Elaine Soloway had a different reaction than most when she began to sense her time in PR was coming to a close: she abandoned ship and went to work at The Gap.
Elaine Soloway had a different reaction than most when she began to
sense her time in PR was coming to a close: she abandoned ship and went
to work at The Gap.
Formerly a press aide for Chicago mayor Jane Byrne (’unpredictable but
PR-minded’) as well as the founder of her own agency, the 60-year-old
Soloway took her task quite seriously. ’I studied for my interview just
like I would for any other job,’ she said, adding that her significantly
younger coworkers ’got a kick out of me.’
But while Soloway genuinely enjoyed hawking the Gap’s trendy wares, she
didn’t care for the swollen feet or the fact that she had to ask
permission to use the rest room. ’In an office, you can schmooze with
the people in the cubicle next to you at least,’ she said. ’And I hated
refolding the clothes - I don’t even like to do that in my own
house!’
Alas, after three months, she decided that she wasn’t making enough
money and quit. ’I used to make dollars 75 an hour. Do you know how long
I had to work to make that at The Gap?’
Soloway has since put her energies into freelance writing (she was
recently published in The New York Times) and is considering doing some
volunteer PR work. And she doesn’t seem to be slowing with age: ’On my
60th birthday, I wanted to do something outrageous, so I got a tattoo.
My daughters thought I was going to get a little butterfly, but it’s
this huge, colorful thing with both of their names.’
