Slade, The Officer
There are some things a woman in a position of authority should never show. Not just body things, that goes without saying. And not, as you might imagine, weakness. It’s alright to express doubt and confusion, alright to ask for advice. Women in power often make that mistake, think they have to be tougher than the boys, miss out on valuable guidance.
No, what you must never show is that you like one subordinate more than another. It’s a mummy thing. You turn your team into squabbling children, fighting for attention, reliving sibling rivalries. Then, in the way that mummy things turn, they start to say “you know why Jim got that plum assignment, don’t you? It’s because she’s fucking him.” And that’s where it all goes wrong. You’ve got to be the fairest mummy in the whole damn world.