All posts tagged Technology

How To Deal With A Sexist Jerk

by Susan DiMickele on January 16, 2012 in Career Growth, Co-workers, Lessons Learned, Work with 3 Comments

A female lawyer recently complained to me about the sexist conduct of her male opponent.

“He is treating me like his secretary! Right in front of my client! I’ve never been so embarrassed in all my life. He actually asked me to make copies for him because his secretary was gone for the day. Then he made some joke about how I’m young enough to be his daughter. I wanted to slap him, but of course I had to keep my cool in front of my client. But mark my words, when this case is over I am going to send him an email and let him have it!”

I listened with interest and shook my head. I’ve been in her shoes before. Too many times. (In my early years of practice, I actually remember wanting a few gray hairs.)

She continued, “What would you do if you were in my shoes?” Continue reading →

(Not) Working At Home

by Susan DiMickele on January 3, 2012 in Home, Motherhood, Raising Kids, Work, Working Moms with 25 Comments

Over the holidays, I decided to stay home with the kids as much as possible. The plan? I would “work” at home the week after Christmas and avoid the office.

Easier said than done.

The good news?

For the most part, I avoided the office.

The bad news?

I didn’t get much work done. Even worse, I was downright rude to my children.

Continue reading →

What Ruins Your Day?

by Susan DiMickele on September 8, 2011 in Daily Grind, Faith, Pain with 10 Comments

My cell phone died an unexpected death. Yesterday. I won’t give you the gory details, but let’s just say it’s lying on a highway somewhere along Route 315.

And it really upset me. I mean it really ruined my day.

I was grumpy. I was irritable. I felt lost and disconnected.

All because of a stupid phone that can be replaced!

But that was yesterday.

Today, I’m headed out of town for a funeral. Three young boys don’t have a mother anymore. It’s unexpected. It’s tragic. It’s unexplainable.

A mother can’t be replaced.

So I’ve had a bit of a paradigm shift. You see, I have much to be thankful for – including three beautiful children I can hold tonight – and I really don’t care anymore about my cell phone. And I’m pretty embarrassed that I let it ruin my day. (Yeah, I even had to apologize to my kids this morning.)

What silly things have you let ruin your day lately?

Good News About Multi-tasking?

by Susan DiMickele on March 26, 2010 in Social Media, Working Moms with 4 Comments

Multi-tasking isn’t all that bad. And the research backs me up.

Ok, this is the same research that condemns me on the one hand, but I see the cup as half full. In short, I’m a parallel processor.

According to the research, women are very good at doing two things (or more) at once when they are parallel processing. The key is to only do one mentally challenging task at a time.

What does parallel processing look like? Well, let me start by explaining what it doesn’t look like. Last weekend, I was trying to play a board game with my kids while I was working on my laptop. (Please save the parenting advice – I’m known to be pressed for time on the weekends.)

Every time it was “my turn” my kids would remind me. Mom, hurry up, it’s your turn again. I’d forget who made the last play and it took me twice as long to make my move. When I switched back to my laptop, I had totally lost my train of thought. And, as soon as I was fully engaged on the computer, it was time for “my turn” again in the game.

After about 20 minutes, I was mentally exhausted from switching back and forth. Worse yet, I wasn’t very fun to play with and I wasn’t getting any work done.

Did I resort to doing just one thing at a time? Of course not. I’m a busy working mom. I don’t have the luxury of doing one thing at a time. Instead, I moved on to plan B.

Plan B is parallel processing. I decided to do some mindless tasks – like addressing envelops and baking brownies – during our board game. It worked like magic. (I’m known to make brownies in my sleep, and I never had to be reminded it was “my turn.”) Everyone was happy, I got some stuff done, and I saved my mentally challenging work for an opportune moment – like when the rest of my family was zoned out in front of the TV.

So, the next time you’re accused of being a crazed multi-tasker, just proclaim that you’re a parallel processor. Yes, busy women have no choice but to take care of multiple tasks at the same time. And most of us are headed into busy weekends!