May 30, 2007 10:58
Pay Discrimination Begins With Bias, Is Abetted by Pay Secrecy
Bad enough that the Supreme Court's decision yesterday will keep many workers from suing their employers for pay discrimination. Worse, it'll reinforce bosses' penchant for keeping workers' pay a secret from everyone else. Here, from Pamela Kruger in the Huffington Post (bolds mine):
[The Court] overturned a jury's award to Lily Ledbetter, a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company supervisor of 19 years who earned as much as 40 percent less than her male co-workers, finding that employees must complain within 180 days of each alleged discriminatory pay decision in order to prevail. (Never mind that employers often do their best to hide pay discrimination, or that wage gaps tend to widen over time, as subsequent raises are based on the original low pay.)
Pay discrimination begins with bias: an employer values the work of an employee less because of his or her race, gender, religion, disability. But it's clearly abetted by the secrecy surrounding pay that we take for granted in the American workplace.
Do you know what your colleague in the cubicle next door makes? Or your boss? Or the intern?
Why the secrecy? You might argue it's a cultural thing: we Americans are touchy about money, and we don't like our neighbors to know exactly how many eggs we've got in how many baskets. You'd be wrong. This culture of secrecy surrounding pay is fostered by employers to serve employers.
It goes like this. I'm hiring two people of equal qualifications for two equal positions. I offer Jill $35,000, a not-unreasonable offer for an entry-level post in this industry. She takes it. I offer Jack $35,000, but he demands $40,000, citing offers by competitors and his vast potential. I relent, thinking, well, Jill will never know.
A year later, when it comes time for the annual reviews, I give them commensurate bonuses. But because Jack's base pay started higher, the gap in pay widens. And so on and so forth, until, at retirement, Jill has earned seven dollars to Jack's 10, and must accept a lifestyle 70% as nice as his.
But for me, the employer, Jill was a bargain. I got the real thing at 30% off.
What would have happened if, at hiring time, Jack and Jill had shared the details of their offers? Or if I, the employer, had been forced to post it on an internal web site listing all salaries of all workers?
In reality, I'm not an employer; I'm not even a manager. Thus I'm in no position to expose other people's salaries. And I've had mixed experiences when I've revealed mine. I once convinced two colleagues of the same rank and similar experience to ask for raises based on my (higher) salary. But I shared with a new colleague what I make (he asked), I saw his face twist in the horror of the wronged. He's avoided me ever since, even though I'm quite sure he makes more than I do now.
The Supreme Court decision is egregious and wrong-headed, and the law about the 180-day time limit must be changed by Congress. But we can do something right now to help our fellow workers by busting up the conspiracy of silence on salaries.
May 29, 2007 12:00
Memorial Day's Over, and Veterans Are Still Out of Work
I spent a good chunk of this spring reporting on and thinking about the plight of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, finding themselves out of the military--and out of work. I thought about these soldiers as I sat on the curb with my daughter in Leonia, N.J., waving a 33 cent American flag, watching our Memorial Day parade.
The veterans in our little parade were of the Greatest Generation, ambling happily down Broad Avenue, tossing Dum-Dums at the kids. I'm not suggesting life post-war was easy for them. But I thought how much more poignant and honest this display would be if a line of young, injured, unemployed veterans from the current wars were to have joined them.
There's a lot of handwringing these days among our progressive, educated elite about the socioeconomic gap in our volunteer military. Those of us with comfortable backgrounds and college degrees don't enlist; those of you without, do. The military is a good employer, in many ways, if you don't count the part where they put you in a desert country teeming with people who want you dead. It's a steady paycheck with solid benefits and a clear career path.
What's more, many of the young vets I spoke with expressed a deep pride in their work and an uncommon loyalty to their colleagues. "It's a family, you see," says Robin O'Bannon, who retired a few years ago after many years managing dental residents for the Air Force. "You don't get that in an ordinary workplace."
If you're in the service, check out the just-released 2007 edition of Chris Michel's book, The Military Advantage: A Comprehensive Guide to Your Military and Veterans Benefits--"the definitive guide to accessing the scholarships, educational benefits, military discounts, healthcare and transition assistance every servicemember is entitled to." (The link is to the 2005 edition, but keep checking Amazon for the update.)
Chris Michel is the founder of Military.com, another excellent resource for vets looking for work. Of course, if you're in the military, you already know about Military.com; millions of servicemembers troll the site regularly for news, jobs and buddies. If you're not in the military but in a position to hire or recruit, I urge you to check out the site as well. As Michel says, "Hiring vets isn't about patriotism; it's just good business."
May 23, 2007 3:55
Opting Out for Men
Gerry brings up an interesting point in my last posting, about flexible work being a key issue for today's workforce: men need and desire flexibility as much as women.
According to the Tuck survey I referred to in the last post:
Men are very interested in career breaks but for different reasons than women. While women ranked parenthood as the top reason they would leave the workforce (70%), for men avocation or life outside of work topped the list at 59%.
At the Tuck informational meeting I attended for people looking to get back into the workforce, a man raised his hand during the Q&A and expressed skepticism that it would be easy for him--a stay-at-home dad--to slip right back into a career. In fact, the study also found:
Men mistakenly believe their rationale for wanting a career break is not as “accepted” as women’s. While men are almost as interested in taking a break as women (59% versus 70%), they are hesitant because they believe women are more likely to be granted a break from the workplace.
75% of men said that employers are more likely to say “yes” to a woman requesting a leave of absence from work.In addition, 85% of men said that employers are more likely to say “yes” to a person with children requesting a leave of absence from work.
Is that true? Is it harder for dads to take a break from their careers than it is for moms? Are employers addressing this shift? Is there a Daddy Track?
May 23, 2007 2:41
Flexible Work Is Key Issue for Opt-Outers and On-Rampers
Last night, I attended an event at Merrill Lynch hosted by Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. It was called the Back in Business Roadshow, and the multi-city tour is meant to appeal to women and men who have stepped off the career treadmill and are looking to step back on.
The panelists painted a fairly rosy picture of all that corporate America is doing to help these workers back into the workforce. Lois Backon of Families & Work Institute flattened us with a slew of statistics about today's workers: 52% are above 30; men and women are almost equally represented; 33% have "significant eldercare responsibilities." Mary MacDonald of Merrill and Anne Weisberg of Deloitte Touche discussed their respective firms' seemingly enlightened approach to "nontraditional" workers (us non-white non-males, I guess). And Bette Rice shared her experiences in the Tuck program.
But one theme kept coming up: flexibility. It's desired by 78% of workers, said Backon, so much so that it's resulted in what she called "reduced aspirations." Consider this: in 1992, 68% of men wanted jobs with more responsibility. In 2007, it's down to 52%. Among women, 57% wanted more responsibility in back then; 36% do now.
What does that mean? What about all the talk about the growth of extreme work--take Stephanie Armour's article on workaholism today in USA Today, or Sylvia Ann Hewlett's latest book, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps (she coined the term "extreme work" in the study the book is based on)? Is the extreme-worker phenomenon garbage?
I argue: yes. My generation doesn't want to work more just for the sake of working more. Sure, there are people like my brother-in-law, who logs 80-hour weeks and jets off to London and L.A. for red-eye meetings. Then again, he's got five mouths to feed (four kids, plus my sister, who packs away a lot of sugary cereal for a skinny chick).
Between us, my job and my husband's pay just enough to support our family. I have no desire right now to take on more responsibility for the pay or status or whatever; what I want is to do what I do and do it well, then get home to feed my kid her peas and rice.
Tuck conducted a survey that found a lot of people feel the same way. Many corporate types want to step off that hamster wheel altogether, if only for a break. Here, some findings:
KEY FINDING: People who consider taking career breaks and who want more flexibility aren’t an aberration but instead reflect a broader overall shift in the traditional model of workday arrangements and a linear career path—particularly among Gen Xers as compared to Baby Boomers.
63% of respondents said they would consider leaving the workplace for a period of time—a majority of both men (58%) and women (68%).Younger workers (26–41 years old) are the most likely to say they would consider taking a career break (70%).
The primary reasons for desiring to leave the workforce for a period of time were parenthood (63%), an avocation/life outside of work (43%), stress/burnout (37%), and entrepreneurship (35%).
KEY FINDING: Employees look to a host of options to break the traditional workday arrangement and career path model. When asked how they would improve their current work situation, the most cited requests included:
28% of respondents want more day-to-day informal flexibility, and younger employees (26–41 years old) are most likely to want this flexibility (32%).
20% would like the flexibility to telecommute, and younger employees (26–41 years old) are most likely to want this flexibility (25%).
17% suggest that project-based consulting work would improve their current work situation.
For 14%, a reduced schedule would improve their current work situation.
May 23, 2007 10:11
I Heart Jordin Sparks
Not really. She seems sweet and all, but how the heck could she win a national singing competition over a true talent like Melinda Doolittle? What is wrong with you, America? And I realize I'm preemptively calling the contest, though there's still the outside chance that Blake--I don't even know his whole name--could pull it out. Enough with the beat-boxing already. It's so 1988. I get the feeling we're all going to look back on this season's Rewind shows and cringe.
Oh, and did you check out the guyliner on Chris Daughtry?
This here is my attempt at some American Idol watercooler chat. I stood by the actual watercooler five feet from my office door, waiting for some colleague to pass so I could blurt out my deep thoughts on Jordin et al. But no one did. It might have been because everyone was at the morning story meeting. Or because everyone I work with is too busy talking about the conflict in Lebanon and the immigration bill. Or because I work with camels who don't need regular libation.
(For a more professional assessment of TV entertainment, visit my colleague Jim Poniewozik's excellent blog.)
If I worked with normal people, we'd be gabbing about Idol all through the coffee break. That's according to a new Workplace Snapshot survey from recruiting and staffing company Spherion and Harris Interactive. Some results:
• 37% of U.S. workers named American Idol as the TV program discussed most often in the workplace, up from 35% in 2006.
• Nearly one-quarter (21%) admit discussing the popular TV show during company time&bull: 10% of workers have engaged in debates over the contestants on American Idol.
There's apparently a gender breakdown:
According to the survey, women named American Idol and Grey’s Anatomy as the two most discussed TV programs at work (44% and 28% respectively), while men named American Idol and 24 (31% and 14% respectively). Women are more likely than men to discuss American Idol on company time (27% compared to 15%) and are more likely to have gotten into a debate at work over the contestants (12% vs. 9%).
That must be it. Way too many men around here. Straight, white men over 40. I bet the Idol chats rock downstairs at InStyle.
May 22, 2007 3:58
MySpace Is Not for Professionals
So this was my day so far today:
9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.: Beauty swag haul in Rockefeller Center. I don't write about beauty, or beauty products, nor would anyone besides my indiscriminately complimentary nephew Jack call me a beauty. And yet I was invited--as a workplace writer, somehow--to an event held in a swanky restaurant beside the ice-skating rink that promoted pricey lotions and potions to swag wh*res, I mean, journalists. I dropped by because it was on my way to Starbucks, but an hour later I staggered out with five shopping bags of Dead Sea mud packs, Romanian atomized mists and a pamphlet about female hair loss (it's apparently an epidemic). Here's what I learned: I need to change my beat.
10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Search-engine optimization training. A company called DEFINE Search Strategies talked a lot of monkeyscratch about meta keywords and title tags. Here's what I learned: don't use colons in blog headlines.
12 p.m.-1 p.m.: Q&A with Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, CEO and president of MySpace. My colleague Jeremy Caplan arranged for the two execs to come by and talk story with us.
Here's what I learned: MySpace has a platform for job-searching, but the CEO doesn't really care about it. The company remains focused on the "social" in social networking, despite the millions of grown-ups who could potentially benefit from using the site. In fact, Anderson came dressed as a teenager (either that or a Park Slope dad), in a logo T-shirt, jeans and scruffy hair. He sat at the conference table playing a video game on his mobile device (nah, he was probably checking e-mail--way more interesting than talking to a bunch of reporters).
I'm a grown-up, sort of, so I don't use MySpace. Which puts me squarely in the genre of journalism Anderson referred to sneeringly (the one time he looked up) as the "my kid uses MySpace, and he told me..."
The thing is, I'd love to use MySpace--if it were at all relevant to me. I love the idea of an easy-to-use portal on which to manage and grow my personal and professional lives. In the career space, MySpace has a job channel, powered by SimplyHired, which focuses on young career starters. When I asked about it, though, DeWolfe shrugged and said it's "not core to the everyday experience on MySpace."
Stepping into this vacuum is LinkedIn, which wants to become the MySpace for professionals. It says it's now got 11 million professionals signed up. I'm one of them. I'm not an avid user, but lately I'm averaging one request per week from people I know to join my network. Spam and other intrusions are minimal; occasionally I get pinged by someone from China (ni hao, peeps--but if I don't know you, I'm not linking to you).
Today, LinkedIn added a new feature called LinkedIn for Good:
LinkedIn for Good, a philanthropic initiative aimed at raising awareness and funds for nonprofit organizations around the world. The initiative gives each non-profit a platform to leverage LinkedIn’s international network of 11 million professionals and virally spread the word about their organization.
It's basically a way to let your network know about the causes you care about:
LinkedIn for Good offers nonprofit organizations a page on the LinkedIn site as well as free badges—in essence a digital “bumper sticker” that LinkedIn members may place on their profile to promote the causes they care about to their network. In addition, the program offers registered nonprofits free job listings (a $145 value) to build their organizational capacity.
For instance, I give to Doctors Without Borders. I could add their badge to my page, which visitors to my page could click on if they cared to. It's sort of like asking for donations at the office, but less pushily.
I learned a lot today. And I didn't even tell you about my lunch with the HR honcho about diversity at TIME. Gotta run to an informational gathering downtown for women MBAs returning to the workforce.
May 21, 2007 12:09
This Book Helps You Get From College to Career
Did you know 85% of entry-level job candidates are poorly prepared for the job hunt? Figures: amazingly, many universities in this country still lack constructive focus on career prep. (But if you want to take a class on the social impact of porn, sign right up.)
So it's no surprise that many addled grads turn to the bookstore for a little guidance in what to do with their lives, or that authors are meeting that demand with a groaning supply of what-to-do-with-your-life lit. Type "career" into Amazon's book search engine, and it'll bury you with 322,308 hits.
Lindsey Pollak's new book, Getting From College to Career, belongs on that shelf--but it also deserves to stand out. It's a well-written, lively and easy to follow guide of "90 things to do before you join the real world." Pollak is a Yale grad who's apparently made a career of her early career travails; she begins the book by telling of her own bafflement and malaise as she approached graduation. A chance encounter at the local Rotary Club gathering tips her off to a fellowship in Australia, which she jumps at. But when that ends, she's left once again moping around her parents' house, conducting aimless web searches and eating too much frozen yogurt. She writes:
In a nutshell, my scientific diagnosis of my post-Australia situation is that it totally sucked.
You gotta love a career expert who'll admit to that. Also, she apparently bakes cupcakes.
Pollak's book-jacket bio calls her a "writer, editor and speaker specializing in career advice for young professionals." I'm leery of career experts who haven't lived long enough to have had much of a career, but maybe that gives Pollak an advantage in this market: she is, after all, talking to her peers. (At least that's how she's billed: you have to wonder what person born after the Nixon administration wouldn't know what "LOL" meant and would use a Debbie Does Dallas reference.)
Anyway, I liked Pollak's friendly, big-sisterly tone, and if you're a newly minted cap-and-gowner, I think you'll find this book easy to digest and ultimately useful. The 90 very short tips address modern job-hunting issues like cleaning up your Internet image ("Don't think having a private profile makes you safe...some [employers] even borrow '.edu' e-mail addresses to have access to student-only sites") and e-mailing "like a professional" (don't leave subject lines blank, she advises, which sounds retarded until you realize that might not occur to a young job seeker).
In my continuing spirit of magnanimity when it comes to my ever accumulating mountain of business books, I'll part with one of my copies to whomever asks first. Comment below and include your e-mail.
May 18, 2007 4:18
Business Cards Go Digital
During the year and a half I worked for TIME as a Tokyo correspondent, I handed out approximately 41,325 business cards. Well, okay. Maybe a few hundred less. But seriously, business cards--meishi in Japanese--are serious business over there, requiring proper etiquette in everything from their handling (always receive one with both hands, and never place it face down) to design (the typesize can't be bigger than your boss's).
I collect business cards. Which is to say I keep stacks of every business card I've ever received on my desk. In fact, of late I've been increasingly aggravated by the stacks. I can't seem to throw them out--who knows when I'll need to contact that PR lady from the mining company in Wyoming?--and I also can't seem to find the time to entomb them in a Rolodex-type organizer. Not that I even own one.
It seems to me we're at some sort of tipping point in business-contact organization. I see where it's headed: business cards are out; digital cards are in. We're trucking inexorably toward digitalizing everything we know, including our clients and sources and sushi delivery joints. Which technology will win?
I don't read the lifehacking blogs because I'm too busy being disorganized, but I did read a release from a new company called Lyro that offers a network of digital business cards. I opened an account (simple as an e-mail and password) and created my own (again, as simple as typing in your info). The result is a very plain business card on a web site nobody knows about. Check mine out here (don't all crank call me at once).
A few irks: though the site gives you the option of choosing your own color palette, the process is too complicated; it leads you to another site with a color chart all full of coding and other gobbledygook. The prototypical business card looks fine, but it lacks basic information like e-mail. What business card these days doesn't include an e-mail address?
And there's the issue of what to do with the card once it's made. You can send them to associates. But what do they do with them? If enough people start using the service, I guess it would be a handy way to quickly look up and download the data. Till then, it'll be just one more result when I Google myself.
Anyway, I'm looking for help here. How do you organize your contacts? What Web-based services do you like? Know any good sushi delivery joints in midtown Manhattan?
May 18, 2007 12:56
What I'd Do for Money
What would you do for a million bucks?
Me:
• Eat a pound of cilantro.
• Walk around Times Square in briefs and cowboy boots singing God Bless America.
• Curse at my boss in Japanese.
Our sister magazine Money conducted a survey on ethics and money that will appear in its June issue. Some findings:
• When asked what they’d be willing to do to advance in their career, 6% of survey respondents said they’d be willing to sleep with their boss or someone else who can help them get ahead. Of this 6%, respondents tended to be young, single and 10 times more likely to be men than women.
• 68% of respondents reported having a problem with family and friends over borrowing or lending money. While 1 in 6 respondents said they had never repaid in full the largest amount of money they’d ever borrowed from a friend or relative.• 82% of respondents said never let your relatives know how much money you have. 57% of respondents admitted to having problems with family or friends over having a lot less money then they do. 55% of respondents admitted to having problems with family or friends over having a lot more money then they do.
• 88% of respondents said you should never let your co-workers know how much you make.
• 1 in 5 said they would keep the money if their bank put $2,000 into their account by mistake.
• 1 in 6 also said they’ve returned an item to a store for a refund once they were done using it.
• Nearly 3 in 10 felt it would not or probably would not be wrong to force their elderly mother to move to an assisted-living facility, even if years earlier they had accepted a large financial gift from her and promised to help keep her there for the rest of her life.
More:
The most striking differences were between men and women. Both men and women believe women are more ethical than men (although women are likelier than men to think that’s true) and it appears they may be right. Women are more likely than men to express concern about ethical issues (to say, for instance, they don’t invest in companies that make products they disapprove of) and to play by the rules (fewer women sneak into second movies at the multiplex or steal office supplies). They’re also more likely than men to favor splitting their estates equally among the kids and to disapprove of attaching conditions to gifts of money.
What I'd like to know: does having more money make you more ethical, or vice versa? Do people harbor one set of ethics when it comes to their own money and another for their company's? Do the spate of films like the Ocean 11-13s that glorify theft and con jobs inure our culture to ethical abominations?
Anyway. What would you do for $1 million? Just wondering.
May 17, 2007 12:00
What Constitutes a Firing Offense, Anyway?
I don't normally stray into politics in this space; I leave that to the swamp creatures (and I provide a link because I'm a good colleague, not because they need my help in the traffic department...trafficwise, Swampland is Disneyland and Work in Progress is the cubicle down the hall with the mini-Snickers in the jar).
But a comment by Tony Snow the other day struck me. In referring to Paul Wolfowitz arranging for a raise and promotion for his g.f., Snow said the White House didn't consider his actions "firing offenses." Here, the White House transcript of the exchange at the press conference (bolds mine):
Q Tony, on Wolfowitz. ABC was reporting that -- on Wolfowitz's future -- "all options are on the table," and second, that it's an "open question" whether he should stay. Does that reflect the White House views?
MR. SNOW: Let me explain. There are two separate things going on. Number one, there is an inquiry right now -- I believe Mr. Wolfowitz today is talking to the World Bank, presenting his side -- on personnel matters. And what we've said all along is, first, we do support Paul Wolfowitz.But the second thing is, you need to separate these into separate inquiries, and a lot of times I think they get bundled together. He has made it clear that he made mistakes. It is pretty clear also that there were problems, in terms of communicating the proper ways of dealing with personnel issues -- as you know, originally he tried to recuse himself, then an ethics board said that he ought to get himself involved. The fact is that he made mistake; they're not, in our view, firing offenses.
Which got me to thinking. What exactly does make up a firing offense these days, anyway? One thing seems clear to me: there's the set of rules for the high-level executives, and then there's the other set for the minions.
That's fine with me, so long as the rules for the leaders are stricter--even draconian. Let's navel-gaze for a minute. Chris Albrecht, the CEO of our sister company HBO, was fired last week for assaulting his own g.f. in a parking lot. His ouster took Hollywood and the media biz by surprise; he was, after all, the explosively successful rainmaker who had made HBO a cultural and economic powerhouse. The strange thing was that he had suffered no apparent career repercussions for a similar incident in 1991.
What changed? I'm not sure, but it seems to me that the private lives--and private mistakes--of business leaders are increasingly in the public domain. Andres Martinez, the editor of the L.A. Times editorial page, recently resigned in a kerfuffle involving, again, a lady friend; in his case, the g.f. was a former employee of Brian Grazer, whom Martinez had hired to guest-edit the opinion page. Though the accounts differ, in the end the connection was seen as a conflict of interest and Martinez lost his job.
And then there's the tragic case of Marilee Jones, the dean of admissions at MIT who had to leave her job when lies were discovered in her résumé. TIME columnist Michael Kinsley argued in a recent issue that hers was, in fact, not a firing offense; a number of you argued that, too, right here.
I disagree. What the cases have in common is not the offense, but the subsequent breach of trust once the offense became public. No public company--or university or global, quasi-governmental institution--can these days afford that kind of collateral damage to their reputations. We--the shareholders, the consumers, the bloggers--will vote with our feet.
As for Wolfowitz and the World Bank, not only did he breach public trust but also explicit rules regarding conflict of interest. So how is that not a firing offense? Ought not the likes of World Bank leaders be held to even higher standards than the rest of us?
UPDATE: you all know by now that Wolfowitz agreed to resign yesterday.
May 16, 2007 9:47
Veterans Discover Online Jobhunting--and Vice Versa
Something to chew on as Memorial Day approaches:
Did you know that close to 300,000 members of the military enter civilian life every year? And that many of them--despite their honorable service and sharp skills and the earnest promises of politicians--will struggle to find work?
I have a story up on Time.com titled "Finding Jobs for Vets Back Home." It's a story I've been tracking since last summer, when I first noticed that the unemployment figures for a particular set of veterans--those between 20 and 24--were abysmally high. In March, I traveled out to a job fair in Chicago sponsored by Military.com to meet some of these young, unemployed veterans.
Before I went, I interviewed Chris Michel, the founder of Military.com. Michel, a former Navy flight officer, founded it in the late '90s after graduating from Harvard Business School. It now counts 8 million members--that's one-third of the armed forces--and helps them "access their benefits, advance their careers, enjoy military discounts, and stay connected."
Chris Michel, founder and chairman of Military.com / Photo courtesy of Military.com
Michel (pronounced "Michael") has an interesting career path. He earned his commission from the NROTC program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a navigator and mission commander, he hunted drug runners in South and Central America. After seven years in the service during which he rose to lieutenant commander, he left in 1997 to work in the Pentagon as aide to the Chief of the Naval Reserve.
"I found the process of looking for other work and knowing what I was qualified to do difficult, despite having done well in Navy," says Michel. He knows he was lucky. "Not only was I an officer but when I got selected to be an aide, I got to interface with all these people who had civilian jobs." One of those people urged him to consider Harvard Business School. "I was a poli-sci major; I didn't know what I'd do at business school," he says. "But he said, No, they love Navy guys."
He came up with the idea for Military.com while working as a consultant shortly after graduation. "I've always been an Internet geek," he says. Having gone through the service and transition himself, he knew millions of service members could be served by an Internet portal. Competition was fierce, as was the fight for financing. "Somehow, we survived," he says.
Military.com offers all sorts of services, but its hundreds of thousands of job listings--not to mention its transition assistance--gave it value to Monster.com, which bought it in 2004. It continues to add jobseeking help, such as a network of 400,000 veterans who have signed on to assist other veterans in finding work. A section helps military spouses find work. Another helps servicemembers translate their military job skills to civilian language. "That's one of the toughest things for vets," says Tom Aiello, former Army captain and Kellogg MBA who is now vice president of Military.com.
You might ask where the government is in all this. Why isn't Uncle Sam setting up Internet portals to help our veterans find jobs? The government does have its own site, but it's not nearly as thorough or popular as Military.com.
"I think the government can do a whole lot more," says Aiello. One way, he suggests, is by setting up a "world-class skills translator" that all the veteran-jobs web sites could access. "Yes, we have one, but to do it right we need funding," he says.
Then again, maybe this kind of thing is best left to private enterprise. The White House would probably outsource such a job--without bids--to the likes of Halliburton. And somehow I doubt those millions would be spent on innovating great Internet-based jobseeking solutions.
May 15, 2007 2:35
Cullen's Instant Book(Jacket) Reviews (or: Business Book Giveaway Part Du!)
The batch is growing, so here again are my thumbnail reviews of business books--or, more accurately, of their covers. I review the jackets. You review the contents. I'm that lazy. The rules:
1) Write a comment telling me which book you want, and fill in the e-mail box so I can write and get your address.
2) Receive book in mail.
3) Read book.
4) Write a snappy, pithy, opinionated review.
5) E-mail review to Lisa.
6) See your snappy, pithy, opinionated review posted on Lisa's blog.
And just so you all don't think I'm totally slacking on my perceived duties as a workplace writer at TIME (thank you, anonymous commenter), I have two upcoming reviews of books I will actually read:
a) Getting From College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World, by Lindsey Pollak, and
b) One Perfect Day, by Rebecca Mead.
Awesome. Let's get going.
What Made jack welch Jack Welch
How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders
by Stephen H. Baum with Dave Conti
The thing I get from this title is that it's damn hard to think of good business-book titles. Baum is an executive coach; after a quick perusal, it appears to me he didn't actually talk to either jack welch or Jack Welch, and also that he keeps this annoying lower-case gimmick going throughout the book.
Connect
Building Success Through People, Purpose, and Performance
Keith Harrell and Hattie Hill
This title makes me want to hang myself, but I do like the big photo of Keith Harrell on the back of the jacket, his hand out in a gesture that says either "hey, check me out" or "hey, give me money." He's smiling, so I guess it's the former.
Time Power
A Proven System for Getting More Done in Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible
by Brian Tracy
Well, a good start would be paring down that subtitle.
I Didn't See It Coming
The Only Book You'll Ever Need to Avoid Being Blindsided in Business
by Nancy C. Widmann, Elaine J. Eisenman, Ph.D., and Amy Dorn Kopelan
The authors have interesting résumés: Widmann was the first woman president at CBS; Eisenman is dean of executive education at Babson College; Kopelan is also a TV exec who now coaches execs. See, in a new era, these kinds of people would do like a series of webinars on the subject and post it on YouTube.
You, Inc.
The Art of Selling Yourself
by Harry Beckwith and Christine Clifford Beckwith
Harry Beckwith is apparently the best-selling author of Selling the Invisible and What Clients Love. Which leads me to a question. Almost all the books in my pile claim their authors are "best-selling." What exactly does that mean? Best-selling, as ranked by whom? Does anyone know? I mean, my own book is probably a best-seller somewhere, like among funeral directors in New Jersey.
All right, folks. That's five--and it didn't even make a dent in my pile. Dammit. More bookjacket reviews/giveaways TK (that's journalistic shorthand for "to come").
May 15, 2007 1:40
Hey, I'm a Mommy Blogger! Where's My Free Stuff?
The Wall Street Journal has a piece today on how the networks are building buzz for the new season's shows by courting--yes--bloggers. To promote The New Adventures of Old Christine, CBS targeted mommy bloggers (bolds mine):
Warner Bros., the studio that produces the show for CBS, identified 12 blogs about motherhood, a key theme in "Old Christine," and invited the writers to spend the day on the set. The bloggers got free DVDs, watched a rehearsal and made videos with Ms. Louis-Dreyfus and other cast members to post on their sites. "It was totally rad," says Yvonne Marie, the publisher of a Web log called Joy Unexpected.
Free DVDs! Face time with Ms. Louis-Dreyfus herself, the only non-washed-up cast member from Seinfeld! What up with that. I'm so jealous I just ate a whole bag of Lay's Ruffled Chips. And I don't even like ruffled chips (they scratch the roof of my delicate mouth).
It's interesting to me that what was and still is a late-night hobby for us working moms has become an actual leg of our careers. My friend Penelope Trunk has even turned her blog into a brand. I recently got an e-mail from a woman named Valentina, who posts a video blog about her art on YouTube and now says she makes a "living" off of it.
For the rest of us, our blogs have apparently become a source of--if not income, then at least some swag. I suppose you could count me in this group, if you consider the sacks of business/career books swag. I'll take coffee with Julia Louis-Dreyfus any day.
May 14, 2007 11:24
Older Workers Need to Stay in the Workforce
I urge you to read Dan Kadlec's column in this week's TIME, titled "Making Flexible Retirements Work." It begins:
Making the most of our retirement-age population has become a hot issue in Washington, where for the past 75 years federal policy has been designed around easing folks who are past 50 out of the workforce rather than enticing them to stay in it. If you're reaching that age now, however, you're headed for a whole new reality.
The reality for older Americans, says Kadlec, is this:
Inside the Beltway, one answer is increasingly heard: let's get a continuing economic contribution from folks after their primary career has ended and before they start draining the system's pension and health-care assets. That's bad news if you're looking forward to a kick-up-your-heels early retirement; the financial and cultural support for a purely leisure-filled later life is drying up. But if you crave opportunities for a flexible job that you will enjoy or volunteer work that makes use of your skills and speaks to your heart, then what's good for the federal budget may be good for you too.
Some traditional obstacles to extending working life--like mandatory retirement ages--are already, for the most part, history. But we need to rewrite pension laws and healthcare plans so as not to penalize older people for continuing to work.
What Kadlec and other experts advocate is flexible work. No one's saying a 68-year-old former finance VP needs to continue pulling long billable hours. But he could take on part-time accountancy for a nonprofit. (And though the article doesn't address this, working years are severely shortened if one's occupation involves physical labor.)
Kadlec suggests the following occupations:
Education. Teachers are always in demand, especially in cities. If you have a college degree in any field, you can probably get into a program that will let you start as a substitute almost immediately. Check at the school or district office.
Health care. Hospitals actively recruit midlife career changers. You do not have to be a doctor or a nurse. In many cases you can train while you work for pay and benefits as a lab assistant or in areas like music or art therapy, or radiology.Nonprofits. There are nearly 2 million nonprofits in the U.S.; they make up a fast-growing sector that offers lots of paid (as well as volunteer) positions. For a look at what jobs are available, go to bridgestar.org.
Government. Civil service jobs are available in every state, and many of those jobs offer good benefits and flexible schedules. Start your search at usajobs.opm.gov.
May 11, 2007 10:01
Looking for a Summer Job? Flipping Burgers Gets an Image Makeover
Have you checked out this new ad from McDonald's? (Thanks to my colleague Barbara Kiviat for the tip-off.)
FYI: the blonde lady in the ad is Karen King, East Division President of McDonald's USA.
Now what do you suppose brought this expensive campaign on? Is Mickey D's hurting for workers? For the varsity jacket set, is it cooler to be a barista these days than a burger-flipper? And really, how many cashiers wind up running the joint?
According to McD's, 30% of franchise owners, 50% of corporate staff, and 70% of restaurant managers started as crew. Forty percent of McDonald’s top management team got their start in McDonald’s restaurants, including CEO, Jim Skinner.
I never worked at McDonald's, but my first summer job was serving lunch at a cafe/pub in Japan called Big Buns. I kid you not. I can only attribute my teenage employment there to careless parenting. I was a tragic waitress, and the job did not persuade me to pursue a career in the service field.
Any of you worked for the golden arches? What was it like? What did it do for your career?
May 10, 2007 3:39
What We Hate About Meetings
Meetings, meetings, meetings. Some days, like yesterday, I feel like my day begins and ends in meetings. And I'm not even a manager.
I meet sources to hear about their new book or research or business; editors to bounce around story ideas; colleagues to grouse about all the freaking meetings. Yesterday I even met with two nice lady entrepreneurs who flew up from North Carolina to grill me on the cremation industry (being that I am an expert).
Funny thing was, when I was sick and working from home, the thing I missed was meetings. At least, I thought it was funny. I did this whole bit about it for an NPR anchor who was doing a segment on the unexpected aspects of working from home. She never aired it. I think she thought my meds had side effects involving delusion. Because everybody, I mean everybody, hates meetings.
What is it we hate most? According to Opinion Research USA’s “Ouch Point” survey, a "new monthly study examining tolerance thresholds in a variety of common scenarios facing Americans in both their professional and personal lives," it's disorganization. Below, the top 10 things we hate about meetings:
1. Disorganized, rambling meetings: 27%2. People who interrupt peers and try to dominate the meeting: 17%
3. Cell phone interruptions: 16%
4. People who fall asleep in meetings: 9%
5. Meetings with no bathroom breaks: 8%
6. Long meetings without refreshments: 6%
7. People leaving early or arriving late: 5%
8. People who check their Blackberries during meetings: 5%
9. Meetings starting late: 4%
10. No written recap of the meeting outcomes: 4%
That last point is interesting. It gets me to think: do most meetings lack a point? If so, why meet? Why hasn't someone come up with a drug that lets you be at a meeting but also shopping for groceries? Are there meetings in heaven? Or hell?
May 9, 2007 4:11
TIME 100 Party Pics!
Barack didn't show. Neither did Osama. And that was just fine with me. I was crushed Tyra didn't make it, though.
Last night's Time 100 gala celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world (as decided by, well, us) took place at the Time Warner Center. We plebes aren't usually invited to these things, but yesterday we got to make up the peanut gallery. I went because
a) this is the closest thing we get to a company picnic
b) I'm a rabid fan of Tullis Onstott, Princeton geosciences professor
c) if there's free finger food involving smoked salmon, I'm pretty much there.
I have to admit it was more fun than a company picnic. There were famous people. Lots of them. The ones I saw with my own two eyes: George Lucas; Tina Fey; Police Commissioner Ray Kelly; Michael J. Fox; Malcolm Gladwell; Arianna Huffington. Others who turned up: Michael Bloomberg; America Ferrara; Brian Williams; John Edwards.
My vote for coolest guest goes to Wesley Autrey, Subway Hero. You know: the guy who threw himself onto the subway tracks to save a total stranter. This smooth gentleman introduced himself to me and to my colleagues Coco and Jeninne, then proceeded to make his way around the place, smiling and handing out business cards that said, "Wesley Autrey, Subway Hero." I swear.
Sometimes my job is cooler than yours. Sometimes.
I made like a Japanese tourist and whipped out my Canon. Below are my fabulously un-TIME-quality party pics. Photo editors, I don't want to hear yo lip.
Ana Marie Cox, Time.com Washington chief and blogging pioneer; Marlene Kahan, executive director of the American Society of Magazine Editors and my "mom"; Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, bleacher creature. / All pictures by LTC
Josh Tyrangiel, boss of Time.com; Nathan Thornburgh, editor of Briefings; Romesh Ratnesar, editor of World. To the men of TIME, "black tie" apparently does not mean the kind you tie in a bow. Or the kind that comes in black.
Joe Klein, TIME columnist and author; Arianna Huffington, blog queen and author. We're talking media elite, people. Media elite.
George Lucas! Can you stand it?
Deirdre Van Dyk, fearless reporter; Bobby Ghosh, fearless Baghdad correspondent; Rebecca Myers, fearless Time.com editor.
Wesley Autrey, subway hero; Matt Lauer, guy on the Today show. In the contest of the media hunks, Autrey totally gets my vote.
Tracy Pollan, actress; Kahan of ASME; Michael J. Fox, actor and Parkinson's activist (sainthood pending).
Tina Fey, writer, actress and my own personal working-girl hero. When her publicist wrapped up the snapping frenzy, she turned back to thank the photographers! ...but who's the dude in the back?
May 9, 2007 9:00
Business Book Giveaway! ...With Strings, O' Course
I hate mail.
I get so much of it. Not as much as my editor Josh Tyrangiel, who reviews music, or my colleague Jim Poniewozik, who reviews TV, or Lisa McLaughlin, who reviews margarita salt and plastic penguins (judging by her swag).
What I get are business books. Lots and lots of business books.
Have I mentioned that I hate business books?
It's not that I don't appreciate the effort. I popped out a psuedo-business title myself last year (about the funeral industry--don't ask), and I know the blood, sweat and migraines publishing demands. Each of the bound bundles of dead tree were lovingly crafted, I know, by a hard-working, earnest striver out there, desperate only to share his or her knowledge and experience and hard-won wisdom with the reading masses.
The thing is: there must be a market. For so many titles to hit the bookshelves every month, every week, there must be an audience waiting to snap them up. For every book a reader. Right?
So here's my proposal. Below, I shall list a bunch of the more interesting-looking books currently spilling from USPS crates in my office. Write me a comment and let me know which one you'd like to read, and why. I'll mail it to you. Then you write me your review.
It's homework! You got it? No free lunch-read--no, sir. You read it, and you tell me what you think. And then I'll post your (excellently written, incisive and concise) review. Don't forget to include an e-mail in your comment so I can contact you.
So here we go. In today's batch (more to come), we've got:
See Jane Lead
99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work
by Lois P. Frankel
Frankel's the author of the bestselling Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office. The back cover includes blurbs by Fortune columnist Anne Fisher and Carolyn Kepcher, Trump's former foil.
101 Mission Statements From Top Companies
Plus Guidelines for Writing Your Own Mission Statement
by Jeffrey Abrahams
I think the title speaks for itself. Maybe the ideal reader is an entrepreneur looking for purpose.
Recruit or Die
How Any Business Can Beat the Big Guys in the War for Young Talent
by Chris Resto, Ian Ybarra and Ramit Sethi
An HR pro could give me an honest review of this one. Do the tactics work? On the cover art, why is the guy in the suit holding out cash to the job seeker?
Living Into Leadership
A Journey Into Ethics
by Bowen H. "Buzz" McCoy
I offer this one based on the cover blurb by George P. Shultz (George P. Shultz!). And also because the author actually uses the name "Buzz." And because I cover business, so I think I should care about ethics.
Screamfree Parenting
The Revolutionary Approach to Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool
by Hal Edward Runkel, LMFT
No, I have no idea what LMFT stands for. This is a bit of a break from my usual haul, but seeing as we talk so much about work-life issues here, I thought I'd offer it up. Also, it comes with a pen. That I don't want. Because I don't want strangers thinking I need a pen to remind me not to scream at my kid.
Okay, that's it for now. More coming. Start commenting, folks.
May 7, 2007 6:07
Career Success Comes Down to "Great People Decisions"
CEOs love to say that great people make great organizations. Funny, then, that so many managers and others in a position to hire and promote know so very little about making great people decisions.
Notice I didn't call it the "art" of making great people decisions. As executive search consultant Claudio Fernandez Araoz writes in his new book, Great People Decisions--Why They Matter So Much, Why They Are So Hard, and How You Can Master Them, it's not an art but a skill--one that can be learned and mastered. Araoz, a slender and exuberant man, stopped by TIME's offices last week to explain.
Claudio Fernandez Araoz hobnobs with the likes of Jack Welch and concludes: great people decisions make the career. / Photo courtesy of EZI
Putting the right people in the right jobs can make or break a manager. Yet, in more than two decades of experience as an executive search consultant and over at least 400 talent hunts, it dawned on Araoz that while business concentrated on other key factors for success--sector, timing, customers, leadership--few had a system for selecting and grooming its workforce.
Araoz, who lives in Buenos Aires and is a partner in search firm Egon Zehnder International, begins the book by telling of the day long ago when he sat down for a job interview with Egon Zehnder himself. Young Araoz asked him: What makes a person successful? Zehnder answered, "Luck." A person's nationality, schooling, family, health, appearance, IQ--many of these things are beyond his control, yet may play an inordinate role in his career success.
Araoz agreed, but wasn't satisfied.
Why do certain people succeed, and others fail? I think I have an answer.1. Genetics
2. Development
3. Career decisions
4. People decisions
The book goes on to explain the integral role people decisions make not just in organizational success but in individual career success--and even in personal happiness (we choose our spouses, friends and doctors, don't we?). Araoz writes in a fluid, energetic and highly readable style, citing gurus from Jack Welch (whom he's worked with on the G.E. CEO's own books and from whom he snagged a glowing endorsement) to Malcolm Gladwell. He's fond of wonky charts and graphs--during our meeting, he scribbled off three or four--but his writing is relatively free of MBA-speak.
Great People Decisions comes out June 1. Check it out, and let me know what you think.
May 4, 2007 2:33
Time Warner COO: For Media, Corporate Diversity Is About Business
I just had lunch with Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner's soon-to-be CEO. Okay, so technically speaking, I was in a large room with many other people eating sandwiches in the presence of Bewkes. The luncheon was arranged by A3, Time Inc.'s Asian group, and ably hosted by my friend Stephanie Mehta, a senior writer at Fortune.
The lunch was mainly off the record, but I'd like to share some of the conversation with you. Corporate diversity's been on my mind a lot lately, and how often do we underlings get to grill our top corporate officers on the subject, mano-a-mano (or, at least, many-a-mano-a-mano)? More importantly, the company I work for happens to be the world's largest media company, and though diversity matters in every sector, I think our outsized influence makes it matters here more.
Jeffrey Bewkes is my boss's boss's boss's boss. In other words, he's the president and COO of Time Warner./ Photo courtesy of Time Warner.
Bewkes is a guy with a lot on his plate. He was named president and chief operating officer of Time Warner in December 2005, and as such oversees Time Inc., HBO, Turner Broadcasting (CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network), Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema, Time Warner Cable and AOL. He spent most of his career at HBO.
Our current CEO is, of course, Dick Parsons, who is perhaps the best known and most powerful CEO of color in the country. But dig a few levels below, and the palette is decidedly more monochromatic. Still, it appears diversity is something Bewkes has spent some time chewing over.
Mehta asked Bewkes to make a business case for diversity. He responded: ""We need to produce relevant content for an increasingly diverse population. We are ever fragmenting--and by that I mean not just in ethnicity and nationality but in interests." He went on to describe the extremely diverse programming at HBO--diverse not just in color but in content and tone--and how that's helped it become such an entertainment leader.
One piece of advice he had for up-and-coming workers that I thought was useful: make your (white, male, older) boss criticize you. Studies bear him out: research shows that supervisors find it far easier to give honest feedback to people who resemble them, whether in gender, color or background. "Whatever he's telling you, it's worse," he said, to laughter in the room. "Make him tell you what you're lousy at." FYI, he used language a little saltier than "lousy." But it's a good point, I thought.
As for retaining and promoting minorities to the top, I hope that in his future role he'll give serious thought to assigning some sort of systemic accountability--the only proven management tactic for change. (Read my article in TIME on this topic.) It matters, not just for those of us who work here but for our millions of viewers, readers and consumers. Like Bewkes says, it's about business.