The Opening Line
Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price. // Joan Didion
The Reading List
+ A successful strategy for landing a big pay jump this year. #getthatmoney
+ A sequin tee for holiday parties. I also like this one for <$20.
+ Why women need to put the vacuum down. (gift link)
+ The NYT asks, “How many black pants is too many?” Just make sure one of them is my favorite pair (in petite, tall, and plus).
+ How to deal with dry skin around your nose.
+ Under-$150 Outfit: Red, wide leg pants + a camel sweater + leopard flats
+ Need side dishes? Asiago roasted onions and Thomas Keller’s Roasted Zucchini.
+ Can’t splurge on the ba&sh Gaspard Cardigan? Caslon has a great dupe for $99.
+ Do you panic buy before a trip? (Don’t we all?) WaPost discusses why.
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An Interesting Read. Sweden, long a bastion of gender equality, has its own #tradwife-adjacent trend: Meet the Soft Girl.
An Interesting Watch. Several years ago, I watched a documentary (video link) on the Canadian maple syrup heist. So I am very much looking forward to this fictionalized version (video link) starring Margo Martindale.
The Last Word
If I had a top 10 list of things I read this year, this piece by NPR would be on it. High up on it.
A mysterious photographer takes hundreds of pictures of the Nazi occupation in Paris, in direct violation of the occupiers edicts. Who was it? How did the pictures survive? What happened to the photographer? All of these mysteries are revealed in an incredible piece by Eleanor Beardsley and Nick Spicer.
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Bringing a counteroffer to salary negotiations is a glass cannon. Even if they raise your salary to keep you, it’s not an option you can use again and again. Even the OP in the article didn’t get her counteroffer matched the first time and ended up switching jobs both times. If you like your current job but want to get a pay raise, then do the homework on your market value and bring the data to your negotiation. Heck, do soft interviews to get a sense of what pay you can expect if you do switch jobs, but IMO coming with a concrete counteroffer isn’t a good strategy to get a pay bump at your current job, it’s a plan B when you (inevitably) don’t.
Thanks for the recommendation of the NPR piece – very cool. I wonder about the “soft girl” trend over here too. It’s a trend and I get it, but as someone who has been in a bad relationship before, I am forever grateful that I have my own source of income and would not give it up for the world. Of course work is stressful! But it gives me a power and a freedom I would never have otherwise.
The timing on the NPR is perfect for me as I’m reading Kristen Hannah’s The Nightingale right now.
I read that NPR piece a few weeks ago, it was excellent (and heartbreaking in equal measure).
NPR piece is excellent, thank you for the link!