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Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Long-Sleeve Button-Front Top

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A woman wearing a long-sleeved white blouse, black pants, and black belt

Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.

The Old Navy x Altuzarra collaboration has a lot of fun fall pieces. I’ve got my eye on this sweater for weekend wear and this long-sleeved blouse for the office. I love to have an interesting collar poking out from crewnecks or cardigans. It comes in white and black, both perfect for layering this fall. 

The blouse is $39.99 at Old Navy and comes in sizes XS-4X. 

Sales of note for 10/16 (ALSO, friendly PSA – check any NAS or Amazon Prime Day purchases for the return policies…)

  • Ann Taylor – 50% off + free shipping on everything!
  • Brooklinen – Friends & Family – 20% off sitewide and 50% off select bundles
  • J.Crew – Extra 50% off 3+ sale styles with code – includes lots of suiting, sweaters, and pants
  • J.Crew Factory – Friends & Family, extra 15% off your purchase
  • M.M.LaFleur – October Sale Event, best prices of the season (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
  • Nordstrom – 5840+ new markdowns for women, up to 40% off
  • Talbots – Friends and family, 30% off your entire purchase
  • Theory – End of season sale is on with extra savings (new prices are marked)

126 Comments

  1. Looking for recommendations in Berlin:
    We are going for 3 days as a side trip this December before Christmas.
    Daytime touristing?
    Recommended Holiday markets?
    Where to stay ? Bitte? Or?

    1. We loved Prenzlauer Berg for a convenient hotel location. We stayed in a hostel at the time so no current recs. The Stasi Museum is really good if you are interested in political history and if not, there is no better city than Berlin for strolling and taking in the scene. Also loved the Berlin Philharmoniker – got cheap day-of tickets.

    3. The Boros Bunker was a really cool experience. Art museum in an old bunker that was a nightclub and a fruit warehouse in the middle. You need to make reservations ahead of time

    4. I loved staying in Mitte, but would also have been very happy in Prenzlauer Berg. Outside of the classics (and I really loved the big city museums that you no doubt know about already), my favorite smaller museums were the Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind in Haus Schwarzenberg in Mitte, which is an ever-changing street art draw with a fascinating history, and the Kathe Kollwitz Museum in Charlottenburg.

    5. Good clean cheap quiet rooms at the dorms of the Freie University Berlin in Friedeichatrasse. The Stasi Museum is incredible, as is the DDR Museum. Incredible socialist realist murals on the buildings in east Berlin. Great street food. Enjoy!

    6. We just got back from Berlin. We stayed in Mitte, and our friends stayed in Prenzlauer Berg – with quick and easy transit access, you can’t go wrong with either option. If your schedule (and budget) allows it, we really enjoyed our tour with Context tours. You get a history professor to guide you on a tour of the city – highly recommend.

    7. I like staying in the area around Rosenthaler Platz the best, but Prenzlauer Berg is nice too.

      The DDR Museum and the Tränenpalast are both extremely interesting museums.

      I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the holiday markets.

      Gute reise!

  2. We have a walkout basement, fully furnished, etc. Over the past month, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t smell fresh. It’s been thoroughly cleaned, it gets vacuumed regularly, and I’ve opened up windows to air it out. All help temporarily, and then it smells stale again a day or two later. I cannot figure it out, and it’s driving me crazy. Is my perimenopausal sense of smell is on overdrive (very possible)? We had a VERY rainy September, and my other thought was that since it’s permanently damp outdoors and not drying out, we’re getting the effects of that. The sump pump was replaced in the spring, and I feel confident that water isn’t getting in. Any ideas?

    1. I would run a dehumidifier for a few days and see if that helps. We have to run one continually in the basement in our humid climate.

      1. +1 – it sounds like a damp issue, as well as possible mold if the smell is ‘musty’.

    2. Crack under the carpet allowing moisture up from below?
      Leak behind a wall that you can’t see, whether from outdoors or indoor plumbing gradually growing mold?
      Dead animal in the wall?

      1. I am convinced there is a dead animal in my car but haven’t located it yet. Bleh.

        1. Get it checked out. There’s a chance it was in there to chew on wires and you’ll discover this the hard way when one of them gives out later on. I learned.

    5. What kind of flooring is down there? Could you have moisture coming up through the cement under whatever flooring you have? Depending on the temperatures in your area, could it be the lack of consistently running AC keeping things dry down there? Maybe you need a dehumidifier when the AC is not running

    6. We have a walk out basement but run a dehumidifier regularly in three seasons of the year.

    7. A dehumidifier may be all you need, but you really should check behind and under the finishings on your below-grade walls and floors to make sure something nasty isn’t happening where you can’t see it.

        1. You decide whether you prioritize dealing with the funk and keeping your finished surfaces intact, or knowing whether there is a leak, seepage, condensation, etc. that is causing mold, mildew, or structural damage to your home.

          If you have a borescope it can be very minimally invasive to peer behind things, otherwise you are probably going to have some level of repair work to do (either from pulling up flooring and cutting out drywall or taking down paneling, or from mitigating an issue that you opted to ignore).

    8. Minnesotan here. In this part of the world it’s common to need to run a dehumidifier during non-winter months to keep the basement smelling normal, even when there are no problems with water infiltration or mold and mildew. Basements get humid.

    9. I had this smell in my walk-in closet. Looked everywhere. Emptied everything. Cleaned everywhere. One day I opened a shoe box with my espadrilles and the shoes were covered with mold. To the point where they didn’t even look like shoes anymore. I must have put them back in the dark shoe box with some moisture in the raffia part. My point is to really look everywhere. Mold is bad once it takes hold.

    10. In addition to the dehumidifier, you can buy charcoal satchels that will soak up extra moisture and smells. Vacuum with baking soda.

  3. I’m not super knowledgeable about designer handbags, but I’m thinking about buying a Mulberry bag. I have a trip to London planned, is it smarter to wait to buy the bag when I’m in London or would there be no/minimal price difference?

    2. You should be able to view the UK website at https://www.mulberry.com/gb/
      You would probably save a little buying in the UK but not much. For example: the classic Bayswater bag in black grain leather is £1,195 which is probably about $1,585. In the US, the same bag is retailing for $1,595 + tax. So basically, you save whatever your local sales tax rate is in your state, but possibly lose that savings if you declare the purchase upon returning to the US (especially important if you have global entry). Not worth it to me.

    4. I think it would be fun to see and buy in person even if the price isn’t much difference. I LOVE my Mulberry btw. I’ve had it about four years, do not baby my bags at all, and it still looks great.

    5. When I was in a major European city recently I went to the Dior store, chose a bag, went back to my hotel, and ordered the exact style and color on Fashionphile for 1/2 the retail price. It came the day after I got home. I think of it as my European bag LOL

  4. I wanted to say thanks to all the NYC ‘Rettes who’ve given me invaluable tips over the years. The one I remember include: Where to have a business lunch near 30 Rock, whether Orchard Street Corsets is still open, and where to obtain black and white cookies for a Florida relative. (The winner on that one was Russ & Daughters, via Goldbelly.)
    You’re wonderful and I hope you have lovely fall weather for your weekend!

    1. What was the 30 Rock lunch rec out of curiosity? I’m always looking for lunch spots in that area.

      1. This was before the Pandemic, and the name is lost to me. It was a little French bistro with excellent food and very prompt service.
        We were traveling in from DC to meet a client at 30 Rock, and having that rec in my pocket made me look so capable.

        1. Le Bonne Soup? That’s my personal go to in the high 40s/low 50s especially after MoMa. Delicious, reasonable prices, and reasonable service.

  5. Explain to me the dangers/downside of social media like I’m a 13 year old straight A student who is generally extremely responsible and trustworthy.

    1. What kind of social media? Different arguments for the “make your friends jealous” ones where you post photos and the algorithm/silo forms primarily about media consumption. And of course the fractured attention. Then there’s the “sneaky ways to chat” ones like Spotify, Roblox, discord.

      1. I remember chatting online with friends a ton as a thirteen year old back in the old days on mIRC. I’m sure we stressed out the adults and the channel mods just by being around! Now a lot of discord servers feel just the same as back then, and I’m just as grateful for good mods now that I’m not one of the teens.

      2. I just listened to this rather hilarious episode of This American Life about how middle schoolers are using the comment sections on obscure podcasts to chat. The podcast producers thought they were bots and reported them, and it took a young staffer to point out what was really going on.

    2. Skews your sense of reality by presenting you with more and more brain rot that destroys your attention span and leaves you craving dopamine hits. It also sucks you further and further into dissatisfaction by showing you all sorts of things you didn’t know you wanted and convincing you they are necessary to your happiness and well-being.

      1. This is the primary purpose for not wanting my current 9 year old anywhere near it until she’s beyond 13 years old.

        It’s the same reasons I hate it: it’s addictive, it forces comparison and therefore steals joy, it replaces actively participating in life. As I say to my kiddo, I’d rather you experience fun and happy things and not watch other people experience fun and happy things on a small screen. That little statement seems to resonate with her.

        Also on my list, but admittedly not the top reason, is the fear of predators, scams, etc. If smart adults I know can fall for scams of all shapes and sizes, a 13 year old is going to be particularly vulnerable.

        1. The fun and happy things part is so important. It’s not just “because it’s scary and bad” – it’s because life off screens is better. It just is. Show your kids what the real world can offer.

          1. This was not even remotely my experience of life off screens vs. the real world when I was thirteen. The world on screens was so much richer and bigger. What was so great about school or the suburbs exactly?

          3. Haha, seriously. If I was lucky I could walk to the gas station with my $3 and buy some skittles. We didn’t even have a usable bus line.

            I swear even without screens some people are determined to live a life of pure fantasy.

          4. What was great for me in a rural coastal area (and on trips):
            – Having a bonfire on the beach with my friends
            – Jumping in the freezing ocean and screaming together
            – Taking the bus to our away games where we might each do some homework on the way there, but the way back was party time – so much gossip, Truth or Dare, and sometimes deeply personal stories, broken up by a team dinner at Subway
            – Skiing powder with my father
            – Going to the midnight book releases for Harry Potter, all of us picking up a hard copy together instead of downloading our own Kindle versions
            – Having my first kiss at age 13 in my boyfriend’s barn with the horses sleeping standing up nearby
            – Poring over the hard copy of U.S. News and World Report with my friends and reading the different college feature pieces, trying to decide where we might all want to go.

            I’m really glad I got those experiences. No, life wasn’t perfect (we had significant family challenges and I was deeply unhappy for about a year before leaving for college), but I was *connected* with the people around me.

          6. I just knew it was the skiier. Congratulations on having a life so much richer than the rest of us.

          7. People are allowed to answer the question, even if you’re jealous of the answer. I hope your day improves.

          8. Okay. I wouldn’t give up the connections and relationships and memories I made online, as well as the connections to a bigger world. I’m much happier with my life than if I’d followed the paths of the people around me back then.

          9. Life off screens may be boring in the moment but definitely still objectively better in my opinion. Sure the off line times were often boring but also that boredom led to some of my favorite childhood memories. Boredom is the mother of creativity. This argument feels like arguing whether the super sugary soda or water is better. The soda may feel better in the moment but it’s crazy to say that soda is bettr than water

          10. I got to know people in other parts of the country and other parts of the world. I made lasting friendships, changed my plans for where I’d attend college, learned languages that weren’t taught locally. I was creative offline and online.

            My real life friendships as thirteen felt a lot more like the sugar water to me at the time. There’s nothing wrong with sports, pop music, TV, shopping, and complaining about adults, but those aren’t my favorite memories or things I really think about much at all now.

      2. I’m the OP and this has been the most helpful by far. I’m prepping myself for a good discussion with my kid- I’m not a hard line no on letting her have an account (private) but I want to talk about my concerns and how she can address them (which she will ask).

    3. Predators of all ages. People who will not just let you use a thing without trying to ruin it by stalking you, using your own information against you, harassing you. This could be a stranger who found a way in, an acquaintance, or even a close friend.

      Best case scenario the kid knows how to shut it down. The worst case scenario they get in over their head, can’t find a way out, and won’t confide in a responsible adult who can help them.

      Also sometimes kids just behave badly, use inappropriate language, and that can stick to them.

    4. For me it was seeing friends get together without me. Also seeing everyone else’s highlight reel and comparing with my real life.

    5. Replaces genuine fun with cheap dopamine hits, encourages rumination, replaces activity with sedentary “activity,” promotes anxiety and depression, opens the door for exploitation (and you’re kidding yourself if you think an “extremely responsible” kid isn’t easy prey – sometimes they’re more eager to please and they’re just as likely to fall for a clever scam), creates an addiction, and takes away from family time. Good enough for you?

      2. I’m the OP and that’s kind of a nasty and only partial helpful response. We are going to have another conversation about it and I really respect my kid. We have a good relationship and she’s brought up some good arguement to be allowed to use it, and I want to be able to have a good conversation with her. I can tell you don’t have a 13 year old- or if you do, I really hope you don’t talk to them like you type above. That would have my kid sneaking around and hating me in a hot second.

        1. Excuse me? Why did you ask the question then? How is this response any different than the rest? The parents who have brought wrongful death lawsuits against Roblox on behalf of their teens also “respected their kids.” The point is that you cannot think your teen is the exception to the proven danger of online grooming.

        2. You really don’t have to respond to every trigger. I promise you can let it slide and take some deep breaths.

          1. OP’s reply is incredibly snarky for no reason. That’s the kind of thing that makes this place so unpleasant sometimes – someone spends time to answer the question and the OP snaps “not like that, I can tell you’re a bad parent.”

          2. I know, “my circumstances are unique because we are actually better than everyone else who falls for traps.”

          1. +1. That’s a big part of the problem and why so many kids have few or no limits – because their parents are afraid their kids will hate them. You can’t be afraid to be “the bad guy” when it comes to online safety.

      1. Okay but pretty much all research is pointing to it not being good for young people. And that’s with a lot of research being funded by the tech sector.

        1. To be completely honest, the research points to it not being good for ANYONE, but 1) we let adults do things that are bad for their brains all the time 2) lots of adults aren’t ready for that conversation.

          1. Haha, ok then. You sound like a smoker who cares less about the harms than they do their LiBeRtY.

          2. I don’t get this response. You mean you’re unwilling to cede your agency to the addictive pull of social media, or you’re unwilling to cede your agency to people telling you social media is bad? Those of us who do use screen limits aren’t lacking agency – we’re reviewing the evidence and exercising agency to choose limits. We’re not telling you what to do!

          3. But! We should in fact be telling children what to do. They don’t have full decision making capabilities.

            They don’t need to be “convinced” they need to be parented.

    8. One thing that doesn’t get talked about enough is the negative side of social media for everyone else the individual child/teen interacts with: less time socializing with those around them, more fighting over limits and restrictions, one kid isolating themselves on individual devices at rare events like family gatherings, more challenges in school that require more time from the parents to resolve, and more. Call me judgmental, but I absolutely hate it when we’re at family Thanksgiving or another family event and the cousins my kid was excited to play with are in another world on their own devices. It’s a net negative for the whole gathering. Then you add in the adults – the parents are doomscrolling TikTok and memes and the Boomer grandparents are sharing bizarre videos from Facebook that no one cares about. If anything, actually, the Boomers are the most addicted of all now and they seem to have the least awareness of what’s real or fake.

      1. When I was a kid, I avoided family by bringing a book, and the politically out of touch old people were talking about whoever they listened to on the radio.

    9. 1990s: you find out on Monday that there was a party of the weekend and you were not invited

      2026: you get to watch all the snaps from your friends at the party so you get a live blog of what you are missing

      1990s: You are chatting with an online friend who may or may not be a real person or an adult male.

      2026: you are chatting with an online friend who turns out to be an adult male and they are having instacart and door dash deliver inappropriate stuff to your house because they figure out where you live.

      1990s: your creepy gym teacher talks to you after class

      2026: your creepy gym teacher finds you online and starts following your social media and location because you didn’t adjust your settings properly and starts showing up where you are but never frequently enough or close enough to count as stalking so now you never want to go to the mall or movies with your friend.

      1990s: log on to a desktop through a slow internet connect to chat
      2026: group chat is in your pocket all the time except when you are asleep feeding you short reels that the algorithm has designed to mess with your attention span.

      1. or the latest downside. You refuse to send a boy you like n-des but do send him beach vacation pictures and he uses AI to make N-des and circulates them at school.

        All of these are things have have happened to my 15 year old or the teens of friends.

      2. I’ll add:

        1990s: You see your friends at school and when you’re hanging out and they’re skinnier than you, which makes you feel bad when you’re next to them.

        2026: You see your skinny friends online 24/7 posing and looking hot with all the boys in your class following them. The filtering and airbrushing makes them look perfect.

        1. I graduated high school in 1998. I still use my yahoo email I made in computer lab at school.

    10. I’m floored this is even a question! Do people genuinely not see the dangers/downside of social media? Hell, there are dangers/downsides for fully functioning adults!

      I’m a 1984 baby. I was 13 in 1997. There is no bleeeeeping way life is better for 13 year olds today than back then because of social media. Zero, zilch, abso-freaking-lutely nada.

      1. I’m older than you, and my high school was online, AP classes and everything. Thankfully there wasn’t much bandwidth for anything resembling social media today!

      2. Anyone saying “but my time online helped me growing up” isn’t acknowledging how different and harmful it is today. You did not have an addictive smartphone in your pocket at all times in the late 90s, even if you did enjoy games and chatrooms.

          1. do you really think kids are using social media on desktops in the computer lab at school? It’s not the 1990s. Social media = app on a smart phone.

          2. Sure, but no teens today are accessing TikTok on the family PC in the computer room.

          3. This is also a choice? Among people I know personally, a lot of kids who are still too young to be driving are using a parent’s laptop, a chromebook, or a drawing tablet, not a smart phone. A kid wants to show me something online, and they have to go get a laptop so I can see their chess game or their code or whatever it is.

        2. We also weren’t supposed to share our real identities online ever. Modern social media erodes privacy and safety online.

    11. A couple approaches I might take with a kid like that:
      – “If you had a magic button that could completely delete Snapchat/TikTok/whatever it is so it had never been invented, would you push it? Why or why not?” –> ie. open a conversation that lets the kid reflect on the effects they see social media having on the world, on their friends, etc (and takes the “I want it because everyone else has it” out of the conversation for a minute). I think I’ve seen surveys that showed a majority of teens would push the button if it were an option (but would not want to be individually banned from those platforms, if other kids were on them).

      -Tell your kid about mistakes you’ve made with phones/social media/etc, and changes you’ve made in your life to manage them. Teens are bs-detectors, and want to be treated “like adults” – this might help reframe it away from “you’re a kid and not ready for this”.

      – Talk about how social media companies use design to trick/coerce/manipulate people into engaging more (similar to how you might talk about advertising). No one likes being taken advantage of.

      – If it would resonate with your kid, I might frame it as an experiment: “if your hypothesis is that watching YT would make you feel happier and more relaxed, how would you test that hypothesis? What would you be looking at over the course of a month to see if it really worked out that way, and/or if it actually made you more stressed?”. I’m pretty anti-social-media, but I’d be open to letting a responsible kid actually try this out as an experiment, even if I was still opposed to the underlying social media (with guide rails – maybe we agree on a 30-minutes-per-day TikTok experiment; not a 8 hrs per day TikTok experiment); because building the habit of reflecting on what you’re doing, whether it’s truly making you happy, is *so* important, and will serve them well as an adult.

    12. If it’s a boy, the downside is proven pushes by tech overlords to feed them alt right and manosohere content over and over. A proven deep conservative bias of algorithms.

      If a girl, proven body shaming and eating disorder content fed over and over and ultimately even more biased tradwives political content.

    13. a friend of an acquaintance wrote this book – https://www.amazon.com/New-Childhood-Raising-Thrive-Connected-ebook/dp/B07CWNCKCB/ – might be worth a read? ” In The New Childhood, Jordan Shapiro provides a hopeful counterpoint to the fearful hand-wringing that has come to define our narrative around children and technology. Drawing on groundbreaking research in economics, psychology, philosophy, and education, The New Childhood shows how technology is guiding humanity toward a bright future in which our children will be able to create new, better models of global citizenship, connection, and community.”

    14. Kids will tune you out if you try to scare them. A more practical “this is what it’s good at and how to use it safely and effectively” balanced with “these are the dangers you might not think of and how to avoid them” approach is generally more effective with my kid who is like yours.

      1. I think that’s true if you try to overexplain it to your kid, but there are steps you can take (such as not providing a smartphone) that are more of a physical barrier. It just won’t be effective if your main/only approach is “convince your kid” – of course a teen isn’t going to want to stay off social media.

        1. I think being scared is good for kids. I used to listen to a ministry radio station that would always tell stories of hard luck, addiction, runaways, etc. That absolutely helped form some of my more risk averse behaviors.

          Teenage me would have loved the option for bed time podcasts instead.

        2. The question was about how to explain the dangers. You can explain the dangers while also setting up restrictions.

    15. I was a 13 year old straight A student who was generally extremely responsible and trustworthy. Now I’m in my late 20’s with a destroyed attention span and an Instagram addiction. And I only joined at 15. The effects on her focus, just when she’s starting high school with a big girl workload, are too big.

      And people mentioned lots of other things that I find more or less concerning, but I want to add the crazy consumerism of social media. There is a relentless urge to buy, even in safe communities, like gimnastics or sci-fi literature (nevermind if she cares for makeup or fashion). Plus, actual ads perfectly tailored to her tastes. If she already has money from a job or allowance, the urge to part with it will be strong. If she doesn’t, than she will form a warped vision on how to spend it, before she can learn how hard it is to earn it.

      1. It’s remarkable to me how many college students say they wish their parents had withheld smartphones longer. It doesn’t mean they’re just right, but I think it does mean it’s different from other technologies that young people never talked about that way.

  6. This looks like a sleep shirt from the eighteenth century. I’m also reminded of that scene from Fair Play when the guy tells his girlfriend people don’t take her seriously because she dresses like a cupcake.

      1. I think this kind of shirt can be nice in a drapey fabric but it’s harder to pull off in a crisp cotton. That said, I appreciate the heads up about this collab – just bought some random stuff, including a very cute velvet bag for $30 that will be perfect for holiday parties and a lacy camisole that may work for the same purpose.

    4. I actually love shirts like this for under slim-fitting crewneck vests as the c–l-r works so well with them.

    5. I remember wearing this shirt for picture day in 1984.

      I remember seeing Diane Chambers wearing this shirt on “Cheers.”

    6. out of curiosity do you mean the 2023 movie or the book of the same name about sharing tasks with your partner?

      1. The movie. IMO it would’ve been better as a thriller with the boyfriend secretly sabotaging her career while acting supportive to her face. The movie was just okay (although Phoebe Dynevor’s wardrobe was a great example of color theory once she ditched the ruffle shirts)

  7. Anyone want a Friday distraction and to help me with office layout?

    Picture a shoe box (not that it’s small just the shape it’s a rectangle. You enter on the short end right corner. Against that right wall is closets. Along the back wall it’s all window floor to ceiling. Where would you orient your desk / monitor ? My first thought is an L shape desk with the monitor facing the left wall – but that feels like people enter with my back to them. If you put the monitor facing the “front” there is a lot of glare from the sun behind you

    There’s almost but not quite enough room to face the right wall since you need door opening space

    1. I’d put your desk at a right angle to the windows, but more in the middle of the room to allow people to enter/space for chairs. If the glare from the windows is bad can you put up a peel and stick window film? There are some really nice options these days.

    2. Can you add shades or a window tint? From what you’ve described you don’t have a ton of options besides that left wall.

      1. There are curtains I could pull but I don’t want them pulled all day – the view is quite beautiful and the ceilings are very tall (maybe 20 feet ?) so it’s not super easy to pull them open and shut all day.

        Left wall might be the way to go- I am also thinking of a more kitty corner set up too . I have flexibility in terms of the shape of the desk so just seeing if anything I didn’t think of

    3. If glare rules out you facing the front wall, then orient the desk so you face the wall with the closets. Your monitor will face the wall on the left as you enter the office. People who enter will do a 90-degree turn to face your desk, and that works well with office layouts. From your desk you’ll see the entrance to the office, even if you don’t directly face that door, which is good because so you’ll avoid people entering behind your back. And you’ll have the benefit of the windows to your left, which makes your desk location extra pleasant and avoids glare on the monitor.

    4. You need a wall at your back and the door in your peripheral vision to be comfortable.

      Can you make space so that you can face the right wall? If you cannot, the second best option is to face the left wall, and add a mirror as part of your office decor, placed to that you see the door in the mirror.

      Some ways to make space:
      – Is this is a home office with closets for clothing? can you change the closet doors to sliding doors? If it’s an office building, are these closets movable, can you remove the doors and use them as shelves?
      – can you use an L-shaped or curved desk that is narrow towards the right wall? 60-80 cm? If you place the deeper end towards the windows for keeping your desk clutter and spreading-out stuff, again, add a decorative mirror.

      1. Thank you this is helpful! I also think you helped articulate something – I do want a wall at my back and not so far back that the room looks enormous on video. I can’t change the closet doors- they are these enormous wall to ceiling doors in a beautiful wood but it is hard to decorate around. I think an L shape facing the right with a thinner profile on the side facing the right wall might work . I’m going to play around with the proportions

    5. My back used to be to the window in my office. There was a semi-sheer roller shade that you could pull down when the sun was shining directly through the window.

  8. Could I get a little encouragement? I got let go for performance earlier this week. I have 20 years of good experience in this space but this particular job and this boss were just a bad match. I will work again but man I am tired and now thinking about what I have to tell people.

    1. I’m sorry. I would probably phrase it as something like “Unfortunately the job wasn’t a good fit so I’m looking for a new opportunity” for anyone who doesn’t need the details and for anyone who does, “Unfortunately, the job wasn’t a good fit and I was let go. It’s a new experience for me because I have always done so well in similar positions, but I guess it happens.” Try to frame it more as fit/something that can happen to anyone vs. a true performance issue.

    2. I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I’ve been in your shoes and it’s awful. I really thought I would never recover. But when I had interviews after losing my job I simply said I was looking for a better fit. That’s it. Lean on your network, use all your previous experience and what you’ve learned to your advantage. A better job is out there.

      1. This feels right. I think most people, if they’ve worked in an office environment, would understand, especially if your resume is otherwise strong. Not every situation is a good fit and some of us are lucky to ride bad times out, and others aren’t so lucky. I’m sorry you’re going through this.

    4. a) that’s rough, and I’m sorry
      b) You’ve probably seen enough in 20 yrs of office life to know sometimes getting let go is the person’s fault and… sometimes it’s not (sometimes it’s no one’s fault, just business needs changed; and sometimes it’s a bad boss). Anyone else with more than 5 minutes of corporate experience is going to know that too, and not be judging you.
      c) Early in my career, my contract wasn’t renewed for (justified!) performance issues, and I was so ashamed, I didn’t tell ANYONE, EVER for 20+ years (I let everyone think it was financial reasons). Until I was talking with a new grad in a similar boat, who clearly very much needed to hear that a person can come back from that, even when it was a real performance problem! And in that moment, I was able to say “hey, this is bad but it’s not the end of the world. Let me tell you something about me you don’t know…”. Maybe someday, someone will need to hear that from you. (It’s okay if it takes you a long time to get to the point of being ready and able to share it though!)

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