Romantic comedy drama Working Girl had cinema audiences rooting for secretary, Tess McGill, who was determined to climb the career ladder by tackling challenges head on.
Despite being released in 1988, the film’s business and life lessons resonate today as an example of how an individual can achieve success through sheer determination, confidence and a positive mindset.
Tess’s ambition to step up to leadership in the film takes her on a journey faced with challenges, but by using her initiative when her boss is away, she seizes the moment and achieves her goals.
How does Working Girl echo real life?
How many of us have dreamed of greater success in the workplace? For women in particular, Tess McGill’s story is a pertinent one, as 42% of female employees say they’ve experienced gender bias at work.
According to a joint study by The Muse and Recruitment Marketing, 38% of women say they’ve hesitated to apply for a job or promotion because of fears they’re wasting their time. The fact that Tess is fearless and forges ahead, never doubting her chances of success, makes her a role model for thousands of young women.
A working-class woman from Staten Island in the US, she has a business degree and dreams of climbing the corporate ladder through her skills and sheer hard work. However, being in the male-dominated stockbroking sector, she feels her boss and colleagues treat her as if she’s stupid.
With great intelligence and business instincts, Tess is tired of being classed as a “bimbo”, so she takes the big step of resigning to seek a new career, taking a job as admin assistant to a female associate, Katharine Parker, at a mergers and acquisitions firm.
Using initiative
Initially supportive of Tess, Katharine encourages her to voice her ideas for the company’s future. Tess is happy to do so, feeling she’s appreciated at last. However, she soon discovers her new boss isn’t all she seems, as Katharine is stealing Tess’s ideas and passing them off as her own.
Fate takes a hand when Katharine breaks her leg in a skiing accident and is absent from the office on sick leave. Tess decides to grasp the opportunity with both hands and comes up with an elaborate plan to move ahead with her own merger strategy, involving the purchase of a radio station, while her boss is away. She goes for a more professional and stylish appearance to present the appropriate image for her company.
While we’re not suggesting anyone should go behind their employer’s back with a maverick strategy, Tess’s plan to boost her career and attain her company’s goals has to be admired. Seizing the moment when her boss was injured certainly showed initiative, as Tess acted on sudden changes in the office in a positive way.
Successfully navigating changes at work means being proactive, offering solutions and actively participating in the decision-making process through clear communication. Adapting to changes can mean learning new skills and making a positive contribution to the changed environment, all of which Tess manages successfully.
Confidence, creativity and persistence
Tess realised the importance of building relationships and demonstrating value in the workplace to achieve personal and corporate goals, having the confidence to proactively go for what she wanted. Her well thought out strategy impressed her opposite number during a meeting to discuss the merger. Justifying going behind her boss’s back, Tess told herself, “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life working and getting nowhere because I followed rules that I had nothing to do with setting up.”
While her thought process was flawed, as breaking an employer’s rules usually ends badly, her determination carried her forward, even after both companies’ hierarchy discovered her deception. If you want something to happen, you must have the confidence to go for it, using creativity and persistence to achieve your goals.
Tess added value in the workplace by consistently exceeding expectations, developing professional relationships, and proactively seeking opportunities. Understanding the company’s needs, her leadership skills made her an asset, despite her initial deception.
Her persistence having paid off; once Tess achieved her managerial aim and had her own secretary, she was determined not to be the same type of leader as Katharine had been. Demonstrating empathy with her employee, Tess says they will “work together”, creating a good relationship from the outset.
Can your office environment help?
Being based in a flexible workspace office has distinct advantages when it comes to climbing up the career ladder. The modern concept of serviced office space in London provides unparalleled networking opportunities, a professional business address and a more dynamic workplace environment – something Tess didn’t have in Working Girl. Benefits such as these can help creative individuals to build connections, enhance their image and increase productivity, all of which can contribute to career advancement.
Today’s business professionals have many advantages over their 1980s predecessors, thanks to flexible office space in London, which encourages collaboration and enables scalability, freeing occupants from rigid office leases. This in turn can improve employees’ work-life balance – an important factor that reduces stress, improves mental and physical wellbeing and enhances job satisfaction.
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