Is Possible to Work in Fashion and Also to Have a Brain?

That is my question of the day. And currently, I want to say NO. If you don't believe me, please allow me to illustrate with a few stories. I won't mention any names (wouldn't want to shame anyone), but everything I say is 100% true. What I am about to tell you actually happened!

First case in point is a high-profile executive in charge of one of our divisions. Needless to say, she gets paid beaucoup bucks (like 4X what I make) for what she does, and I'm not questioning her competency in her role, but I do want to raise some doubt about her education. Last week, my boss and I were sitting in my office, and this exec stopped by to say hello. Since my boss and I were talking about the math questions on standardized tests, he playfully asked her, "What is an even number?"

Her response was, "Huh?"

The question was posed again, and she responded, "I don't know. An even number is just, like, even. And an odd number is just odd."

My boss asked again, "How do you know?"

And she answered, "I don't know, you just know."

Then he said, "An even number is divisible by 2."

To which she responded, "Ohhhh... I didn't know that."

I think she was quite embarrassed by this point, so she followed with, "I'm not good at any math questions."

Okay, so maybe she was having a rough day. You know, it can be difficult to differentiate between even and odd numbers sometimes. (hahaha)

If you're still not convinced, allow me to tell yet another true story about her.

My boss sent out a bogus resignation letter which he said started off as a regular letter, but in the second paragraph stated that he was leaving to become a professional pirate, and gave some details about sailing the seas and commandeering ships. He sent this letter to her as a joke, and she called him and was completely freaking.

He asked her if she read it, and she said yes. Then he asked if she read the entire thing, and she said she did. After that, he asked if she really believed that he was going to be a pirate, and she replied, "Yeah, isn't that like a finance position or something?"

Okay...

Here's another story. This time, it's about our in-house legal counsel. I sent him an Excel file in an email that said, "Here is the workbook we'll be reviewing in today's conference. There are 3 worksheets to this workbook. Please take a look at all of them, and we will dicuss this afternoon."

When I called him later that day, I told him to turn to the 2006 budget sheet so that we could look at it first. He asked me what I was talking about, and I said, "The third tab in the workbook." And then he said, "What do you mean? What tab?" (even though there were 3 distinct tabs, each labelled accordingly.) So I told him, "The one labelled 2006 Budget." And he responded, "I don't understand. I only have one sheet, and that's the one I printed out."

I asked if he had the file open, and he said yes, so I told him to look at the bottom, at the tabs, and select the one that said 2006 Budget. He still didn't get it, and said that there was only one sheet. This went one for a couple more minutes, and he started getting a bit testy.

Then, I told him that I would re-send the files with all of the tabs selected, and all he had to do was click the "print" button, and all 3 tabs would print. He still could not wrap his head around the fact that there was one file, but three tabs. I re-sent the file to him, and then he was like, "It printed, but I still only see one sheet."

I decided at that point that I would just let it slide. It did provide me a little entertainment for the day, after all. However, I was quite perturbed that he is supposed to represent the company in all of its legal issues. Scary thought, isn't it? I wonder what school actually allowed him to graduate with a law degree... and how he passed the bar exam? I am scared.

In conclusion, I believe that those who work in fashion should be less concerned with losing weight (by the way, two guys were just walking down the hall, making serious bets with each other that they would lose 8 pounds by April) and more concerned with the primary brain functions that are crucial to survival in the world. It's a zoo out there, and one subject to natural selection. Let's take off the fashion blinders.