Skip to main content

Blurred lines - Is there a difference between personal you and business you?

And should there be?   Lets cover just two aspects, Facebook and dress code.

Business men typically have two very distinct wardrobes, work and play.   Men in business roles simply do not wear shorts and a t-shirt to the office.

 Women have taken a very different approach in the last 10 or so years.   There is an increasingly blurred line between what women consider business and informal dress.   Recently, I was at a business meeting where some of the women were wearing halter neck dresses with bra straps clearly on display.  Another was wearing a dress, with the neckline cut like a bikini top.

Did they look pretty?  Yes, they really did.   Was it work appropriate?   And this is where the blurred line starts to become fuzzier.   My response is a definite No.    It is not that I think that women need to wear suits every day to the office, but I do think that there should be a distinction between what is business wear  and what works for your personal life.

Adding social networking to this, should you share your Facebook page with colleagues?   Why not?   I suppose you need to decide whether your boss needs to know what you did over the weekend.   Personal privacy is another very blurred line, because we are sharing information with the internet that we never used to tell our best friends.

This doesn't mean that you can't be vulnerable and real with your work colleagues, just that you need to be aware.    There are people who can get away with anything, and still climb the career ladder, but the vast majority of us need to build up a positive performance history and a professional image to rise through the ranks.

Its not hypocritical to have a work persona and a personal one. Very few of us behave in the same way in all of our relationships.   Your parents, your spouse, your children, siblings and friends probably see different sides of you, as do your boss and colleagues.

 Its a little like "dress for the job you want, and not the one you have".   Creating a genuine, professional business personality takes hard work and dedication to the job.

So my answer is that the lines are a little blurred, but I remember that there is one!

Links, Notes and References

Accsys PeoplePlace Recruitment


Note

Thank you for reading Teryl@Work.   Should you wish to use any of the material, please acknowledge this blog as the source.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

3 things to do BEFORE you resign

or sign a new contract… 1.         Confirm your notice period ·          A lot of companies allow 30 days from date of resignation, but many ask for a calendar month 2.        Check your restraints ·          If you are joining a competitor ·          If you are joining a client 3.        Find out when your last payment will be transferred ·          Companies have been burned by paying over on the 25 th , and people not returning, so they may delay payment transfer until the last official working day, or even the first day of the following month.  You may need to make special arrangements regarding debit orders …. Both your current company and your new one deserve to be fairly treated.   Knowledge of ...

Employment Tax Incentive Bill (ETI) - Q & A (3)

The last part of the article on ETI, and we are still waiting for some finalisation, which I will post when I receive it. How does an employer deal with part pay periods? The incentive must be pro-rated to match the calculation of remuneration.  For example, if an employee starts on the 15 th of the month, and earns R2000 in the first month with the company: His remuneration must be grossed up to R4000 per month The ETI on this value calculated (R1000 in the first 12 qualifying months of employment) This results in a R500 ETI for the employer on this employee for this month Does it run for 24 Months from Date of Employment? Confirmation of this is required, but it appears that the Employer may claim for each employee for up to 24 months, even if they are not consecutive (ETI qualifying months, not months of employment) What happens if an employee leaves the organisation? Assuming all other qualifying factors are in place The next employer can start ...

Employment Tax Incentive Bill

While there has not been agreement from all parties on the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) Bill, and the roll out, it was formally published on 4th November, 2013.  With the January go live date, there are still some issues that need to be finalised, but simply put, the concept is as follows: The incentive runs from January 1st, 2014 to December 31st, 2016 The employee must be between 18 and 29 years old on the last day of the relevant month The employee must earn a wage of less than R6 001 per month The incentive can only be claimed in the months when the remuneration is under R6 001  The employee must have been engaged after October 1st, 2013 The employer must be eligible by being  Registered for PAYE In good standing with SARS Not local, provincial or national government Limited to South African citizens and valid asylum seekers, the main driver is for youth employment, however, the incentive also applies to employment in Special Economic Zones (SEZ) ...