In the past couple of weeks, the Wall Street Journal Law blog has run a series of articles filled with helpful tips for law firm associates called View from the Corner Office. This four part series includes a variety of gems and a couple of clunkers, as far as advice goes. Here, we save you the trouble of reading all 4 columns and hit the highlights, along with a discussion of the more controversial of the recommendations, as commented upon by a thousand disgruntled lawyers (eek!)
Contributed by Alana Elsner
A small bead drops from just below his hairline – picking up speed as it falls. Conscious of this, he wipes the sweat from his brow, trying to focus on the task set before him. Even the most nimble move could mean the difference between winning and losing- between life and death. As the old saying goes, “No guts, no glory.” As the moment nears, his heart beats faster. Adrenaline rushes through his veins. And finally, finally, comes the moment of truth. THE TRADE.
Contributed by Jacqueline Church
The Glass Hammer article “Why Working Mothers Lie” and the comments that followed it illustrate what can go wrong when work and family issues are mishandled at the workplace. The problem is not bias against working mothers, though it exists. It’s not preferential treatment for working parents, though this too exists. Accommodationist policies, entitlement attitudes, and how we measure employees’ contributions are all part of the problem. Another culprit is an institutional unwillingness to drop “either/or” thinking in favor of “both/and” thinking. As in, we can either support working moms or we can have good business results.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran a provocative article about how Senator Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House has unleashed a surge of animosity towards high powered women in America, which may be reverberating throughout the workplace.
The article, “At the Barricades in the Gender Wars,” by Jonathan Kaufman and Carol Hymowitz, revealed some interesting parallels between women’s advancement in politics and their struggle for representation in the boardroom.
It never ceases to amuse that there are earnest, dedicated, educated researchers who get paid to state the obvious. I have to draw your attention to the latest research beauty: ‘The female chatterbox who never lets men get a word in edgeways…is nothing more than a myth.”
Are men really from Mars? Women from Venus? You?d think so from recent research on why we take jobs in the financial arena in the first place. (Hands up those of you who do it for love? No? The biggest paycheck? Yep, I thought so. You?ll be the boys, then).