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Gaffes That Keep IT Geeks From the Boardroom
buzzardsbay writes "Yes, it's all in good fun to point out the mismatched belt and shoes and the atrocious hairstyles, but honestly, I'm committing three of these errors right now! Is that why I can't get a key to the executive washroom? Or is it my rebellious attitude and pungent man-scent that's keeping me down? The shocker in here was pigtails on women... I love pigtails on women!"
Why the hell did you link to a slideshow? That site's slow as hell for me(rest of the net's fine), and the images weren't even loaded by the time it decided it was time to switch slides. The net isn't meant to be like a powerpoint presentation. Worse was the fact that adblock caught the "pause" button.
www.isoHunt.com
Gaffes Keeping Geeks Out of the Board Room
1. Mismatching Shoes and Belt
2. Tie and Short Sleeve Shirt
3. The One Binary Watch
4. Tight Black Jeans
5. Oversized Hawaiian Shirts
6. Socks and Sandals
7. Alternative Hairstyles
8. Concert T-shirts
9. A Closet of Vendor and Trade Show Gear
10. Stains
It's really testament to the shallowness of the boardroom that these are actually taken seriously by those with the ability to promote people. Your plan for upgrading the servers using well-reasoned arguments backed with meticulous research data to save the company megamoney in maintenance well be passed over because they are concentrating on your mismatched belt and shoes instead. >sigh
Scientifically speaking, vision (inputs from our eyes) form 80% of our total sensory input (compared to 10% for a Dog).
Hence visually appealing is a battle won 3/4 of the way.
People generally don't place much emphasis on what you speak, if your appearence is Michael jackson or Janet Jackson with wardrobe malfunction. (unless you are proven to be so good like Einstein, but he too had to wear a Tux to make his peers take him seriously).
Which is why some people still love jessica simpson on stage or even Jessica Alba (even though their acting skill would give hiccups to Spielberg).
Probably what we wear does not matter to a dog (which gets 50% of its input from smell, 40% from hearing and 10% visual), since it sees by smell.
But then dogs do not run boardrooms (literally speaking that is).
Satisfied with a scientific answer?
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
Bonuses are taxed at the same rate as the rest of your income...perhaps you mean that because the bonus is "on top of" your normal income, it is taxed at your marginal rate? In that sense it is at the highest rate you pay, but so is that 5% raise. You can't game the system and get more take-home pay via that method.
What might be confusing the issue is that I believe the IRS has larger withholding requirements for bonus payments, but the withholding is just to make sure you have paid enough by tax time -- if it was set too high you'll get a refund. This makes it look like take-home pay is lower than it really is.
The problem is only partly other management. Upper management wants lower management to be presentable to customers (in most fields); customers notice. They won't do business with a company they think is sloppy, and in a first meeting, appearance makes a HUGE impression.
Actually, most people notice clothing a lot more than they realize. In most business situations, someone wearing a shirt, tie, and slacks will get a lot more respect than someone wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
I work in a job where I could get away with wearing jeans and a t-shirt. A lot of my time is spent crawling around under people's desks or in the ceilings, trying to get broken network connections working (I'm glad to say I had nothing to do with the wiring in this building, so I can blame someone else. Instead, I wear nice (non-stained, non-faded, non-ripped) jeans and a button down shirt. I get a lot more respect from management than some of my co-workers do.
Now, "mismatched shoes and belt" is a little overboard, and no-one around here would notice, but overall appearance makes a big difference.
Correct. The IRS requires your withholdings from bonuses be at the maximum tax rate and not your "normal" tax withholdings. If I recall right, that would be 42% of your bonus will be withheld for fed taxes. I assume everyone here knows the difference between withholdings and the actual tax amount you pay...
So, in real terms, it is 6 one way and half a dozen the other. ie: there is no benefit one way or the other.
You just have to wait until you file taxes to get that "extra withholdings" back. But you do get some back (assuming your tax rate is less than 42%). They do this to make sure people don't get some large bonus, go spend it, and then not be able to pay the tax on that bonus when it is due next April 15th. Makes sense but I, personally, don't like giving the government interest free loans so I tend to offset my bonus withholdings by decreasing the withholdings on my monthly paycheck.
It seems to me then that the type of girl who is interested in how much money you make (and whether or not you spend it on expensive status symbols ie shoes) is just your type of girl. I hope you find one.
You may feel I'm in the minority, but there is plenty of "normal" girls (or even geek girls) who are neither the 'nature girls' nor trailer trash - who, by the way, care the MOST about whether or not you make enough money, incidentally. These are girls who don't feel that they are super-model pretty, who don't go out of their way to be gold diggers and who are just your average girl-next-door type. We might want our guys to look good, but whether or not they have enough money to buy expensive status symbols (and, in correlation, will spend tons of money on us) isn't really relevant. We mostly want a guy who will pay attention to us without his checkbook and someone we can get along with.
And to say that all a guy is interested in is a woman's body is, I feel, grossly unfair to every guy I know. Yes, the first thought thorough anyone's head when they see an attractive person is sexual, but that doesn't mean that everyone is always only thinking about sex. It also doesn't mean that every guy out there is a slave to his penis and can't even think well enough to contemplate an actual relationship with someone. That's a bs excuse that too many guys hide behind - your penis isn't the master in the relationship, no matter how badly you want sex. Want to know how I know this? Because, even if you are so hard up you think you might go blind and you're on your 20th bottle of lotion this week, there are still some girls you just wouldn't even consider touching. This means that your brain is in drive, and you can't weasel your way out with that old excuse. To me, it's just as bs as girls saying they get to behave like total hellions during "that time of the month". It's bs - your uncomfortable and feel crappy, fine, but you are choosing to act the way you are acting so just own up to it and stop trying to find some excuse that lets you off the hook.
I have known many guys who aren't even interested in one-night stands because they want a meaningful relationship first. I've known guys who have turned down pretty girls because they just didn't have anything in common with them enough to warrant a relationship (which is what the girl wanted). Just because you seem to have this cynical view on sex and don't care where you put your penis doesn't mean you get to generalize for your sex.
"Does bouncing count?" - Silk, Magician's Gambit by David Eddings