A Woman’s Response To Kim K’s Career Advice…

By Nikki Slusher

In an interview with Variety this week the Kardashian’s announced they are returning to reality TV this year on Hulu. While we’ve been keeping up with them for way too long, it doesn’t come as a shock that they are ready to come back to our screens. This should’ve been the biggest news coming out of the interviews, however, it is Kim Kardashian’s response to one question in particular that has gotten all of the attention.

When asked about what it takes to succeed as a woman in business, Kim K decided to offer up some very unhelpful advice. “I have the best advice for women in business,” she said while sitting between her mom and sisters. What secrets would she reveal to help all of us be as successful as the whole KarJenner clan? Kardashian continued, “Get your fucking ass up and work.” Considering most Americans work in an office-like setting, this part may be hard to follow if you have to sit at a desk eight hours a day. I digress….Sure, that advice isn’t completely awful. But it got significantly worse when she followed up her advice with, “It seems like nobody wants to these days.” I’ll hold it here for a second while we all collectively cackle at her closing statement.

Now let’s get back to business. Kardashian’s statement is quite rich coming from an almost billionaire who achieved fame on a reality TV show with her entire family. Even in the earliest seasons of the series viewers were shown a family that lived a life of wealth and privilege. Also having Robert Kardashian as a father was a bonus. Then there’s her sex-tape being publicly released that helped shoot the “self-made” businesswoman into the spotlight.

Let me be clear – just because a woman makes (and most likely releases) her own adult film does not make her any less than a woman who hasn’t. We do not need to shame sex workers in this dialogue. But for someone who makes millions off of each Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter post her “advice” fails to provide working women any form of insight into being as successful as the KarJenners. That’s because it wasn’t advice – it was more of a snide remark. A distasteful one at best.

At 27 years-old, I have spent a majority of my adult life getting four college degrees while simultaneously paying for my own living expenses. There were times where I worked retail, food service, and even picked up any small gigs I could to make a quick buck. During holidays there were Thanksgivings, Christmas’, and New Years (which is also my birthday) where I showed up to my scheduled shifts – sometimes working the retail job then immediately going to my serving job to work both for the holiday. I can’t even tell you how many days I spent working 12+ hours to go home and do the coursework for five classes. I also held an internship every semester of college from sophomore year in undergrad through my second year in grad school.

After graduating in the middle of the pandemic in 2020 – where the job I had lined up after graduation was lost due to funding reductions from COVID-19 – I immediately applied to every job I could find that was even open and/or hiring. Even though I ended up with employment, it is still not the career I truly desired and spent endless days and nights over the last nine years working towards. I work seven days a week operating my teams; yes, seven because I am always on call on what is supposed to be my *one* day each week. Since I’m salaried it doesn’t matter how many hours I do or don’t work. I don’t get overtime, have benefits through my employer, and am struggling to even live paycheck to paycheck. I also make less money than my male counterparts in the same position who have: 1) less education and 2) less experience than me.

I share all of that not to belittle my employer or for a “woe is me, pity me” story; but because I think my story is one that I believe resonates with the majority of working class Americans – even more specifically working class women. So when reading Kim’s interview I was intrigued as to what crossed her mind when she claimed that “no one” wants to work. I’m not sure who Kim was referring to, but it surely isn’t with real-life business women.

For a woman who offers unpaid internships to run her errands, who lives wealthier than almost seven billion people, and who told everyone to stay home during the pandemic from the comfort of her own multi-million private island rental, the idea that *we* don’t wanting to work is a farcical outlook. While everyone scrambled to figure out how to avoid eviction, Kim was flying on jets, taking photoshoots after a glam squad styled her, and posting it to social media.

In closing my final thoughts, here is one business woman’s advice to her – shut up. I’m sorry to sound audacious but I don’t see any of Kim or her sisters getting up to work their $10/hour job (or jobs since many Americans work two) to make ends meet while not receiving benefits, paid time off, and having to cover necessary expenses like rent, food, and childcare. Especially since most working women with children don’t have three live-in nannies to help. So to Kim and any other multimillionaire who wants to offer up some advice next time, maybe do us working business women a favor and don’t.