High ponytail or low ponytail? Or are they both too girlish and distracting?
Lots of posts out there at the moment on the subject of looking your best – both for day-to-day work and for job-hunting. It would appear that sartorial matters matter when times are tough. I liked this one from corporette.com, commented on most astutely by Michael over at Work Matters:
Law schools need to teach at least one course on real life. They could fold all of this kind of thing into the course: office politics, the ethics of being an associate, ponytail or no ponytail. Stuff about survival. Maybe call it, thinking as I tap this out, "Survivor." Or law firms should offer a course to new lawyers. People are so afraid to talk about these obvious issues for fear of upsetting someone. Attorneys and would-be lawyers never get a class on what we really need to know.High ponytail or low ponytail? This stuff matters. Ties – what about arching the necktie? Why does this stuff matter so much? Because language was a very late development in our evolution, whereas sight happened way back when. In reading around the subject of dyslexia, I came across an astounding reference - for every language processing brain cell we have in our head, there are 1.6 billion visual processing cells. Billion with a B. So yes, the visual stuff really, really matters folks.
I have long maintained that there should be a fourth R in education – Reading, Writing, 'Rithmetic and 'Reer Management. A lot of colleges offer outreach lectures in which the staff from the career centre talk about CVs, interviews and the practicalities of job-hunting. Useful and better than nothing, but not nearly enough. I think there should be a series of lectures and discussions on the practicalities of navigating the office minefield built in to your course of study:
- Dress sense
- Meeting ettiquette
- Cogent writing
- Communicating politically – when to email, when to phone, and when to do it face to face
- Presentation skills
- Networking
- Dealing with bullying and harassment
- And so on ...
H/T: Execupundit for the ponytail piece and Cultural Offering for the tie piece
2 comments:
I think it would be smart to include a "Reer Management" type program as a requirement for undergraduates. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a new employee, straight out of college, misinterpret our business casual dress code to mean flip flops and tank tops.
Such a course would save HR's time dealing with the employee and would definitely save the employee from an embarrassing situation. I'm all for it. Now where do I tell my sister to sign up?
Spoke with a nice kid last night. Polite. Well spoken, BUT two lip rings which he constantly ran his tongue over. Run him through your course and I could predict success. The rings scream "look at me. Pay attention to me." I want his competence to scream that. Thanks for the link.
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