Skin

Posted on December 10, 2004 1 Comment

As I settled in to my worn chair this morning, I assumed I’d be obsessed all day with eye glasses. I have an eye doctor appointment tomorrow to get new contacts, and am toying with the idea of getting new frames – a major purchase for this budgeting babe. Compounded by the fact that I also am getting my expensive quarterly haircut next week and all the holiday shopping, this month is turning out to be a real budget-buster.

Imagine my suprise, then, when by 5:30 p.m. I have not thought about eyeglasses or budgeting since 8:00 a.m. I was actually too busy working to think about much of anything else…no autopilot mode today. Unfortunately, I had a bad day.

I made two big mistakes (which almost never happens), and one of them resulted in a pretty disrespectful encounter with a business contact. I’m no stranger to disrespectful business transactions – I worked in telemarketing all through college; you can imagine what snarkiness that can bring. I once had to listen to a man’s barking dog (just the dog, no man), for 15 minutes because I “didn’t deserve to talk to a human.” And I couldn’t get my computerized phone to disconnect (“You’re still there? Persistent! Well, Duke’s got more where that came from!”).

My job today doesn’t seem all that different from telemarketing sometimes. But the thing about encountering disrespectful people in a post-graduation job, with a title and owning a degree, is that I expect people to be civil and act with respect. This contact actually was someone I highly respected. Now after the contact basically dismissed me as being dumb and ill-informed, without ever meeting me or even talking to me, I’ve totally lost respect. And that is disappointing.

People say it takes thick skin to be in PR, and I would typically disagree. I reserve the thick skin characteristic for police officers, fire fighters, soldiers and physical laborers. The rest of us just sit at our desks all day, making phone calls and occassionally breaking for donuts.

But today, maybe I grew another layer of skin. After all, having people insult your intelligence and your career all day is no cakewalk. To brush it off and realize that my self-worth, my job, is not reflective of what others’ hastily-formed opinions might be, that takes skin.

Signing off, your medium-thickness-skinned public relations professional with no money, Nicole.

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