MIMOSA Originally uploaded by hexion
When you run your own business, a lot of people (mostly the ones who aren’t entrepreneurs) will make comments that manage to sound both admiring and a little snide — for example, when you tell them you’re heading home early (typically after pulling seven straight ten-hour days), they’ll say something like, “Must be nice being the boss.” I’m often tempted to respond with something snarky like, “Yeah, tell that to my friends and family who haven’t seen me in weeks.” But most days I manage to rein it in, because you know what? It is nice being the boss. I really enjoy calling the shots, and that’s a big part of why I started my own business. So they’re absolutely right.
Emira and I started Raised Eyebrow on February 1, 2000, and one day in early March, she mentioned to me that in Italy (where Emira spent quite a bit of time in her university-student days), International Women’s Day is celebrated widely, and that there is a tradition there that people, especially men, give women branches of mimosa blossoms to celebrate the occasion. This always struck me as much more fun than the earnest marches and labour-union posters (not knockin’ ‘em, just sayin’) that typically comprise the sum total of celebratory IWD gestures in North America.
Anyway, I don’t remember how we landed on it exactly, but at some point it struck us that since we were now our own bosses, we could set our own rules, and that it would be perfectly delightful to make it a Raised Eyebrow rule that the office would close every year in celebration of International Women’s Day. And since there were only two of us to consult with, and we were unanimous, the decision was made. And henceforth we have celebrated March 8th as a well-earned day of rest. (This year, since IWD falls on a Saturday, we’re taking Monday off instead, just like we would if it were a stat holiday.)
How do you celebrate IWD? And how do you celebrate being your own boss? Let us know in the comments.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Emira // Mar 7, 2008 at 6:33 pm
And just for the record, this is also something we give our staff. So, even our resident guy gets IWD off as a stat (meaning they get paid).
2 Gayle Broad // Mar 18, 2008 at 9:46 am
This year I celebrated IWD with my daughter at an event she helped to organize — a showing of the film “Tales of the Night Fairies” , a film about sex trade workers in Calcutta. This was followed by two sex trade workers from Canada discussing their belief that de-criminalization would greatly benefit workers, providing much greater safety, and vastly improved working conditions. Linking it to the global efforts of sex trade workers organizing, it provided amazing insight into a world that many view only at a surface level. To fundraise for the event, a group of women in the community had earlier hosted a dinner (all made by volunteers) called ‘Hot! Sexy! Curry!’ — so I had a chance to have 2 great evenings out for IWD.
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