Don’t Sleep With Your Boss
When it comes to acquiring wealth and success in business, the important rules are all the same – regardless of whether you are Tall or Short, Black or White, Man or Women. Yet every year, new financial books are published for “minorities.”
One such book, “Naked in the Boardroom”, promises to give working women a step up the corporate career ladder. Reviewing the book for Fortune magazine recently, Elizabeth Fenner said that it is “a how-to book for career women, with a difference: It’s full of dishy and street-smart examples from her own life as a magazine executive.”
Fair enough. Advice from someone who has been there. That’s the way we like to do things at Early to Rise.
I was tempted to read the book, to substantiate my theory that good advice is good advice, when I came across the following excerpt:
“Never sleep with anyone to get a job; that doesn’t work. On the other hand, if you’ve slept with someone for the right reasons and later he can help your career, that’s great.”
Apparently, the author, in her early years of corporate climbing, tried prostitution as a self-promotion strategy. Much to her dismay, it didn’t work out. I suppose we are meant to feel sorry for her. Poor girl, she tried everything – even giving of her corporal self – yet she was stymied by that omnipresent glass ceiling.
Apparently, too, she recovered from her misstep and succeeded with another strategy: blackmailing hapless lovers.
The difference between prostitution and sexual extortion is a nuance that the author leaves to her female readers to construe.
For ETR’s female readers: I haven’t been a women in the workforce, so I can’t say for sure. But if I were you, I’d steer clear of gender-oriented messages about success and wealth building.
Will you run into gender-bias in the workforce? Yes. But much of it will be bent in your favor. In the direct-marketing industry, for example, there’s a distinct preference for women in most positions because they are seen as being better with details – on which the industry relies.
Where prejudice strains against you – in areas of leadership and creativity – you can achieve all you want by being good at what you do and letting it be known that you are good. Keep in mind, the purpose of business is to create value and thus produce profits. Show yourself to be good at accomplishing those goals for your company and you’ll get the advancement you are looking for.