Gentlemen, please take pity on women when we're at our work places; we cannot escape you.
If you're a client of ours, we have to worry about two things: losing our professionalism and losing your business. It's a wretched position to be in and extremely unfair. I'm not saying male clients shouldn't pass kind compliments or ask women out--I'm saying you'll get a lot further and win more points if you respect her professionalism.
First of all, if you can't help but ask a woman out or give her a compliment, wait until whatever business you have with her is finished and then ask or tell her. If you do so at the beginning or in the middle, she's going to feel awkward and you're not going to get the best of her expertise. After you ask her out, no matter what her response is, don't linger--she's got work to do.
If you feel that you must ask her out or compliment her right away, make it casual, only do it once, and then don't mention it again, even if you come back again.
No woman that I know of wants to have her time monopolized by an admiring client. Eventually, we will have to make a choice: lose our professionalism or lose your business. In my case, I'm married, so continually flirting or asking for dates is going to get you nowhere. But if I were available, and it came down to choosing, I would land on the side of professionalism every time. I don't care how good your business is; if you make me uncomfortable, you won't be getting the best of my services anyway, which means I'm bound to lose your business at some point regardless. Do the math.
After all, what sort of regard would you hold for the woman who compromised your professionalism?
2 comments:
I agree, but I also think a lady has as much responsibility to make it clear when flirting, etc. starts to become inappropriate. Most times a gentleman should know, and does know, and is just an ass and no gentleman at all. However, there have been times in my life where I was honestly mistaken about how welcome my behavior was towards a woman. Being clear should never be considered rude. Being polite is nice and all, but an asshole will use any excuse to continue being an asshole.
That said, if someone is asking you out and knows you are married they're just an asshole, and being unethical in their business practices if asking a business associate out who is married.
Lastly, being the gentleman I am, I'd be happy to arrange an appoint of pistols for two, coffee for one with the gentleman that precipitated this blog post.
Who is he? I'll break his fck'n neck... :)
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