Every woman can justify the over-sized bags she carries with her every day. She needs her credit cards (sales!), she needs her lip gloss, her lipstick and her lip liner. She needs a translucent powder for midday touch-ups, and medical and dental cards (just in case).

She needs her wallet for holding latte money, change for the parking meter and her drivers license (just. in. case). She needs a pen or two or three - usually in varied colors. She needs a small package of tissues (runny nose season), wet hand wipes (KIDS!), a pad of paper and/or a journal. She needs space for her cell phone when it isn’t glued to her ear, spare earrings in case she loses one that should be glued to her ear and something to tie back her hair so you can see things dangle from her ear.

She needs a tweezers, nail clipper and at least one nail file. She needs unmentionables, a list of things to mention at an upcoming meeting and a pack of gum so as to avoid offending meeting participants.

She needs something to make her stink pretty (mmm…perfume), check her pretty (mirror, mirror) and fix her pretty (oil blotters anyone?).

Women, for as organized as they are, seem to consistently forget to have one very important accessory with them

EVERY

WHERE

THEY

GO.

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Today I learned about a condition that seems to be afflicting my son called Testosterone Poisoning. It is the best explanation I can come up with besides the fact that we have had a completely effed up week and he is beyond tired because of it.

Because I have been so absorbed with my very emotional boy child this week I am mentally (and physically) quite drained which means I have exactly BUPKIS to offer you.

In the spirit of providing you something new and interesting to cast your eyes upon I now present to you…

::drumroll::

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I recently wrote a post here on Work It, Mom about leaving employers respectfully and I received many comments from kindred readers.

Jen wisely commented, “…even if the bridge is on fire, I usually try my best to put it out, so that some part of our working relationship can be salvaged.”

Nataly commented quite wisely, “…it’s not worth it.”

TrishK let us know that she is going to be missed by co-workers she didn’t know existed.

Elle left the funniest comment ever which you just need to read for yourself. While I totally disagree with the way her colleague resigned I can name one person I would have loved to have done that to in my career.

Today I ran across an article via Lifehacker about crafting a graceful resignation.

You will definitely want to take the time to read the article. Whether or not you have plans to resign a current position, the article has useful advice. Some of my favorites (completely paraphrased and in no particular order):

1. Practice makes perfect: rehearsing for the how you will tell your boss you are resigning is never a bad idea.
2. Think long and hard about accepting a counter-offer from your employer.
3. Watch out for the boss that has to own every decision. Including when you leave.
4. Related to number 3, be prepared to leave sooner rather than later.
5. Watch what you say to co-workers after your resignation has been formally announced. You want to protect your professional reputation with everybody, not just management.

What is one piece of advice you would give someone that is planning to resign from their position?

(FUN GAME ALERT: The title of this post is paraphrased from a book that I consider to be one of my all-time favorites. If you can tell me the book title and author you will win a special place in my heart.)

“I will never, ever, so help me GAWD, work with [fill in the blank] AGAIN!”

Feel free to fill in that blank with the name of an individual, a company, a department, client or vendor. Do it in your head though, please.

Lawsuits for slander are not welcome here.

Have you ever uttered words like that? An oath out loud or in your head that forever swears you off from professional interaction with a group or individual? Have you ever had those words come back to haunt you some time later?

In my professional career I have crossed paths repeatedly with professional contacts in the past. Off the top of my head I can name four people that I have worked with in different companies more than once in my life. Have you ever found people from your past in your current work environment? I can’t be the only one it happens to.

I can honestly say that while there are many people I hope to NEVER work with again (you know who you are) I know that there is always a chance that I will work with them again.

• A former, much loathed boss could be a client one day in the future.
• The co-worker that slashed my tires (don’t brag) could end up a representative at a vendor I need to interact with.

The world is small and the corporate world is even smaller. In my mind it is important that I never burn any bridge with anyone ever.

This doesn’t mean I play kiss-up to people I dislike (they know who they are). What it means is that I caretake my professional network and more importantly, my professional image. I always professionally deal with any and all personality conflicts to the best of my ability in the workplace.

Everyone has dealt with difficult personalities in the workplace. You cannot reasonably go through your life expecting to actually LIKE everyone.

How do you deal with difficult individuals?

How do you manage relationships with departments, vendors and clients that push you over the edge?

Do you have a secret recipe for dealing with difficult people?

Have you ever encountered someone from your past in a work environment? Particularly, someone you didn’t care for. How did you deal with it?

A question I get asked a lot is how I got so lucky to find a job that I love so much. I am lucky to love my work and there are many reasons why I can make that statement. One of the top reasons I love my work is because I really enjoy the people that I work with.I haven’t run the numbers but off the top of my head I would guess that 75% of the people I work with are male. Sometimes working with men has its challenges. They are SO moody donchyaknow. **winks** Honestly, I can say that I work with fun (funny!), intelligent, caring men.

Yes, I said “caring” and “men” in the same sentence.

The women I work with are passionate about their careers and know exactly how to play with the big dogs. They too are fun (funny!), intelligent and caring.

As much as I like my co-workers I do not socialize with them much outside of the office. Oh sure, there is the occasional happy hour that I’ll attend and lunch with co-workers is never out of the question. Where I draw the line is attending any event where there may be a lot of drinking or space for people to get very personal in their conversations. I would sure hate to be in a position where a weekend of fun with co-workers made being at work uncomfortable for anyone the following Monday.

I also know that I spend a lot of time in the office with the people I work with. Sure, my projects change and so do the project resources. But for the most part I work regularly with the same core group of people. As much as I enjoy them during the 9-5 hours I would sure hate to burn out on spending time with them.

Maybe it is because I work with men (and I am a single female) that I have these socializing rules in place. I would hate for my reputation to be tarnished by untruths assumed by someone that may or may not witnessed a social activity. I would also hate for the truth to ever be misconstrued.

That said, I am the Queen of Networking (not to be confused with my duties as the Grandmother of Blogging). I am not cold or distant with my co-workers and have been confided in by a few about personal topics. When the time comes that one of us parts ways from an employer I do typically keep in touch with people that I worked closely with by scheduling dinners and happy hours for catching up.

How do you feel about socializing with co-workers? What is or is not acceptable in your mind? Do you have any stories of how socializing with a co-worker may have helped or hurt your career?

Some of you may not know this but I am the grandmother of blogging. Not to be confused with the FAIRY grandmother of blogging. That is someone else.

My personal weblog, Kazoofus, is approaching its 6th birthday. In blog years that translates to a billion years old.

One of the things I have never done with Kazoofus is try to make it a big secret from people I know in my day to day life. That said I’m not walking into the office in Kazoofus attire advertising my internet hobby either. There is something to be said for discretion.

*coughs*

Blogging very publicly (google my name and see where it lands you) has its challenges and I learned that very early on in my blogging career. I also came up with a few very basic rules for myself with my blog. I think following these rules has helped me with personal and professional relationships and since I’ve never been fired for blogging, I’m gonna guess that I might be onto something.

The rules:

1. Be discreet. That doesn’t mean you should never mention your cervix issues in a public forum. What it means is do what you can to protect the privacy of those you blog about. Related to this be very careful about what you reveal about the company you work for. Company confidential means COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL.
2. MYOB. Do not blog about things that are really none of your business in the first place. Also do not write about people in your day-to-day life as if they cannot read. I don’t care how clever you think you have been about hiding your online identity, the more you blog, the more likely you are to be discovered. Murphy’s Law states that all personal and professional contacts must read the one post you want them to read the least.
3. Be courteous. Gentle ribbings are absolutely acceptable with the right good natured co-worker. Ripping the supply clerk a new one via a public forum because they gave you a blue stapler in error is not gentle ribbing. When in doubt save draft. If still in doubt, ask an unbiased friend or family member how they think the post will be received.
4. SMILE! You are on THE INTERNET! It is a big WWW and you just never know who might be reading. What image do you want to project of yourself to the world? Caretake that image. Negative Nellies need not apply.
5. Be yourself. If you are cheeky and fun in the office your online persona should match that. The internet is not the place that an employer should discover that you have a dark side.
6. Avoid blogging during business hours. I’m not saying NEVER blog during business hours but avoid it as much as possible. Respect that they pay you to work not play.
7. Respect company policies. There are companies that ask employees to not maintain personal blogs that discuss their work life. They clearly state such rules in their policies and procedures handbook. Know what your companies policies are and respect them in and out of the office. Talking smack about a co-worker after business hours on the internet may still be considered harrassment and may very well cost you your job.

This is not an all-inclusive list. I’m sure once I hit publish I’ll think of three more things to add to the list. But what I want to know is what are your rules for blogging? How has maintaining a personal blog helped or hurt your career?

Discuss…