Previously, on Corporette…

12 Comments

1. Y’all, I am hoping that someone on here is in Charlotte, NC.

   I am needing to do some post-baby shopping now that my size has stabilized and have vowed to go upmarket on the condition that I actually buy quality items that actually fit. I haven’t been in non-maternity stores in so long that I feel like I’m starting from scratch in terms of local offerings for office professionals. Any advice for personal shoppers / stores?

   Left to my own devices I have tended to come home with too much summer cocktail attire and not enough, um, real clothes, or bags and bags of stuff from Target that I’ve never even tried on. I work with mostly guys, so I am praying for the internet to come though.

   1. You’ll get more responses if you post this on a TPS or coffee break thread.

2. Here’s a business card question: what would you put on a networking/personal business card for someone looking for a legal or legal/programming position (by legal/programming I mean everything from straight programming to working on projects that also use legal knowledge). The person has a BS, JD, and is admitted in 2 states, although doesn’t live/work in either currently, so I’m not sure if he could call himself “esquire” or even “attorney” (would need to look at bar rules, I guess). Name, email, phone, linked in? Bar admissions? Degrees?

   1. I wouldn’t use “esquire”–it comes off as doosh-y (at least in California). I’d use “Attorney” as my title and just below: Admitted in California and New York. I might add a line at the bottom that references the programming skills like “Software Expert for Law Firms and Legal Professionals”.

      He might want to consider having two business cards: one for legal job networking and one for programming job networking.

      1. I just booked a flight on Delta and they have a mile long list of suffixes one can affix after their name. One of the options is Esq. and I chose it as a joke. I am a lawyer but I can’t imagine requiring that after my name on my plane reservation. They even have it in a separate section from the ticket name which has to be your legal name for identification purposes. My husband won’t let me live it down b/c he thinks I chose it seriously. My friend thinks it was smart and maybe I’ll get some perk b/c they want to make the business traveler happy.

   2. I’d say “Lawyer.” I like the distinction (now often ignored) between a lawyer (someone who works in the law) and an attorney (somone who acts as a legal agent for a client). I’m always a lawyer; I’m an attorney when I have a client.

3. For mine, on the front of the card I have my name (with professional certifications), email, phone, linkedIn and on the back I have a two sentence statement that summarizes my experience. People can always look at my LinkedIn to find out more about me (work history, degrees, etc.).

4. I have a co-worker who repeatedly (multiple times a day) says “ghetto” when she means unprofessional/janky/subpar/lazy.

   I find it really offensive. It’s ignorant at best and bigoted at worst. Is there any way to get the message to her that using “ghetto” in that sense is not at all office-appropriate? I can’t help but suspect she’d never dreeeam of saying it if all of us weren’t white or Asian-American.

   1. I agree. It is WRONG. While there are peeple in today’s slums who are all of those things, the REAL meaning of Ghetto goe’s back to the time when people were herded into places and starved and shot. I sugest you foward my explaination to this co-worker so that she can get EDUCATED.

   2. “Could you not use the term ghetto? It’s offensive.”

   3. One option is to give her the [out loud] benefit of the doubt, by isolating it to a specific example, and not point out to her that she says it frequently. Example:

      Inappropriate Colleague: This copy machine is so ghetto! It always jams.

      You: Whoa, that’s a *really* strong term! Yeah, the copier is janky/busted/shabby/etc, but yikes, ghetto? No. (Or something else that shows your shock at the use of the term.)

      If someone called me out in that way, I’d immediately look the word up, realizing that I didn’t actually know what it meant, and then feel MORTIFIED, and never use it again. But, I’d also be grateful that you didn’t make it about my character in using the term, or point out that I did so often.

   4. to give her the benefit of the doubt, “ghetto” was a ubiquitous slang term when I was in undergrad – I HIGHLY doubt she even realizes how often she is using it. I’d be tempted to point it out by saying that – “oh you remind me so much of my sorority days, we all said that all the time back then!” – and hope she took the hint before escalating to more obvious “please don’t” tactics.

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