Archive for September, 2006
It’s the weekend, so rather than post some dire stats about how women make roughly 75% of what their male counterparts make as I’d intended (believe me, I have a nice stack of reports and articles I could draw from), I thought I’d post these more entertaining reminders that not all workers are created equal:
1. Batgirl vs. the wage gap - A charming little YouTube vid. (”Holy act of Congress, Batman!”)
2. “A Career in Business Isn’t for Every Gender” - The Onion’s hilarious take on the glass ceiling. Almost knocks the Forbes “Don’t Marry Career Woman” piece down to size. Almost.
Thanks to Salon.com’s Broadsheet for clueing me in to both. More dire stats to come in a future post. Feel free to share any you come across too via email or comments.
September 30th, 2006
OK, this is so high school/MySpace/dorktastic of me, but I couldn’t resist posting this vid, an homage to all the tech developers and project managers in my life.
White and Nerdy
Got the tip off from Mike Ryan, who says, “Okay, normally I’m not a huge fan of Weird Al Yankovic, but this is frikkin’ brilliant. And the video is hilarious. Bonus points for having Donny Osmond and Seth Green in it, too.”
Hear, hear! Plus, I heart the mayo shot.
September 28th, 2006
People, I wish you could see some of the goofy-ass writing samples on my shelf from my first few years as a freelance word mercenary, back in the nineties. I’ve been straightening up my office tonight, and as a result, cracking up. Some highlights:
- Copy for those “What’s this?” plaques you’d see in front of a tree stump or patch of stinky moss in a national park—in my case, Arizona’s Kartchner Caverns State Park, which for a long time was a supersecret cave before opening to the public in the nineties. The best plaque I wrote was about bat guano.
- Script for an old Victoria Principal informercial. I swear to effing god. I even got product samples. Most of them made me break out.
- Companion audiotapes for books like this. If I remember correctly, one had a tip in it about how naming a star after your sweetheart (which you can actually do for a tidy little sum) will get you in her pants faster—and forever.
- Back covers for computer programming books with names like Talk Java to Me (best Worst Cover Ever!), Erotic Connections: Love and Lust on the Information Highway (by some dude named Billy Wildhack who now serves up sex news online), and Fatal Distractions: 87 of the Very Best Ways to Get Beaten, Eaten, Maimed, and Mauled on Your PC (by the guy who wrote the “Trouble with Tribbles” episode of the original Star Trek series—random, I know).
- Catalog copy for products like the Eroscillator, the only vibrator ever to receive an endorsement from legendary sexpert Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
Gawd, are you still reading this post after suffering through all that? And, why did I not wind up on welfare?
These days, I’m happy to report that my freelance gigs are far more staid ‘n steady, meaning I don’t have to write about beauty products, bat turds, or anything remotely related to William Shatner. (At least until the next recession or equivalent of the dotcom crash.) Since people are always asking what I’m working on, here’s a sampling of what I have cooking this week:
- Turned in a career profile of a former student to Seattle University’s alumni magazine today. (700 words)
- Interviewing and outlining article for National Association of Female Executives magazine. (650 words)
- Finishing up the caption-y text for a very cute photography book that a local publisher will be putting out next year. (approx. 2000 words)
- Negotiating rates/schedules for next week’s megacorp copywriting gigs.
- Reviewing page proofs of my book! Yes, my pages are here. And the designer did a fanfreakingtastic job. The original graphics are perrrrrrfect. I believe my email to the editors today said: “Pages! OMG! O! M! G!” No turning back now. This chicken’s about to hatch a book.
September 28th, 2006
The Working Mother Top 100 list is out. For those not in the know, it’s a list the mag puts out annually to give props to the companies with the most family-friendly policies — you know, flex time, telecommuting, paid leave, and all that good stuff many of us never, ever see in the workplace. To search for a gig at a company like this, check out the mom-friendly filter on the job site SimplyHired. (Do an advanced search, and under Company, select from the Special Filters menu.)
If you’re not a mom, does this mean you’re SOL? Hardly. Yours truly boasts a client on this list and you won’t see me procreating any time soon. (Sorry, mom.) Family friendly means worker friendly, unless of course your employer has the nasty habit of heaping the heaviest load on its childless workers. Some do. One would be wise to avoid those outfits like the plague.
A final note: If you can’t open the Working Mother Top 100 list, you can read it on BusinessWeek too, as Feministing kindly pointed out this morning.
September 26th, 2006
Yesterday I was IM’ing with Kelly, a partner in freelance crime, because we’re working on a web writing project together and now we’re like war veterans, man. And I was saying how I hadn’t gone out for my daily walk with Buddy the wondermutt yet, even though it was well over 75 degrees and after 7 p.m. But I had showered, just moments ago, I told her triumphantly, as if I’d just earned the Pulitzer. Sad.
Welcome to my freelance life.
So when I finally did make it out for a walk with the four-legged superspaz, I was thinking about all my (charmingly insane?) dirty little freelance secrets. Herewith the current top five that I am willing to admit in public:
1. Before my dazzling IM conversation with Kelly I couldn’t remember the last time I’d washed my hair.
2. I still can’t remember the last time I did my dishes, or the last time I could remember the last time I did my dishes. But they smell. I’m contemplating just throwing them all out and getting paper plates and chopsticks (Boyfriend Greg’s suggestion).
3. I’ve consistently been timing my lunch to coincide with at least 15 minutes of One Life to Live for the past several months. If I get an onsite gig, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I mean, Lt. John McBain died yesterday in a fiery car crash! Woe.
4. I actually watched part of Oprah today, too, on which Janet Jackson talked openly for the first and last time, ever, OK people? about how her boob popped out during that Superbowl halftime thingie. Like, who cares? (OK, in case you’re curious, Janet said it was an accident and Justin left her high and dry by not rushing to her defense when the media and religious right slammed her, or something like that. I told you: snore.)
5. I’m pretty sure I spent more time yesterday fiddling with my blog settings and all the free templates than working on stuff I could actually bill for. Bad freelancer, bad, bad! I suppose this could turn out to be just another dangerous technical distraction. (Note to self: Consider imposing blogging hours, preferably during lunch or at the end of the day.)
September 26th, 2006
Check out my article in yesterday’s Seattle Times (free registration may be required), on how women’s networking groups stand out from the pack:
Welcome to the new girls’ club
“Think the glad-handing Old Boys hold a monopoly on networking? Think again…”
Tips for chronic introverts included. Or, as Katy McColl, author of Should I Do What I Love? (or do what I do—so I can do what I love on the side) writes, networking is nothing more than “charming the pants off people.” Yes indeedy.
September 25th, 2006
Gotta love the Los Angeles Times for writing about how employers impose forced relaxation:
Like many Americans, Maris Friedman finds it hard to chill out completely on vacation. A senior manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Los Angeles, Friedman says it usually takes her “a few days to decompress,” and she finds herself checking her office e-mail daily.
To discourage such behavior, the accounting giant shuts down its U.S. operations between Christmas and New Year’s, giving virtually all employees the time off with pay. Friedman calls the hiatus “fantastic. No one’s on e-mail, there are no phone calls, no nothing.”
Worried about employee burnout and turnover, some employers are forcing workers to take the vacation time they are entitled to. Determined to take some of the “labor” out of Labor Day and other holidays, employers are encouraging these workaholics to switch off their cellphones and log out of e-mail while they’re away.
Some employers even go a step further — giving weaker performance reviews or lower pay raises to those who don’t make use of their allotted time. The 400 employees of the American Management Association, for example, risk being dinged for poor time management, said Manny Avramidis, head of human resources for the New York-based training group.
One Chicago hotel offers to help electronically addicted vacationers relax by locking up their cellphones and laptops during their stay…
The article basically goes on to say that due to our downsized, hyperwired culture we’re a bunch of goons that can’t unplug and chill out. So, having woken up to the fact that overwork and overstress do not a happy, productive camper make, some savvy employers are mandating time off. Yeah.
September 24th, 2006
As they say in the land of software programming, Hello, World! And welcome to my fab placeholder for the upcoming Anti 9-to-5 Guide website, the online home for news and updates about my forthcoming book. I owe a big heaping ice cream sundae to my friend Ariel for getting me set up with WordPress and lighting the fire under my butt to get this puppy going. Meanwhile, sit back, relax, and enjoy the pixels. More thrills and chills to come later this month…
September 8th, 2006
