The new girls guide to workplace success

The new girls guide to workplace success Theres been a lot of media focus on how the workplace has changed since Generation Y came on the scene. But what about Gen Y women? From the moment baby boomers joined the workforce, women made it their mission to create a fair playing field for everyone. But after decades of feminists plowing down the boys club, todays women enter a totally different kind of workplace and need totally different advice for succeeding. What should the new rules be? Here are  five ways to get the conversation going. 1. Date co-workers. I can see how 40 years ago, when it was still legal to ask a woman what her husband thought of her career, it wouldve been bad to date co-workers. Back then, women felt powerless in the workplace. But today, young women feel they have equal power to men. And they arent deluding themselves  women and men receive equal pay in business  until they have children (after which woman are penalized for having kids more than men are). So men and women approach dating at work as equals. The bigger issue here is that if youre working 40 hours a week, youre more likely to meet the people you want to date when youre at the office. If you tell yourself that all men at work are off-limits, you put yourself at a huge disadvantage. And if you want to have children, you need to make getting married a higher priority than your career. This isnt some radical statement its  backed by  a lot  of research, not the least of which is that you cant tell your biological clock to wait while you refuse to date all the men you come in contact with. So the adage to not date men you work with is totally antiquated. It assumes that women arent equal to men, can push back childbearing indefinitely, and should put their career ahead of getting married. All of these are bad assumptions. 2. Show some flesh but just enough. If you had any doubts about the power of looking like a girl at work, check out  Hillary Clintons new look. No ones more studied in the art of the female image than Hillary, and her new  appearance is much more feminine. This isnt surprising, though. Theres a wide body of research that shows that women are received better when they hit that magic point between dressing like a guy and dressing like a harlot. For instance, Yale psychologist  Marianne LaFrance  found that medium-length hair is best for looking smart; too long is too sexy, and too short is too boyish. And Debra A. Benton, author of How to Think Like a CEO, says that dressing too much like the guys is what high-ranking men say holds back high-ranking women. Hitting the midway point applies to makeup as well. If you wear too much, you look like youre trying too hard, but if you wear none, people perceive you as disinterested, according to Sherry Maysonave, author of Casual Power. 3. Expect harassment, and stay cool. A recent segment on New England Cable News reported that 46 percent of summer interns will be harassed. And most professional women will experience some form of sexual harassment in their career some studies even say as many as 80 percent of them. Its clear, then, that most women dont report harassment. But it isnt because theyre scared its because theyre smart. The laws are very clear on what companies should do to respond to harassment claims, but they arent very clear on how to define when a woman has been illegally fired for reporting harassment. The careers of most women who report harassment suffer, even if the company works hard to do the right thing.  The law is too far behind the times, so  dont report harassment. Instead, have a plan. Know that you need to tell the guy youre not interested if youre not. Know that you wont get a lot of protection from human resources even though they tell you theyll protect you. And finally, know that just because you encounter harassment doesnt mean you provoked it. You can wear a shirt that shows a little cleavage and not be accountable for the fact that most 40-year-old guys will take a look when you walk by. Wear the clothes that you feel comfortable in, because people who are true to themselves at work perform best. But take heed from the research above: Youll do best if your clothes fall somewhere between frumpy and revealing. 4. If you have to go to business school, go early. Heres how things used to be: You graduated from college, worked for three to five years, went to business school for two years, then graduated and got the job of your dreams. The problem with this scenario is that youre in your late 20s by the time you start working in your chosen profession,  and  most women want to start having kids by their early 30s. So, if you leave the workforce right after joining it, you really compromise your ability to leverage your hard-earned degree. So business schools are accepting candidates earlier. Of course you still have to have good credentials to get in, but its no longer essential to have the requisite number of years of work experience between college and business school. Business schools will officially say that the change in policy is to attract the best candidates, but unofficially, the change is to attract the smart women specifically, the women who are aware of the great biological clock rip-off that business schools were in the past. 5. Tone down your work ethic. For the last decade, girls have earned better grades and better SAT scores than boys, and theyve had higher graduation rates, too. This persists through college. After that, men catch up in the workplace. This isnt because they start working harder, its because what theyve been working at all along multitasking with their video games and socializing with their friends is what the workplace values most. Getting straight As is, after all, widely understood to be an unreliable indicator of how well youll do in your career. So stop being the overachiever who does each assignment perfectly. Instead, start focusing on the stuff that really matters at work, like productivity skills and  getting along with people. But dont be too much like the guys because we know thats no good, either.