3 Questions with...Jen McAleer

Jen McAleer is a Marketing Consultant for Life Science and Pharmaceutical companies.

Passion & Purpose: My passion is to bring creative solutions to my clients. My purpose is to be a good human and raise my humans to be good.

Jen, you are the very definition of a multi-hyphenate. In addition to your work as a Marketing Consultant for Pharma and Life Science companies, you are a musician, an expert cook, someone who could teach an HGTV Home Makeover show, and you excel at hosting parties and events, among many other areas.

How do you integrate your creativity into your work and where do you think it shows?

Wow, well, first of all, thank you for those kind words! I think the very nature of the way I work, as a consultant, is essential for me because one thing I cannot tolerate is being bored and the absence of creativity equals boredom in my world.? Marketing can be a blatantly creative profession, designing campaigns, working with art directors and seeing your vision come to life. But I think more often for me, my job(s) necessitate me to be resourceful which demands a creative mind but in a much less obvious way.?

Often my creativity shows up in the ability to expedite timelines, get the more ‘difficult’ stakeholders on board with a project by explaining the importance in plain language.? It may not be the sexier side of creativity but it’s a challenge I really enjoy.

Where do you want to live when you’re 80?

My first/immediate thought is at the beach, any beach where there’s nothing obstructing my view of the ocean.? I think I’ll always be drawn to the water, especially the ocean because it’s just more exciting than a predictable body of water like a lake.? Part of me will always want to go back home to NYC and I’m fine splitting my time between those two locales.? The thing is, if I am not close to my children (and possibly grandchildren), I’m not sure any landscape no matter how fabulous could make me happy.? I guess the answer is, no matter how cliche, to be as close to my kids as possible without being invasive and/or annoying.

Any fun workplace failures you would be open to sharing, and any learnings?

Setting the Stage: When I first started thinking about workplace fails, I was like "Hmm, I do have a lot of those but none of them are really funny."? Then I remembered an afternoon back on Madison Avenue in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.? At the time, I was Head of Marketing and Communications for a Human Capital firm (<- who thought this nomenclature was a good way to go?) and we had just leased half of our office space so there was some condensing going on.? I was quite fortunate in that the Head of IT who had snagged the last available and oversized office, was (and still is) a good friend and he invited me to share the space with him.? Somehow, we muscled my gigantic early 2000s ‘executive desk’ snugly into a sort of alcove in my new, cozy office.? The only problem for me was I was now facing the all glass door which made me feel like I was in some weird live action diorama.?

Ask for Forgiveness Later: The following week my work BFF and I decided that we could paint the glass with frosted glass spray paint.? Seemed like the perfect solution.? My new office mate was out the day we decided to deface company property, so I didn’t have an opportunity to ask his opinion.? Figuring he wouldn’t really mind one way or another, we carried on.??

Let me paint you a picture – pun intended – of the scene.? It was about 2pm so the office was full of people, some just returning from lunch, and we started spraying at will.? About 15 minutes later (still spraying), one of the IT folks walked out of a nearby room and said, “we’re all about to pass out in the windowless, barely ventilated room we’re in from your spray paint” <Oops>?

It took that interaction to make me realize, hey, maybe this is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done.? I was suddenly very aware that everyone around us was suffering from fumes.? The most senior person in the office came over to us and although she was almost always prickly, asked if we wouldn’t mind not spray painting inside the office while it’s full of people.? We did stop but by then the job was done.?

At this point I was somewhere between shame and uncontrollable fits of the giggles but then I was filled with dread: What if my office mate didn’t want a frosted glass door? What if he was upset with me and had me haul my hilariously large desk out into the cube farm?

BFF and I waited until late in the day when most of our colleagues headed home to scrape the paint off with our company ID cards.

That was many moons ago.

It wasn’t until I was a bit further along in my adulting journey that I realized my need for privacy and psychological safety is what drove me to committing?staying-in-the-lines graffiti.?

The Learning: There was no lack of misogyny and harassment going on in my office and I’d often hear that the only reason I had a leadership position was because I was pretty, had a hot body, big boobs, etc. I handled it and I never really second guessed my ability because, like I tell my kids, I would always consider the source.? That thin layer of paint though, was just a little bit of a shield from the bile on the days I just didn’t want to deal with it.?

A Little Help from a Friend: When my office mate returned the following week, I told him what BBF and I had done and of course he laughed and told me it would have been fine to leave it.?We went to lunch together that day and on our way back to the office bought a tension rod and a cheap curtain for the door.? It took 5 minutes to install, no one suffered from asphyxiation and my (and maybe his too) perceived safe space was restored.

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?? Be sure to check out the previous edition of 3 Questions With..., spotlight on Ava Lala , Career Coach.

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