up to 2 days. . . I think your friends are crazy. What if the feeder’s batteries die or they knock over the water dish?
Anonymous
Edited to add, two cats.
jumpingjack
I have an indoor cat who doesn’t tend to get into much trouble, but I have spent $1200 on emergency vet services. I agree that $1000 or $1500 seem like reasonable limits if you can afford it.
How long you leave your cat depends on the cat. I need a daily visitor for my cat because she’s manic about food and would eat a giant bowl of food immediately (then throw it up and immediately starve to death. in her mind). The cat my family had growing up could be alone for a week without problems. My BF leaves his cat alone for up to five days.
Yep
I laughed out loud at your cat eating a whole bowl of food, because my old cat was the same way.
jumpingjack
I used to have an electronic feeder that gave her one portion a day, so I could leave her alone for a weekend. One day, 10 minutes before leaving for the airport, I realized that she’d figured out how to break into it. Thankfully, my cat sitter was available on very short notice.
LAnon
I bet the cat thing will get you a lot of different responses – a lot of pet care stuff is like George Carlin said about driving, “Anyone going slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a maniac.”
A weekend (leave Friday PM, return Sunday PM) is about my limit for leaving the kitties with no one checking in. My big paranoia is that the auto-feeder will somehow malfunction. (Note: this has never happened.) So, I actually do not use the auto-feeder when I’m away – that’s when they get the big ol’ bowl of kibble to nibble at. (My cats don’t tend to gorge so this works for them.) So, I feel OK leaving a weekend-sized bowl of food out while I’m gone. I wouldn’t go much past a weekend because I know the cats wouldn’t want to eat food that had been out more than 48 hours.
Also, I can tell that 2-3 days is when the cats start craving socialization. (They have each other to play with; I imagine single cats get lonely quicker.) My pet-sitter sends me pictures of the kitties when she visits. The first couple days, the cats are always look pretty disinterested in playing with her (they know her so it’s not like they’re being shy); by day 3 they seem much more excited about playing with her and getting some petting.
HSAL
This is my approach – no more than a weekend without someone checking in. I’ve stretched it to three days without a check-in when I was gone over a holiday, but I wasn’t comfortable with it. My cat’s autofeeder sometimes won’t drop correctly (things lodge and it needs a shake), so I leave an extra bowl of food out and the toilet seats up in case of a water spillage.
Maddie Ross
This. I’ve stretched it to three days before (left Friday evening, home Monday evening of a three day holiday) and that seems a bit excessive honestly. IME, that’s usually met with some, um, less than ideal urination activities by my kitty to get back at me. And like HSAL, if you go too long, bad things can happen – I was once just gone overnight and kitty locked herself in the bathroom. She was totally fine, but used the sink as her litter box until I returned.
Sydney Bristow
I’ve spent $1500 on emergency care for my cat when she was attacked by a dog.
I’m willing to leave her for about 3 days. She regulates her own food so she does fine with a large bowl of food and a few large water bowls around the apartment. A friend has keys in case we are unexpectedly gone longer than that.
Moonstone
I think things changed when so many people switched to clumping litter. If you use the old-fashioned kind and the box wasn’t in your bathroom, all the litter was only getting dumped once a week anyway. Now that most people scoop every day, I think cats are more conscious of how clean the box is. Anyway, I am OK with up to 3 or 4 days with lots of food and two litter boxes.
Wildkitten
I’d do 4 days without anyone checking in (a long weekend). We have an auto-feeder, and while the one cat usually has one litter box, we put out a second one if we go out of town. A second litter box for when you travel is a very cheap investment.
Wildkitten
And I’d put like $1000 down for an emergency pet visit but seriously if you’re going to have phone access they should call you in an emergency.
padi
For my cat, I could probably leave her alone for two weeks. She doesn’t gorge on kibble and is very tolerant of a less than ideal litter box. I learned this when the neighbor teen I was paying to visit her every other day decided to not clean the litter box for almost two weeks. I felt so bad for my stupid cat when I realized how awful her box was.
But I had another cat who would not use the litter box if it hadn’t been cleaned in the last 36 hours. He was a picky boy. He was always a gorge-and-throw-up eater if I ever left food out.
I just got a water fountain for the cat. Seriously, it is great. She drinks so much more water than she used to. She is elderly now so water consumption is doubly important.
Anonymous
I’ve spent several thousand dollars on ER vet bills (dog). Unless you can’t afford it, I’d put at least $10K. Emergency surgeries can run well over $5,000 and in a worst case scenario the dog could die while waiting for emergency surgery because they couldn’t reach you. I’d authorize an amount that’s way over what you’d expect to spend so there’s no chance of that happening. Also make sure that they have instructions about whether the dog should be resuscitated. At ER vets, you have to choose and we almost picked DNR because we thought it was like humans (i.e., do you want your dog to live as a vegetable)? But, at least at our vet, resuscitation includes CPR, which we would certainly want them to do. I think it’s a cost thing and if they resuscitate you are liable for costs incurred so they want advance authorization. If you would want them to do that, make sure they know.
National_Anthem
Yeah, I would authorize higher than $1,500 if you can afford it. Don’t authorize what you think an emergency might cost, authorize what you would be willing to pay to save your pet. A partner at my firm had a dog boarding place take care of his dog while he went on vacation, the dog had a health emergency, and the medical care that would have been necessary to save the dog was higher than the authorized amount and the dog died. It was horrible, especially because the owner totally could afford to and would have been willing to pay more to save the dog, but just didn’t really realize the implications when he chose an amount (like many of the commenters, he thought hmmm, this seems like it should cover things, rather than putting down what he’d actually be willing to pay).
KT
This. My dog is priceless to me,a nd if she died because the bill was over $1500 and they couldn’t get a hold of me, I’d hate myself. Put whatever the amount is you would pay to save your pet. I literally write “any” on my forms.
a lawyer
Agreed. While most vets won’t run up a huge bill during the time you are on an airplane, CT scans, or other similar tests can run up a bill in a hurry. An intestinal blockage comes to mind (since my sister’s brittany had one on New Year’s Day once.) TEsts, anesthesia, radiology, surgery, and anticipated post-op care would probably go much higher.
As to the length of time you can leave a cat, it depends on the cat’s personality and health. I have a pet sitter twice a day, but I”m used to elderly cats with special needs. Once a day is probably fine, although cats do prefer clean litter boxes. In a pinch I would leave mine 24 or 36 hours without a sitter but no longer. Emergency illnesses can happen in a hurry.
Lyra Silvertongue
+1. I write “any” on the forms. I really do not understand the $1500 cap people are submitting, as I can’t remember a single time that I’ve taken my dog to the emergency vet and it has cost LESS than that. Think about how much your pet means to you before you put down a number.
Anon
I would say $1,500 should cover most emergencies. The two times we’ve taken our huge dogs (once for extreme dehydration due to a bad reaction to meds and once for a bad cut from a dog fight) were both around $350, but our emergency vet has very reasonable prices. I’ve left cats for 2 days without anyone checking in. I may go up to 3 but wouldn’t be comfortable with anything longer.
AIMS
The only cat emergency I’ve ever had was with my mom’s cat and we ended up spending about $1600 total about 7 years ago and that was at the local ASPCA hospital, not a fancy vet. He was having a kidney blockage and needed stones removed. I’d put down however much you would actually be willing to spend ($5k?). Maybe call your local emergency vet and ask them for a guide line (they often charge more, ime, than regular vets so something to keep in mind). Also if you have a specific vet you’d prefer the sitter call, make that clear in instructions.
As for how long, yes, to some degree that depends on the cat, but I think it’s kind of cruel to leave a cat alone for more than 2-3 days. Even with a sitter, most cats aren’t happy to be alone for 23 1/2 hours just to have someone come check on them for 20 to 30 min. We left my cat alone for a month once with a neighbor visiting her every day and some friends staying at the house for two weeks of that time and she still hated me when I got back. You could tell she did not enjoy the experience at all. My mom’s cat is worse. Even 24 hours alone stresses him out. I’ve always tried to bring my cat to one or two friends for cat sitting if I was going to be gone more than 3-4 days.
waffles
We could probably leave our cat for a week. She is good with portion control and we always leave dry food out for her anyways. Her biggest problem would be that she would be super lonely, and it would be very hard for her. We’re really lucky that my sister likes to stay at our house and cat-sit when we’re away. Even then, she’s always very needy for a couple days when we return.
I’m very glad that we haven’t had to deal with any cat emergencies, but if/when the time comes, we’ll probably be willing to spend a tonne on our kitty :)
Bonnie
We left our cats for 5 days once with lots of food and water and they were fine. The house gets pretty stinky but it’s not tragic. Water is a bigger concern than food and we leave several bowls of water just in case any bowl gets tipped over.
Anonymous
I think this is pretty useless. All of the disadvantages of a regular briefcase, plus it’s squishy
Wildkitten
Yeah. I don’t like it. Why would you get it instead of the tote?
Anon
+1. I have, and adore, the tote, but this looks like a free, poorly-designed conference swag bag that should be emblazoned with BIG ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2015 on the side and come stocked with pens, a notepad, and maybe even a travel umbrella.
in-house life
Ha! So true.
Wordy
Spit out my water at BIG ANNUAL CONFERENCE. Especially in navy. So true!
Le P
Agree. But I think the tote looks just as unprofessional. Lumpy, shiny, straps too thin…. just…. no. no. no.
Gracias!
I was just about to comment/ask what you ladies thought of the bag. I was thinking of getting it for lighter work days when I don’t have to carry around too much and can use this bag along with a purse but you guys knocked some sense into me and I totally made a U-turn. I won’t be getting it. Don’t want to spend $95 on a bag that looks like a free conference giveaway.
jumpingjack
Agree. I haaaaate the bag. Just a cheap canvas bag (that holds up terribly, from what I’ve seen), with no interior organization, for way too much money. It continues to baffle me why women carry these.
jumpingjack
Oops, I’m referring to the tote. I don’t like this briefcase either, but I’ve never seen it in person so I don’t have as strong an opinion on it.
Bonnie
I disagree completely. In my experience, the totes are well made and much more durable than their cheaper knock offs. They do lack internal organization but so do many totes. The Longchamp totes are lightweight and very commonplace in D.C. and other large cities.
KT
hahahaha this, ANNUAL CONFERENCE ORLANDO!
Must be Tuesday
I’m just catching up with the comments on Friday’s post, and I wanted to say a huge thank you to whoever mentioned that Rent The Runway has actual physical stores. I had no idea; I thought everything was online. I had the same question as TBK and never considered using RTR for similar reasons. Now that I know there’s a physical location in my city, I am much more likely to give it a try in the future.
Anonymous
FWIW, I went to a physical store (in Vegas) and thought it was horrible. Literally 50% short, tight, sequined dresses that look like something sixteen-year-olds wear when they want to rebel against their parents and 50% awful, dowdy, mother-of-the-bride dresses. I must have tried on 100 dresses and could not find a single thing to wear. But I’ve also never rented from the online store, so maybe their dresses just don’t work for me.
Care
I think part of that impression may be that the Vegas store stocks items people in Vegas are looking for. Its inside the Cosmopolitan and seems to focus on what you should wear to the club that night. I haven’t been to any of the others but I would hope they cater more to normal, fancy nights out.
Care
Ugh *it’s. I hate that I can’t edit my posts here.
Killer Kitten Heels
The physical stores appear to have stock that is location-specific, so my guess is that explains the Vegas stock. I’ve had good experiences at both of the NYC locations (Soho and also the one tucked inside of Henri Bendel), but I noticed lots of variation in the styles stocked even just between the two locations in the same city.
Anonymous
On the other hand, I had a friend who had a terrible experience (don’t know which metro) because they didn’t carry enough larger sizes (like 10 and 12) or styles to flatter her. So… it could be hit or miss
50 lbs overweight
This is for the poster who said she is 50 lbs overweight (BigLaw): Just some commiseration here. This happened to me whilst writing my dissertation, I worked all the time and had so much to juggle. Don’t beat yourself up about it and try to ignore the comments from people. My self esteem was at an all time low and it has taken a lot of hard work to get better.
I second the advice about clean eating–avoid processed foods and fried foods. (I used to snack alot on things like cookies etc. And if I ate out it was something stir-fried e.g. Chinese or Thai, not good if you do it regularly.) You can work out to DVD’s if you don’t have time to go to the gym. I recommend Jillian Michaels–I have tried 6 week 6 pack, Hard Body and Yoga Burn. If you don’t like her style then find something similar. Also try and get some sleep, once I got back to a regular sleep cycle it really helped the pounds come off. It gets better.
:(
Thank you soooo much. Just the thought I might be able to take this off is heartening.
Kay
I feel for you. When I had leftover baby weight postpartum, I read the book “Trim Healthy Mama” and the plan worked well for me. It is a long book but you can skim the highlights online to get an idea if it would be right for you. I love that there is no more calorie counting and I can eat non-low fat foods. It might be worth a try to check it out.
NJ
I have this briefcase in beige. It is very lightweight and folds up nicely when you’re not using it. I typically use it to carry my laptop when I’m traveling because I can get it out easily and it eliminates the need for a bulky laptop bag. However, know that it is not padded so it is not the most protective laptop bag. Also great for carrying portfolios and notebooks that you can’t fit in your purse.