As I end my A, B, C and 1, 2, 3 effective leadership for women blog series, I want to discuss my biggest pet peeves when I attend conferences. I realize women seem to always go to the ladies room in pairs, but why do they have to cluster and stay glued to each other’s hips at these events? It’s like they are a gaggle of geese or a litter of kittens marching from one seminar to another and then lunch all focused only on their group. Isn’t the point of these types of events to not only learn from the speaker, but from new people you meet?
It is even worse if you are the sole person that is not part of the “company table” at lunch. They will all politely introduce themselves but within nanoseconds they start chirping about what is going on in their office. I’m not a fan of lunchtime speakers that talk for most of the meal but when I get stuck sitting with a group like this I am thankful. Even if the speaker is boring it’s better than listening to the gossip floating around the table. Who cares if so and so did x? Sometimes I want to jump in and say “get over yourself” or “Seriously? You are worried about this? There are more important issues in the world today than what nail color someone dared to wear to work.” OMG! Get a life!!!
I also don’t get why there is such an array of attire that these women wear to all women conferences. I thought most women come because they want to enhance their business skills. This is not “roll out of bed and come to a conference”. I get the fact that some people see this as a day off so they will wear jeans, but at least wear “nice jeans”. Mommy jeans and ones that look like you have been gardening are just not acceptable. Same with blouses; this is not a disco setting. It’s not even the cleavage (which is bad enough), but t-shirts and shiny tops are just not appropriate. What image is this person trying to portray?!! I just don’t get it.
Lastly just “shut up”! It drives me crazy when a speaker is actually stating a good point but I can’t hear them because the gaggle of geese is having their own conversation. I have tried giving them the stink eye or saying “shhh” but that doesn’t seem to work, so I would value any of your ideas on this.
P.S. This series was intended to state what many of you are thinking. I know this because I hear from many of you about all of these topics. The issue is that not enough of us open our mouths and state the obvious. I challenge you to do this in the future. Good luck and thanks for your continued interest in my blogs.