Competence: the very foundation of what makes a good employee. He or she will show up to work on-time, complete their assigned tasks and generally be a nice person to spend time with.
They may not be terribly interesting, or someone you may socialize with outside of work, but as long as they get the job done without too much in the way of distractions and/or disruptions, they're deemed a good employee.
In the "real world" employees are judged based on competence. Sure, there are other factors, but really, is a company going to keep someone around that doesn't get the job done? Maybe in Europe, but not here in the United States.
American labor laws are quite loose, and "at-will employment" means that either the employer or the employee can end the working arrangement at any time. Most people think of employers giving employees the boot, but I've read plenty of blogs by office managers and HR execs who've been blind-sighted by losing someone they had no idea was at-risk of leaving.
So, what does this have to do with me? Plenty, actually. The 9-5 working world is still relatively new to me, as are its quirks and practices. In escorting, all I had to do was provide sex, companionship and conversation for anywhere from one to three hours. True, this does involve "competence", but far less so than in an office environment.
Think about it: an escort meets a client, has a bit of smalltalk, engages in sexual intercourse, then leaves. How hard is it to screw that up? There are no office politics, no annual performance reviews, no filing monthly reports or making sure so-and-so received the proper documents in time.
Sex is quick and easy. It's why sex work is so hard to leave for some people. But there's something else that sex work demands that traditional work doesn't. That, my friends, is attractiveness.
I won't bother saying that beautiful people aren't given more advantages in life, because that's not true. But with my first week of work almost complete, I'm a bit surprised at just how little looks really matter. I mean, I've seen people stumbling out of offices and onto the train looking like a disaster.
Unkempt hair, oily complexions, wrinkled clothes? None of that would have been acceptable in escorting. I made sure that before every booking that I was showered, shaved, in clean clothes and had fresh breath. That last bit -- fresh breath -- was particularly important. Yet after I stood a bit too close to someone on the train the other day, I discovered that plenty of people ignore oral hygiene.
Is this because so many office environments are self-contained? Are people comfortable letting their hair done with their co-workers? I'm still in the process of finding some answers.
For now, I still dedicate a lot of time to my appearance. People treat you better, take you more seriously, and think more highly of you when you've got it together in the grooming department. I never would have that that escorting would benefit me in the business world.
Just goes to show, I still have a lot to learn.
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