Business Ettiquette

I've been working full time for ten years now. (I got a late start.) In that time I've seen that, especially if one is a supervisor and/or has seniority, one may spy on coworkers and subordinates, one may demand progress reports every five minutes, one may belittle people in a quiet voice or shout and scream at them or call them names as long as one doesn't use a slur against a protected class. One may rummage a person's desk or demand details of how they spend their time away from work or make them ask permission to take a bathroom break, and even deny them that permission. One may even throw things as long as one doesn't actually hit anyone.

But one may not cry. Ever. Not even behind a closed door.

Now how did crying become the epitome of unprofessional behavior?

(This is fortunately not inspired by current events at work. Though it is partially inspired by current events.)

"Women are never front-runners"

OK, politics. I'm Black. I'm female. And I've been thinking a lot about how these two aspects of my existence affect my politics and whom I'm voting for, whether and how they should, whether and how they shouldn't. It's uncomfortable thought, but it's necessary.

So, a friend of mine posted a link to Gloria Steinem's Op-Ed piece in the NYT today, and, well. Consider this the web equivalent of my cutting it out of the newspaper and pasting it into my diary. Go read the article online, though, not least since one of the comments contains a lovely snark about Mitt Romney. (  'If the lawyer described above had been just as charismatic but named, say, Achola Obama instead of Barack Obama, her goose would have been cooked long ago.'  )