You Have To At Least Wear Clothes From the Waist Up
I’m hearing anecdotal reports of poor souls not realizing their online meeting includes video, who have inadvertently showed off all the goodies to their co-workers. Pro-tip: Either tape a piece of paper over the camera on your computer or actually take the time to get dressed.
Of course, many of us do a lot of work in a bathrobe, and that’s fine, as long as you don’t have any impromptu video meetings. You may wonder, as you look at the webviews of your co-workers, how many of them are secretly wearing a combo consisting of pajama bottoms and a tailored blazer. New working from home pandemic rule: What can’t be seen is nobody’s business.
Watch That Background!
Perhaps you have a perfect, clean and professional-looking room that you use for nothing but work. Perhaps you went all Marie Kondo on your condo two years ago. (Congratulations, but I hate you.)
Many people are working at the kitchen table or in a corner of their bedroom. So what’s in the background? Masses of toys? Dirty dishes? Your husband’s weird beer stein collection? Maybe in your case it’s exquisitely tasteful decor, but in my case, it’s a dressing table littered with makeup and lotions. Ain’t nobody’s business what crap I put on my face everyday.
However, many years ago, before YouTube was even invented, I happened to buy a carved wooden screen from Pier I, and it has been a godsend. I situate the screen right behind me, and voila! I am able to impersonate an actual professional. I have used it during video job interviews, for live book readings of my romance novels, and for any other possible occasion when I might need to go live. I keep it right in my work area, so I can throw it into place within seconds.
We All Know You’re Faking It, Anyway
Look, we all pretend all the time anyway. You were lying during your job interview when you talked about your deep interest in whatever it is the listing said the job involved; you told a different interviewer that you had a deep interest in whatever it was that that company’s job listing said.
You routinely impersonate a much more business-like person than you really are. Any of these things sound familiar?
- Work You drinks only very moderately, if at all, at a holiday party. Real You? Different story!
- Work You dresses conservatively. Real You likes to show off some decolletage.
- Work You has sedate weekends. If asked, you will talk about having had dinner with friends or maybe catching up on yard work. Real Uou? Oh man. You and your friends are bad girls. (Unless you have small children, in which you actually went to bed at 8 p.m. Saturday night but tried to give the impression you’d done something more interesting.)
- Work You is disciplined and stoic. Real You has cried every single day during this pandemic and has been binge-watching movies like “The Stand” and “Contagion.” Mostly during work hours.
- Work You claims you have been cleaning and organizing during the lockdown. Real You has not done one productive thing except as absolutely required by your boss.
So really, the only difference now is you have to play Work You for a shorter period of time each day, which is worth it, isn’t it?
Sophia Sinclair is Curvicality’s sex and relationships writer and the author of the Small-Town Secrets romance series, available on Amazon. Reach Sophia at sophia@curvicality.com.
Are you working from home? Are you getting dressed daily or living in your pajamas? Share your story in the comments. We promise we won’t tell your boss!
Featured Model: Rachel Micheletti
