KEY POINTS:
There is an "end is nigh" feeling at this time of year. In offices everywhere, people are getting caught up in the mass seasonal Armageddon delusion: that if their project or report or spreadsheet or order doesn't get finished before Christmas, it will fall into the abyss. Thus, everything Must Be Done Before Christmas. The fact that this is an arbitrary self-imposed deadline is forgotten and the hysteria spreads from victim to victim like an upper respiratory tract infection.
It is particularly virulent in the Southern Hemisphere because of the double whammy of Christmas also being our annual summer holiday break. There is an added dimension this year with the financial meltdown adding the extra buzz of not knowing what businesses will be left standing in 2009. That means even more whirling dervishness as everyone hypes themselves into a frenzy of panic.
Don't get sucked in. Breathe through your nose and remember after 10 days' holiday everyone will be back to dreary daily routine. Plus ca change and all that.
Bring on "hag power". My prediction for next year is that grumpy old women are going to be the next big thing and ageism is going to become a top "ism". Especially among the growing contingent of stroppy professional women who don't appreciate getting sidelined when they reach a certain age. Mess with us at your peril.
In the UK, glamorous 57-year-old newsreader Selina Scott last week received almost $700,000 in a supposedly confidential settlement from Channel Five for discrimination on the grounds of her age, after she was passed over for a fill-in gig. That'll learn 'em. I recently wrote a column about the worship of youth and got a two-thumbs-up from top chicks like 60-something Lesley who was setting up a company in the UK.
"Ageism/sexism is still rife though the advantage of being self-employed is that one can get round this ... the private sector allows females, especially, to operate in an essentially non-ageist environment if one is independent and competent. Takes a fair bit of risk tolerance though to go this way."
It's about time sheilas got bolshie here and perhaps television is a good place to start. There are all sorts of non-dreamboat fullas on screen _ Jeremy Clarkson, Simon Cowell, Te Radar, Paul Henry, Mark Sainsbury, Jim Mora. But women of a certain age are certainly not in evidence. I was watching the public getting on the Devonport ferry one evening this week. It was so depressing. Casual clothes are vile. As someone who does not own a pair of jeans and thinks a sparkly evening frock is perfectly appropriate gardening attire, my opinion may not be totally reliable. However, the women seem to wear everything unflatteringly tight and the men wear everything unflatteringly baggy. There were fat women in sausage-casing lycra next to middle-aged men wearing baggy low-crotched shorts and sandals. Memo to Giorgio Armani: Sir, do you realise that beer-bellied fashion dunces are sporting T-shirts with your supposedly posh logo on them?
I do think the corporate world can take some of the blame for the slipping of standards. Last week I went to my husband's Christmas drinks at the Northern Club. Male guests had to wear a tie: this seemed to be a big deal for some of them. But despite the dress code, the club is not stuffy. It has just opened a funky Fearon Hay-designed extension which looks more modernist bar than gentleman's club.
deborah@coneandco.com
