• When women use the key words 'we' or 'let’s' in a sentence such as in: ‘It would be great if we got out the quarterly report before Friday', we don’t mean us, we really mean YOU!
• If a woman starts a sentence with ‘I feel’, she is attempting to communicate on a deeper level or has momentarily forgotten that she is speaking with the opposite sex. Either way she’s putting herself out there and you should sit up and look perky.
• When we ask you to ‘keep us posted’ please don't make us hunt you down for the follow-up. It’s understood that you have a two hour window to work with my man.
• Let’s curb big words like bifurcation or scaring us with your twisted VLOOKUP Excel formulas. We’re financial people too and this (you guessed!) doth not impress.
• Overuse of catch phrases such as ‘let’s not try to boil the ocean’ or ‘let’s get the view from 30,000 feet’ (well, stay on the airplane buddy) have run stale and we don’t need you chirping them at us in meetings to sound trendy.
• Should we ever slip up in a weak moment and dare utter the words 'I’m sorry', do a mental rewind and pretend you never heard it - for your own good.
• Popping over to our desk with a smile and asking 'How busy are you ?' leaves us no wiggle room to tell you to hit the road. Try pinging us on IM chat first so we have a moment to compose and act like we’re taking you seriously.
• Branding women with new tags such as ‘Priscilla’ (a drama queen) will not fly. Don’t let us hear it drop from your lips when b**ching about us in the kitchen.
Finally, save the capital letters and exclamation points on e-mail for the grocery list. We don’t find it cutesy; we find it belittling big boys.
About the writer
Marisa Santoro is a single working mother, IT executive and professional speaker in corporate America. Her geeky childhood love for computer programming led her to a successful career at a Wall Street brokerage. She has a natural instinct for ‘picking up’ brilliant women who juggle it ALL.
She writes her own blog In Our Shoes
Brit Maternity Leave - A Blessing Or A Curse ?
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Marisa Santoro
@InRShoesmore stories from Marisa Santoro
Marisa Santoro is a seminar leader, writer, IT executive at a Wall Street brokerage and a single working mother. She leads inspiring women's seminars in New York and London, lands success story interviews with women executives and entrepreneurs on both sides of the pond and shares career advice to empower working women in business. She has a natural instinct for ‘picking up’ brilliant women who juggle it ALL.
She writes her own blog In Our Shoes.
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