On Business and Pleasure

Attraction plays a part in many business deals. You have to be drawn to a product or service to want to purchase it, chemistry has to be sensed between you and your future employer in order to be hired for a job, and acquiring clients depends on building friendly relationships. People part with money only when they think they are gaining something in return; cognitively, transactions are enabled by a positive emotional response to a product, person or service. It's marketing 101, really: create a human bond and you are more likely to sell a product.

In my business, the entertainment industry, being attractive, charming and getting along well with others is a necessary part of the job. If you can't schmooze and entertain the right people, you are unlikely to be a very successful model or actor. You have to genuinely like interacting and socializing with a large number of people if you are going to succeed in the entertainment business. I love people, so usually this is a breeze for me.

However, it irks me to no end when a client has something else in mind or steps over the line interpersonally. I know it's human nature to seek out that which brings you pleasure and do as much as you can to bring it closer to you, but I have found that some jobs are not work taking, because of the hidden agendas of some employers. Yes, this includes a few of my One Hundred Jobs offers.

This "bait and switch" can play out in many ways: the personal assistant job that is really an audition to be a girlfriend, the creepy modeling gig where the photographer initially wants to shoot "fashion" only to coax you into shooting nudes (for his private collection), the fruitless business luncheon that is really a date (usually a vacay from wifey). For a young woman wanting to be hired for her services and not her ASSets (unless it is a legitimate modeling gig or burlesque), the mixture of overt business and hidden pleasure seeking is a frustrating and common experience.

I have been guilty of mixing business and pleasure when I have found coworkers attractive, or gone accidentally overboard in the flirting department while on the job, but I have never hired someone just so I could potentially gain a chance to sleep with them, by underhanded means. Maybe this is more of a feminine trait, as sexual intimacy does not have the same premium in my psyche as it does for many men.

Have you ever received a job offer that was really an invitation to slip in between the sheets? If you are an attractive women, I am willing to bet $100 that the answer is an unequivocal, "Yes."

Off to an audition as a chaste30something mother (lol),


Aimee.