Q. I left fashion school last year and since then I’ve spent most of my time applying for jobs and being rejected. (That’s only if they’re kind enough to send a rejection – most simply ghost me.) I finally have a job (the company does fast fashion) but when I tell my friends, who are all recent graduates, they mostly say: ‘Well I’m happy if you’re happy but I could never work for such an unethical brand.’ How should I reply without sounding unethical myself?
– C.P., London SW18
A. Next time you meet with this response you can test the naysayers’ pomposity by replying: ‘Oh that’s a shame. Because they were asking me if I knew of any other talented young designers who were looking for work.’
Q. I was sent a huge bouquet of flowers for my birthday from a friend. When I opened them they were almost dead. In fact the leaves were so brown that I could not even send my friend a photo of them. I contacted the florist directly and sent them a photograph. They said they would replace them but their rules are that they always have to tell the sender this has happened. Unfortunately, because I did not want to seem ungrateful to my friend for such a generous gesture, I had already just thanked her profusely and said that the flowers were wonderful. What should I have done?
– P.S., London W3
A. You could have covered yourself by telephoning the friend the next day to say: ‘The bad news is that the flowers dropped dead the day after my birthday. The good news is that I rang the company and they have sent a beautiful replacement bunch, free of charge.’
Q. I’m in the process of setting up a website for a new business venture. Because cash flow is limited, my father-in-law said he would love to do it. He has now shown me what he has designed and it doesn’t look at all professional – both the text and the pictures he has used are simply not good enough. I’m fairly recently married and I don’t yet have the relationship with him where I can say that it’s not what I want but thanks anyway. What should I do?
– Name and address withheld
A. Find a smart website for a company in a parallel, though non-competing, field to your own. Then spare your father-in-law’s feelings by gushing to him that you had a stroke of luck in running into an acquaintance who works for this company. He kindly looked at your own website and advised you exactly what tweaks it needs to maximise efficiency. In this way you launder the criticism through someone other than yourself.
Write to Dear Mary at dearmary@spectator.co.uk
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