Meeting Notes

Stories, news and other important tidbits Working Girls should know. Here are a few things to glean from this work week:

• Mean Girls in the office? I believe it. According to the American Management Association, 95% of women say that they have felt undermined at some point in their career by other women. [Daily Mail]

• Say so long to the days of just a basic criminal background & credit checks when looking for a new job. Some companies are now requiring candidates to pass a social media background check. The year old start-up company Social Intelligence scrounges the Internet for everything the candidate has done on the Internet in the past seven years. Time to start de-tagging. [NY Times]

• This video is almost a year old, but worth a watch. COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, gives a speech at TED about why there is a smaller percentage of women at the top of their professions. She then gives 3 great pieces of advice for women in the work force. [You Tube]

But I Am Le Tired

by Working Girl One

Has this summer gone by faster than any summer ever before, or is it just me?

I feel like I'm traveling every other weekend and the weekends I home are spent catching up on errands and life. All of this is making me one tired Working Girl.

Last week, I overslept three times and was late to work twice. I've been passing out on the train and drinking grande iced coffees like it's my job. Somehow, I'm still exhausted.

Every morning, I wake up with intentions of getting home from work, going to the gym, cooking dinner, paying bills, reading, blogging...the list goes on. And every night, when I get home, I usually throw my purse done, grab a spoonful of peanut butter and park on the couch until I realize I should probably make something reasonable for dinner.

I see people I work with, my friends and bloggers I'm obsessed with work full time, keep an active social life and have time to dedicate to a hobby on the side and all I do I wonder how they do it. How do you all do it?

I'm guessing you (and they) probably don't do it by staying up past midnight to watch the Real Housewives of New York reunion and Watch What Happens Live, like I am right now.

Gettin' the Itch

I feel like I start to get itchy around this time every year. Usually the itch is to change something small - maybe my hair, my wardrobe, the furniture in my apt.

This year, I've started to get itchy about everything. Literally all of it. And I've been particularly itchy about my living situation. As in, do I want to continue living in Chicago.

To people who know me well this probably isn't a surprise. I moved to Chicago almost 3 years ago from New York to be closer to my family. And while I now am closer to my family, I'm also far away from my college friends - and to me these are the kind of friends that know me inside and out. I was back in New Jersey earlier this summer for a friend's wedding and my friends and I had one of the best weekends - no drama, lots of laughing, drinking and reminiscing.

After I got home all I wanted to do was be back out east. I immediately booked a trip to Boston in August to go visit everyone. And really started to consider if I wanted to move back east.

When I moved out here originally, the plan had always been to move back east eventually. Chicago was meant to be a re-centering of sorts - I wanted to get back on track financially, back on track with my family and friends from high school, and back to a good place of mind. And I feel as though I'm at that place now.

But does that warrant a move back to New England? I'm not sure.

But what I do know is that I'm ready to move on from my company. I've been at my current job now for almost 3 years. I love my co-workers to death. They are literally my best friends in Chicago. I love my boss. But I really think it's time I got my career moving forward instead of sideways and unfortunately I'm stuck sideways at this company right now.

So while I try and figure out if Boston is right for me, I've started the job search here in Chicago to help my job itches. Maybe all I need to help satisfy these urges is a new job and new challenges. Or maybe I'll find what I really need is a new city with old friends.

Meeting Notes

Stories, news and other important tidbits Working Girls should know. Here are a few things to glean from this work week:

• Men lost more jobs than women during the recession and now they gaining more jobs in the recovery. 768,000 jobs to be exact, according to a Pew Research Study. Researchers couldn't account for the difference but the Huffington Post has an idea why. [Huffington Post]

• We've shared our love for Bethenny Frankle before -- and plan to do so again, soon. The girls at HelloGiggles are also fans, naming her She-Ro of the Week. [HelloGiggles]

• Woman fired for not dying her gray hair? Not cool, boss, not cool. [Houston Chronicle]
  

• A few weeks ago on Meeting Notes, we shared 33 Ways to Stay Creative. Here is a fun -- and creative -- video of 29 very similar ways:

Working Girl Wears: Fashion Favorites

by Working Girl One

If you're anything like me, at least twice a week you stand in front of your closet, throw your arms up in defeat and declare "I hate all of my clothes!"

OK, fine, more like four times a week.

I love shopping and I love buying new clothes, but I'm terrible -- and always have been -- at putting outfits together. I blame this on the fact that most of my time growing up was spent in my Catholic school uniform. I pretended like I hated every moment of wearing that thing, but I loved wearing it. Love, love, loved it.

Unfortunately, my job does not come with a uniform. In fact, my company is known for it's fashion magazines. I thought I knew what it felt like to be self-conscious about your clothes, but it wasn't until I stepped into the elevators at my company and received the up-and-down from a group of girls, that I truly knew.

So, what's a Working Girl to do? Turn to the internet, of course. I have a few favorite fashion bloggers that I love and turn to often for outfit inspiration:

Jessica Quirk of What I Wore:
Jessica has been documenting her outfits for four years, and while her closet is probably 17 times the size of mine, her posts help me to find several uses for one piece and often inspire me to go digging in my closet for a piece I forgot I had.

Maegan Tintari of ...love Maegan:
Maegan's posts not only inspire me to have fun with my clothes and put together outfits for work and play, her DIY posts are fun and easy to follow. I recently followed her DIY to make a long skirt out of a too-short maxi dress.

Anh of 9to5Chic:
What I would give to look this put together 24/7. Anh is a 9 to 5 girl (just like us!) and posts her work outfits along with her more causal weekend outfits. I may just have to copy this look sometime this week:
Tall Girl Tales:
I wouldn't be a savvy Working Girl if I didn't try to catch a sale or two as I try to expand my wardrobe. For an almost daily list of online and in-store sales, I turn to Tall Girl Tales, who also shares her favorite fashion finds and daily outfits.

Those are my go-tos ladies. Anyone else I need to add to my list? I need all the help I can get.

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:

• Service workers in Connecticut rejoice! CT just became the first state in the nation this month to mandate paid sick days for workers. Advocates say this is a big move and that other states are looking to take this into effect. Currently on cities San Francisco and Washington, D.C. guarantee paid sick days for workers. [Reuters]

• The head of New Zealand's Employers' and Manufacturers' Association, Alasdair Thompson, has recently been fired after he caused public outrage by linking why women get paid less with "menstruation". Thompson was quoted to saying that women are paid less than men because they take more sick leave and "have children they have to take time off to go home" to care for. [BBC News]

• Congrats to the US Women's soccer team who won against France 3-1 today to go to the finals of the World Cup. They will play either Sweden or Japan this upcoming Sunday so set your DVR's! [CNN]

Everybody Make Mistakes. Everybody Has Those Days.

by Working Girl One

(Name that song!)

Over the course of my short career I have found that in publishing when someone makes a mistake, it is the end of the world. Really. You're either thinking that I'm being super dramatic or you know exactly what I'm talking about.

With the way some people react to things, you'd think I was working in an operating room and was responsible for life and death.

A friend of mine recently told me about a friend of hers, a nurse, who misplaced a human organ at work. A human organ (!!!). It was needed for testing or something, she wasn't exactly sure. One would think this is pretty big deal but all this person had to do was sign some papers and that was that. No yelling, no snarky emails, no CC-ing of your boss and your boss's boss and your boss's boss's boss.

I turned to another friend who was listening to the story and also works in publishing.

"Seriously?" I said. "Someone actually loses a human organ and it's no big deal and when I have a typo in an email to a client, people act like I've killed someone?!"

Often, a huge deal is made of something that is not that huge. When mistakes are made or projects don't go as planned, it's absolutely necessary to review what happened and learn from it.

But wouldn't it be great, if everyone would take a moment to take a step back, think about the situation and remember that most of us aren't saving lives? A lot of time could be saved and stress avoided.

The Subject of Getting Drizzunk

My company puts on a lot of events. And with these events usually comes a open bar. And with that open bar comes a lot of overservedness (word I just made up so go with it please).

Most work blogs I read talk about not drinking at company events. Or having the one drink and then switching to soda (or pop as we like to say out here in the Ole Midwest). But I will not say that because it would be hypocritical.

I personally don't think there is anything wrong with drinking in front of your coworkers. At our company events, I will drink more than one glass of wine and sometimes I even get drunk. The key to drinking with your coworkers or in front of your boss is to know yourself.

We all know this chat -the chat that your parents had with you before you left for college (or was that just mine?). The chat about knowing your limits and knowing your body and knowing your drunk. I know that after 4 glasses of wine I'm usually at my limit and that that 5th glass of wine will make me go overboard so if I'm with my bosses or people I want to impress then I'm not going to have the 5th glass. Or even the 4th probably.

And honestly I've been at parties where I have had that 4th or 5th glass and then sent myself home. Case in point, the incentive trip in St. Thomas - we had a huge snafu in the form of a Carribbean storm take place on the island and had to cancel our sail over to St. John for cocktails and dinner and instead had a 3-hour cocktail hour at the bar and then my boss invited me and my guest (who just happened to be WG1) to dinner. The 2 of us could barely finish our meals we were so tipsy so after dinner we sent ourselves home instead of sticking around for a nightcap.

So if you have a company picnic coming up with an open bar (like I do in a few weeks) then just stick to my advice and know yourself. Don't overdo it and if you think you're getting to the point of no return, send yourself home.

It's all about knowing your drunk - thanks for the advice Mom & Dad!

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:

• Remember wanting to do everything your friends did when you were young? The Huffington Post analyzes how women do this as adults. Do you let your friends or coworker's choices affect how you feel about the choices you make? [Huffington Post]

• Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg, is stirring up a bit of controversy with her views on successful women vs. successful men. Jezebel sums it up for us here: [Jezebel]

• Think only powerful men are cheaters? Think again. According to the Huffington Post, a new study shows that powerful women cheat just a much as powerful men. [Huffington Post]

• This is a must read: It's not going to turn out the way you thought. [katemoller.com]

Happy 4th of July!

Is it really The 4th of July already? We hope you all are enjoying the holiday weekend! We are certainly thankful for the extra day off and opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep.

[image via]