Meeting Notes

Meeting Notes is our weekly feature where we dish on tidbits, news and other important things Working Girls should know. Here are a few things to glean from this work week:

• Don't deny it, you need your daily Diet Coke to get through the day too! But it's an innocent addiction, right? Maybe not. It may have zero calories but it could harm you according to recent studies. [Jezebel]

• How do you sign your emails? If you are like me, "Best" is probably your go-to sign-off. I've always liked it but some Working Girls (and Boys) think it's rude. [Thought Catalog]
  

• Bad day at the office? Just be thankful you aren't the rectal thermometer tester at Johnson & Johnson. [via]

• Holy hangover. We sure can't drink we like we used. OK, we can drink like we used to but we sure can't recover like we used to. Thankfully the ladies at Jezebel have some tips for sleeping it off at the office. [Jezebel]

Leaving Early Guilt

by Working Girl One

And by early, I mean I reasonable hour like 6pm.

I hate working late. Hate it. Some people don't mind it, some even like it. I totally get it, at the end of the day, when everyone else has packed up and gone home, you can finally have some peace and quiet to get your work done.

I am not one of those people. I never was. I prefer getting in early or working through lunch. And with an hour or so long commute these days, I am so not one of those people.

Over the last few weeks, I've gotten pretty good at getting my work done at a reasonable hour. Could I stay later and get even more work done? Sure, there is always work to be done. But it's summer and I just want to get to the train and get home.

So, I leave. And I feel guilty about it. I am usually one of the first people to leave and while I know others are only 15 or 20 minutes behind me, I hate being the first. I hate the idea of my boss calling my name from her office and realizing I'm not there. Would she really care if I wasn't? Probably not. She's one of those people who doesn't mind staying late and she knows I have a commute.

I was raised Catholic so I blame it on my Catholic Guilt. But it's something I have to get over. If I complete all my work, I deserve to leave at a reasonable hour, no?

Meeting Notes

Meeting Notes is a weekly feature. Here we will dish on tidbits, news, and important things we think Working Girls should know. So scroll down to hear what we think you should glean from this work week.

• A new study in the Journal of Management Studies suggests that politically savvy professionals who use "sucking up" as a career aid may also be able to avoid psychological distress. Aka if you are cunning and crafty, you will less likely be picked on. So basically I have to be a Mean Girl to climb the corporate ladder? Sounds 'bout right. [Science Daily]

• Need another reason to work from home? Research shows that couples in which one partner commutes more than 45 minutes to get to work are 40% more likely to divorce than couples who don't have to travel for their jobs. The study also suggests that commuting affects your overall well-being leading to obesity, stress and loneliness. Blech. [Self]

• Daily Candy is running their annual "Start Small, Go Big" Contest that aims to help small businesses get off the ground. A winner from each category (fashion, beauty, food & drink, and home) will win a trip to NYC, a Daily Candy write-up and a day at the Daily Candy Academy where they will learn from the likes of Isaac Mizrahi & Rebecca Minkoff. Entries need to be submitted by August 5th. So get cracking! [Daily Candy]

Eat Your Way to a New Job

by PR Working Girl

I'm a fan of chatting with someone and asking questions to learn more about a subject, versus looking it up on Google. So when in the job market, one of the first things I like to do is go through my network and reach out to someone who works at a company I admire or in a similar industry as mine, or in a role that I could see myself doing someday.

While you could send that person an email with several job-related questions, or you could try scheduling a phone call, I would suggest asking that person to join you for lunch (granted you live in close enough proximity).

It's a bit of a bold move compared to an email or phone call, but I think it also shows more confidence and assertiveness.

There's just something about lunches that puts people at ease. It's a great setting for conversation. It's casual. And who doesn't enjoy eating?

The problem with just sending an email is that it can go unanswered, and then what? Do you follow-up with another email? And what if that one goes unanswered, too? Awkward. Dead end.

In addition, a phone call is too easily rescheduled or forgotten, or you can get put on hold, or you might get a hurried, "Can I call you back? I'm in the middle of something," and then you feel guilty for bothering them.

But lunch, well, everyone has to take time out to eat lunch. And, as you busy ladies know, working people always welcome the opportunity to get out of the office for lunch!

When a date is set, come prepared with questions and a notepad and pen. Turn your cell phone off. All the way off. Plan ahead to pick up the tab at the end of the lunch, insist on it, which will imply that you are both professional and appreciative. Ask for their business card. Send a thank you note.

Also, remember this is purely an informational session, not a time to be presumptuous and ask, "Do you know of any job openings?" or "If you hear of anything, can you please keep me in mind?" To me, these questions are incredibly annoying. The last thing you want to do is put off your "guest" by assuming that they like you enough to commit to recommending you for a job at their company right then and there.

There have been a number of great networking and job hunting tips on Working Girl, hopefully this adds another to your strategy. Good luck!

Meeting Notes

We are bringing back Meeting Notes as a weekly feature. Here we will dish on tidbits, news, and important things we thinking Working Girls should know. So scroll down to hear what we think you should glean from this work week.

• Crazy that it took this long, but here's a big congratulations to Jill Abramson who was named executive editor of The New York Times last week! This was long overdue as she is the paper's first woman to reign over the media empire in its 160-year tenure. Talk about girl power. [Marie Claire]

• The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a new study that suggests jobs have become gender-segregated by how they are advertised. The survey found that women and men reacted differently to the same job when it was written differently. Male workers responded to words like "competitive" and "dominant" while women veered more towards words like "compassionate" and "nurturing". [Jezebel]

• For all you self-employed Working Girls - here is an interesting article on how to find the right employees at the right time. It's all about timing! [Design Sponge]

• And now for a little inspiration - 33 ways to stay creative below! [Today & Tomorrow]

Foodie Girls

I consider myself a wannabe-foodie. Cooking and eating are two of my favorite things to do. I wish my job could be to watch Food Network all day and I could spend hours in a Whole Foods or at a Farmer's Market. I subscribe to several cooking magazines and own way too many cookbooks.

So I was very excited to see Gourmet Live's list of 5o Women Game Changers on one of my favorite food blogs, The Kitchn. This is where the wannabe part comes in. The only names I knew, apart from Julia Child, were the women with cooking shows on Food Network and Ree Drummond, a.k.a. The Pioneer Women, who I love (love, love, love!) and will soon have her own show on Food Network.

I've watched enough cooking competition reality shows (which obviously makes me an expert) to know that the culinary industry has been a predominately male for a long time. It's exciting to see a strong list of women in the culinary world. They aren't the top women, they are the game changers, which is important to point out.

Julia Child brought French cooking to the American home and Ree Drummond became one of the faces of well-executed food blogging. Did you know that food-critic Gael Greene (you've probably seen her on Top Chef) founded CityMeals on Wheels? They aren't just part of the industry -- they're changing it.

Heated...Over Mac & Cheese

Last week, my co-workers and I stalked The Southern's mac & cheese food truck because we had heard the their mac & cheese was all sorts of fantastic.

{via Passport Delicious}

this is the mac & cheese with hot dogs (which is also awesome!)

And let me tell you...that mac & cheese was all sorts of amazing. I got 2 types - the asparagus, ramps & gouda and then a buffalo chicken & blue cheese. Both were great, but I decided to save half of the buffalo chicken and almost all of the asparagus for dinner and then lunch for the next week (truth be told, I was also a little hungover and my eyes were more ambitious than my stomach - whoops!).

Fast forward a few hours, and I decide I have too many errands to do after work so I'm not going to take the mac & cheese home after all. But I see a sign on the fridge - it's fridge cleaning day! So you must label your foods with your name and the word SAVE in large letters. Easy enough. Done and done.

I come back on Tuesday and my mac & cheese - all $18 worth of it - is goneeeeeeeeee. No where to be found. I even looked in the front kitchen just in case. Nope. Gone.

And that's when I got heated about mac & cheese. And the money I spent on the mac & cheese. And how processes at work just don't work!!!! My name and the words "SAVE" were on that bag in very large letters!!! Cue freak out.

To which my one co-worker told me to take a chill pill (so '90's) and just buy McDonald's. Since it's Thursday and I'm still talking about it, I think you can tell I'm not over it.

Wicked Smaht

Amy Poehler is a smart, funny lady and she gave a fantastic speech at Harvard Class Day a couple of weeks ago.

The video, posted on Harvard Magazine's YouTube page, has been making the rounds on the internet but if you haven't watched it yet, I recommend you do.

In addition to her usual humor, she gives the Harvard Class of 2011 some useful, simple advice that definitely comes in handy, even after a handful of years in the working world.