May 15, 2008 9:42
Does maternity leave harm careers?
I know; it's a cheap question. The answer is yes in some places, and no in others. The real question is: how does taking a maternity leave affect your career in your workplace?
At Bloomberg LP, apparently the answer is: like poop on a shoe. Last fall, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit on behalf of three women against the financial news and data company, accusing it of engaging "in a pattern of demoting women, diminishing their duties and excluding them from job opportunities after they disclosed they were pregnant." The women—Tanys Lancaster, Jill Patricot and Janet Loures—were all managers and senior executives...until they were in the family way, that is. From MSNBC.com:
Lancaster was said to be earning close to $300,000 in a senior position in the company's Transaction Products Department when she announced her pregnancy. "Almost immediately I began to suffer demotions, decreases in compensation as well as retaliation after I complained to Human Resources," she said in a statement.
As for the other two:
Patricot, who worked as a manager in the Global Data Division, claims that after returning to her job following maternity leave, she was demoted to an entry level position because her schedule had changed due to child care demands.
Loures was also a manager in the Global Data Division, and said her duties and staff were reduced starting with her first maternity leave and continuing through a second one. She is now employed in an entry-level clerical position, the EEOC said.
Pshaw, you say. The experiences of three women in a company that employs 10,000 do not a pattern make make. Besides, this is the firm founded and still majority-owned by the beloved mayor of New York, a well-known proponent of equal rights! Right? Well, consider this news earlier this month (from Newsday):
A lawyer has told a judge that the number of women accusing the financial services company of discrimination against employees who take maternity leave has risen from three to 58, with more likely to be added.
Oh. So here's what I want to know, especially from you ladies who weighed in about the duration of your maternity leave in this earlier post: after your leave, what consequences did you suffer—or benefit from?
May 14, 2008 1:49
Rx for pregnant moms: chocolate
I don't usually read the Journal of Epidemiology. But I will when it publishes findings entitled
Chocolate Consumption in Pregnancy and Reduced Likelihood of Preeclampsia
From the abstract:
Background: Preeclampsia is a major pregnancy complication with cardiovascular manifestations. Recent studies suggest that chocolate consumption may benefit cardiovascular health.
The methods I won't reprint, as they're a load of mumbo-jumbo to science dummies like me. But the findings are oh, so pure:
Conclusions: Our results suggest that chocolate consumption during pregnancy may lower risk of preeclampsia.
Now hand over that Kit-Kat. It's for my health.
May 14, 2008 11:20
One in three military women sexually abused
I'm digging TheWip.net, the website of Women's International Perspective, a compilation of thoughtful, surprising blogs from women around the world. There's a "byline portal" that collects articles in newspapers and magazines on global news (check out this fascinating International Herald Tribune story on the courtship of young Saudi women).
But what caught my eye today is this blog entry by Nancy Van Ness on the sorry way our military treats servicewomen. Denied equal treatment and training as men, nonetheless
the greatest danger that military women in Iraq and Afghanistan face is from their male peers and officers. More women there are the victims of sexual assault than of injuries from hazardous military duties. Reuters reported as far back as 1995, “Ninety percent of women under 50 who have served in the US military and who responded to a survey report being victims of sexual harassment, and nearly one-third of the respondents of all ages say they have been raped.”
Imagine volunteering for a dangerous, exhausting, difficult job no one else wants—and being rewarded with atrocious treatment just for being a gal. Read Van Ness's whole post; it's horrifying, but worth your time.
May 14, 2008 10:12
Professor fails students, loses job
From InsideHigherEd.com:
Who is to blame when students fail? If many students fail — a majority even — does that demonstrate faculty incompetence, or could it point to a problem with standards?
Here's what allegedly happened: Steven D. Aird lost his job teaching biology at Norfolk State University because he failed too many students. To make things murkier:
A subtext of the discussion is that Norfolk State is a historically black university with a mission that includes educating many students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The university suggests that Aird — who is white — has failed to embrace the mission of educating those who aren’t well prepared. But Aird — who had backing from his department and has some very loyal students as well — maintains that the university is hurting the very students it says it wants to help. Aird believes most of his students could succeed, but have no incentive to work as hard as they need to when the administration makes clear they can pass regardless.
Yikes. According to The Virginian-Pilot, 22 of the 24 students in his biochemistry course got Ds, Fs or dropped the class during his first semester of teaching in 2002. School officials told him his pass-fail rate was "unacceptable." But here's what else seems unacceptable: according to U.S. Education Department data, only 12% of Norfolk State students graduate in four years, and only 30% graduate in six years. As for the school, spokeswoman Sharon Hoggard tells InsideHigherEd, “Something is wrong when you cannot impart your knowledge onto students. We are a university of opportunity, so we take students who are underprepared, but we have a history of whipping them into shape. That’s our niche.”
Should a teacher lose a job because he refuses to pass underperforming students? Or is his abominable pass-fail rate a result of his lousy teaching? Hard to say. But I suspect the problem is bigger than this one guy and his biochem class.
May 13, 2008 9:00
In the U.S., maternity leave isn't a right
"So when exactly are you going on leave?" That's a question I'm getting a lot these days from managers and colleagues. That's usually followed by: "...and you're coming back when?"
I don't have an answer yet. I'm 35 weeks pregnant, and most people, according to my doctor, stop working at about 36 weeks. But I'm squatting in a management job for one more week, and then I have a couple of writing assignments I'd like to complete before pushing off. As for post-baby leave, I'll have to weigh many factors in deciding when to come back to work, including finances, health and childcare.
But this I recognize: pondering the length of my maternity leave is a luxury. In our country, taking a paid leave from work after delivering a child is not at all a right. No law mandates that an employer must allow a woman paid time off from her job. The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees workers at larger companies 12 weeks off, but that time is unpaid. Notes the Economic Policy Institute (bolds mine),
In a selection of 19 countries with comparable per capita income, the United States provides the fewest maternity leave benefits in both length of leave and paid time off (see chart). This is considered separate from any disability insurance for which one may qualify. In fact, the United States falls two weeks short of the International Labor Organization's basic minimum standard of at least 14 weeks general leave. It is also the only country not to guarantee some amount of leave with income.
Economic Policy Institute
Maternity leave is a hot topic on a lot of working-mommy blogs, including this one on WSJ.com. But it's mostly an argument confined to those of us lucky enough to hold professional, salaried positions where the main worry is about how the length of absence will impact our careers. What's interesting, though, is that even in countries that mandate paid leave, moms (and dads) fuss over the same thing. In the U.K., according to SmallBusiness.co.uk,
Research commissioned by Citrix Online shows that there are still concerns over government plans to extend parental, leave and parents and employers would prefer to introduce flexible working options. Parents also voiced worries over government plans to extend maternity leave from 39 to 52 weeks and give fathers the right to up to 26 weeks paternity leave with statutory pay, if the mother returns to work. Almost half of all dads (46 per cent) and 44 per cent of mums believe that taking extended leave would negatively impact their career.
Your thoughts? What's an appropriate length for maternity leave? Should the government force all employers to offer some paid leave? How long did you take off, and why?
May 12, 2008 2:12
Are stay-at-home moms worth more?
Salary.com released its annual Mother's Day findings on what it thinks moms ought to be paid. (Figure out your own worth on the site's Mom Calculator.) From its release:
For 2008, Salary.com determined that the time mothers spend performing the 10 most popular "Mom job functions" would equate to an annual cash compensation of $116,805 for a Stay-at-Home Mom and $68,405 for a Working Mom, down from last years calculations of $138,094 and $85,938.
Whoa. Stay-at-home moms merit more pay than working moms? How'd that compute? The website says it used proprietary software and these parameters:
The job titles that best matched a mom's definition of her work in both countries are (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, laundry machine operator, computer operator, psychologist, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive officer and janitor.
And:
The primary driver of mom's six-figure salary, however, remains the amount of overtime worked. This year, mom's overtime averaged 54.4 hours per week. According to the Salary.com survey, Stay-at-Home Moms work a 94.4 hour "workweek" - over half her time spent on the job is overtime. The Working Moms reported an average 54.6 hour "mom work week" in addition to their paying jobs.
Okay. I have no problem with the job of mom being highly valued, if only by some b.s. survey designed to garner the website some press. But what sticks in my craw is the devaluing of working moms and dads. We too perform those other roles—housekeeper, cook, shrink—but on top of schlepping off to bring home the bacon. I just can't figure out how a stay-at-home parent pulls more overtime than a working one. Someone help me out with this math.
May 12, 2008 11:56
In job interviews, the handshake counts
Hair combed? Check. Suit lapel free of latté dribble? Check. Resumé in some form of English? Check. Firm, strong handshake? Uh.
For many women and Donald Trump, the weird practice known in the Western world as the handshake is something we never master. Who cares, right? A friendly wave will do in most situations—and what with business going global, we may as well learn the art of the bow. But according to new research by University of Iowa business professor Greg Stewart, the grip is key to winning over a job interviewer.
"We've always heard that interviewers make up their mind about a person in the first two or three minutes of an interview, no matter how long the interview lasts," said Stewart, associate professor of management and organizations in the Tippie College of Business. "We found that the first impression begins with a handshake that sets the tone for the rest of the interview."
The as-yet-unpublished research was conducted with 98 students in the business school who were participating in mock job interviews with representatives from Iowa City–area businesses. The students also met at various times during their interviews with five trained handshake raters (!) who introduced themselves and shook hands—but otherwise did not participate in the interviews.
Stewart said the researchers found that those students who scored high with the handshake raters were also considered to be the most hireable by the interviewers.
Why is the handshake important?
Stewart suspects it's because a handshake is one of the few things that provides a glimpse into the person's individuality during the first few minutes of an interview. "Job seekers are trained how to act in a job interview, how to talk, how to dress, how to answer questions, so we all look and act alike to varying degrees because we've all been told the same things," he said. "But the handshake is something that's perhaps more individual and subtle, so it may communicate something that dress or physical appearance doesn't."
May 12, 2008 10:59
TIME 100 party gets someone fired
From TVNewser:
A 24-year-old Fox News Channel production assistant was fired this morning for something she said during the red carpet arrivals at the Time 100 Gala last night.
Insiders tell us the assistant, identified as Jennifer Locke, was on assignment with a camera crew to cover the entertainment angle of the event. When Sen. John McCain walked by, the assistant said, "I voted for you in the primary, you're going to win."McCain was overheard saying to her, "You're not supposed to reveal that." Locke apparently continued to explain that she is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran.
Insiders who were at the event were surprised and shocked to hear the disclosure, which was recorded on videotape. A Fox News insider called it "journalistically unacceptable." An FNC spokesperson would not comment on the personnel matter but did confirm Locke is no longer with the company, where she'd worked for a couple of years.
May 12, 2008 10:10
Best gifts for Mother's Day
On Sunday morning, I got:
• to sleep in;
• a dozen red roses;
• a card featuring a drawing of a mama rabbit vacuuming raisins from the carp—hey, those aren't raisins!
• a message inside the card from my three-year-old featuring noun, verb and accurate punctuation;
• a big box of Godiva truffles.
I'm not sure how it came to be that moms across America receive this standard—if lovely—lineup of gifts on Mother's Day. As for what moms actually want, Parenting magazine polled readers on its website and found that 72% want "a self-cleaning house" (those raisins don't vacuum themselves).
Too bad dads think different. Check out this list of Top 10 Mother's Day gifts, according to AskMen.com. Perfume? A heart pendant from Macy's? A Monet print? What am I, a decor-challenged undergrad in a cinderblock dorm room? No. 2 is a watch, and No. 1: diamond earrings.
Fellas...seriously. We can buy our own earrings. Just scrub the lasagne pan, and we're yours for another year.
May 9, 2008 2:52
The meaning of my tattoo
I've been thinking a lot lately about life. I am not saying this to sound deep. I am many things, but I am not deep. I say many things, and few of them are deep. I have many thoughts, and most are shallower than a puddle of Kool-Aid in a desert.
I think about life because it is the name of the magazine section that I will be editing for another week. I think about life because, in another few weeks, I will be giving it. Most of all I think about it because the person who gave me life is clinging to hers, and I hope that my willing it means my mom will cling for long enough to see her eleventh grandchild.
You can probably tell that the approach of Mother's Day this year is making me a bit wobbly. Yesterday, the obstetrician asked how I was doing, and I burst out crying. I tried to bail on the spa-and-brunch day my sisters are organizing because I couldn't handle the logistics.
Way back in one of the dinosaur eras, when I graduated from college, I got a very small tattoo of a Japanese character. Today I see kanji on the napes and biceps of all manner of non-Asians, but back then, the Indian dude in the second-floor Chinatown tattoo parlor had to peer carefully at the character I'd written out. As a result, the calligraphy kind of sucks. I'm not at all sure why I chose it, but the character is translated as life. If I thought more about it, it might have occurred to me that it could be interpreted as some sort of tacit support for the anti-abortion movement. It's not even an attractive character. It looks like a house with a slanty roof and a broken front door.
I've got nothing particularly deep to add to this story, except to say happy Mother's Day, friends. We're here because someone bothered to give us life. You can't return the favor, at least not to her. But you could pony up a box of See's.
May 9, 2008 10:13
TIME 100 gala: I so didn't go
For five years now, my employer has thrown an all-star, red-carpet, glitterati-packed extravaganza to honor the people it selects for its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Last year, I attended for the first time, and posted these pics. There were stars! Up close! Tina Fey, Matt Lauer, the guy who dived onto the subway tracks to save a stranger! Cocktails! Canapés! Grubby journalists in black tie!
This year, I patiently awaited my invite. And waited. And waited. Finally, on Wednesday, it arrived via e-mail. It said:
I'm pleased to let you know that you're invited to the Time 100 gala on Thursday. This has turned into a hot ticket, and it has become more difficult for Time staff to get into the cocktail reception, let alone the seated dinner. This invitation is for the cocktail reception and for dinner, though not in the main room. This dinner will be served in the atrium and it will be possible from there to watch the proceedings on a big screen. And of course you're also invited to stay for the after-party drinks in the same space.
Okay, so it was a qualified invite. An "all right, all right, you can come, but only if you stay in the background and don't eat too many wontons." Also, the event was on Thursday. As in the following day.
If you're invited to mill in the general vicinity of Robert Downey Jr., Mariah Carey and John McCain, some of you might drop everything and go. But weeknights out take meticulous planning when they involve arranging the care of a little one. Not to mention the black-tie outfitting of an enormously pregnant woman to whom Angelina Jolie has not loaned her personal stylist.
Still, I thought about it. The truth is I love a party. And there are few occasions in my work life to hang with my colleagues, whom I enjoy seeing scrubbed clean of ink and fatigue. My "mom," Marlene Kahan of the American Society of Magazine Editors, needed a date. I sent a "maybe" RSVP.
Here was the automatically generated response:
Thank you for your interest in the TIME 100 Gala. The Gala is at capacity. If you have not already responded, we will place your name on a wait list. If you have additional questions, please feel free to call us at 212-522-xxxx and leave you name, phone number and brief message, we will return your call as soon as possible.
!!! Oh, and:
Thank you and have a great day.
I was disinvited from my own employer's party! How about that! So you'll have to read MediaBistro's FishbowlNY instead for an account of who all was there. I wasn't one of them.
(Oh, all right, an addendum to appease my bosses: in truth I didn't remember the gala was coming up until I saw colleagues from far-flung locales convening at headquarters this week. And my staff status would have overridden the disinvitation. And besides my childcare and wardrobe issues, I had a doctor's appointment I couldn't move. But the rest is true.)
May 7, 2008 2:45
Giving birth in the Port Authority
When one is commuting to work while hugely pregnant, one thinks about these things. Especially because it happened just yesterday (no, not to me, you ninny: you think I'd blog about something as cool as that without photographic evidence?):
A Massachusetts woman traveling to Oklahoma City with her three young children has given birth to a fourth child during rush hour at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.
All's well that ended well:
A spokesman says the baby girl was delivered about 5:52 p.m. near Gate 24 in the south wing.
Now, you might ask what a nine-months-preggo lady was doing in cross-country transit—with her three little ones, no less. I would, too, except that I was very nearly in similar straits. Up until a few days ago, I thought I'd be traveling to Japan right now to visit with my mother in hospice. But she emerged from her morphine haze in time to reach through the phone and smack me upside the head. She didn't agree with me that giving birth on a transpacific flight would make for a great blog posting.
"But Mama," I said. "Someone gave birth in the bus station yesterday. At least Japan Airlines has towels."
So this is me apologizing in advance for what will likely be a boring posting from a New Jersey hospital just lousy with clean towels.
May 7, 2008 10:37
Tough choice for moms: less pay vs. less time
In the Cullen household, Mother's Day is known as Sunday. As in the day Mommy does the laundry, the food-shopping and cooks a big batch of something we eat until we're sick of and throw out the following Sunday. As in the day Daddy plays a matinee and sometimes a concert. Oh, I bet I'll get a funny card or two, and my sisters are plotting a way to get us out for a kid-free lunch. But Sundays are precious in my work-jammed week, and the laundry doesn't do itself.
A new CareerBuilder survey says 43% of working moms would take a pay cut if it meant they could spend more time with their kids. Over a third would be willing to give up 10% or more. And 51% of working moms whose significant other also works say they'd leave their job if the S.O. made enough money to support the entire family.
Me, it's not so simple. It's not so much that I need more face time with my kid and kid-to-be. There's only so long one can keep up one's end of a running metaphysical dialogue on who's more scared of who, the lion or the bear. It's just that I need more time. More time to look at color swatches for my little girl's new room. More time to clear the yard of basset poo. More time to pay bills, sort photos, try out that new recipe for Thai noodles.
CareerBuilder says "more than 25% of working moms are dissatisfied with their work/life balance." It suggests these five steps toward a better balance; the second one might not have occurred to you, while the others seem to presume working moms lack working brain cells (no, really, we're trying not to slow down or share responsibilities).
1. Sell your boss on a more flexible work schedule - Start by contacting your human resources department or consulting the employee manual to determine whether your company has a telecommuting program already in place. If one exists, you can build your proposal on actual policies.
2. Keep one calendar – Unfortunately it's often easier to cancel on your child than on a potential client. Scheduling business and family obligations on the same calendar will lessen your chances of forgetting a
personal commitment when you're planning work activities. It will also help you avoid over-scheduling and alert you if your commitments are unbalanced.3. Make time for family – Schedule activities for only your family on the weekends and when possible during the week. Also, try to schedule a few minutes each day to call your children to talk about their school day as well as plans for the evening.
4. Slow down - Stop and enjoy the activities and people around you, both inside and outside the office. Whenever possible, schedule time between meetings and leave your evenings free so you can refuel throughout and at the end of each day. Resist the urge to bring too many projects home over the weekends.
5. Share responsibilities - No matter how efficient you are, there is only so much you can accomplish in one day. If you're a manager, make sure that you are delegating appropriately instead of trying to do everything yourself. Doing so will reduce your workload and help your staff build their skills.
May 7, 2008 9:59
Is the slowdown forcing you back to work?
Here's an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal today: apparently,
The ailing economy is helping to ease the nursing shortage.
Why? Simple:
With house prices falling and the cost of gasoline and food rising, many nurses are going back to work, in some cases to make up for the income of a spouse who has lost a job. Hospitals say part-time nurses are taking on extra shifts. And nursing schools are seeing an increase in people applying for refresher courses on the ins and outs of modern hospitals. Some older nurses are putting off a planned retirement.
This made me wonder if the economic slowdown—note how I'm conceding to economists' strict (and Bush's delusional) definition of what is and isn't a recession—is forcing other moms back to work. Because, let's face it, the vast majority of nurses are women. I'm sure each has her personal reasons for halting work, but I wager many, like my sister, did so to stay home and raise children. If her husband lost his job, you bet your scrubs she'd be back in a pediatric cancer ward in no time.
That's where nurses are in luck; their skills are in such demand that they can unpause their careers practically anytime. What about you? Any stay-at-home parents forced to return to jobs by the price of Wonderbread? Or part-timers going full-time? Freelancers going 9-to-5?
May 6, 2008 1:33
Business cards are a waste of paper
Look. I'm Japanese. This statement I've just made is liable to lose me my citizenship. Business cards, or meishi, as they're called back home, are a vital tool in the business world there. There's a whole etiquette to how you hand them out (with both hands), who gets whose first (the most senior guys, of course), how you receive them (bowing, as if this piece of stiff paper were a deity).
I thought about this whole ridiculous charade today as I read this piece on WSJ.com about creating biz cards that accurately reflect who you are and what you do. Worthy advice, to be sure, especially if you're between jobs and/or a freelancer. The article says,
Whether you're starting over or starting out, you need a business card that makes a memorable first impression in today's tight employment market. How can jobless older applicants and young graduates devise cards that are successful marketing tools? There is no single formula for winning with cards, of course.
Fair enough. But then I thought: why, exactly, do we persist in this arcane practice in a day and age when all of our contact information is digital? Again, back to my home country: for years now, new business contacts have whipped out a cell phone upon introduction and entered your name, phone number and other pertinent info. Our cell phones or PDAs are our Rolodexes now. So why do we still carry around the little pieces of dead tree?
You tell me. Business cards: thumbs up or down?
May 6, 2008 11:02
Are you willing to take a lower salary?
Another finding in the Jobfox survey below:
...the professions in highest demand among employers found that some median salary ranges being asked for by job seekers dipped $10,000, compared to a month ago. Median salary ranges demanded by job seekers fell for workers seeking jobs in:
Software Design/Development, with a median salary range of $95,000 to $105,000 in April to $85,000 to $95,000 in May.Product Management, with the median salary range falling to $85,000 to $95,000 in May.
Networking/System Administration, dipping to $65,000 to $75,000 in May.
Finance, shrinking to $65,000 to $75,000.
Government Contracts Administration, settling for $55,000 to $65,000.
If you're on the job market now, have you ratcheted down your salary expectations? By how much? In what fields?
May 6, 2008 10:22
Job-hunting? You're in luck if you're in...
...sales. Or accounting. Or software design. So say the just-released results of a nationwide survey by Jobfox that identifies the jobs "in greatest demand by recruiters and other employer agents who use Jobfox to search for and find new or replacement workers." The survey reflects the latest in job trends, as the results were culled over the last 120 days, and also the median salaries based on job-candidate profiles.
Jobfox tallies the top 25 hottest jobs, but here I've pulled their top 10. Go to their web site for more. And liberal arts grads, don't despair: No. 10 is administrative assistant. You've all seen The Devil Wears Prada. It's a wonderful job.
1. Sales Representative/Business Development (U.S. median salary: $65-$75K): Focus on the typical full-sales cycle and business development including inside or outside sales.
2. Software Design/Development ($85-$95K): Design or development of software including architecture, userinterface design, applications, operating systems, device drivers, etc.
3. Accounting ($45-$55K): Accounting functions and processes within public or private organizations.
4. Accounting/Finance Executive ($65-$75K): Management or oversight of accounting/finance functions.
5. Networking/System Administration ($65-$75K): Installation and monitoring of computer networks including system administration roles.
6. Nursing ($35-$45K): Includes RNs, LPNs or nursing assistants at hospitals, residential facilities, private practices, home care, etc.
7. Project/Engagement Management ($85-$95K): Lifecycle project management from concept introduction to closeout.
8. Business Analysis, Software Implementation ($85-$95K): Management, configuration and optimization of custom software in a corporate environment or with a consulting firm.
9. Business Analysis, Research ($75-$85K): Collection and research that is turned into value-added information for organizations (includes work inside companies or with consulting firms).
10. Administrative Assistant ($35-$45K): Administrative and secretarial support of a department or individual (excludes Legal Administrative Assistant profession).
May 5, 2008 3:38
And the award for Mom of the Year goes to...
Among other things, Elizabeth Edwards is Mom of the Year.
...someone famous! With kids!
Just got a "VIP media invite" (because, you know, I'm all that) to the National Mother’s Day Council’s 30th Annual Outstanding Mother awards reception on May 8. I'm sorry to tell you that you didn't win. I don't think you were even considered, if you want me to be brutally frank. It's not that you're not outstanding enough. Or that you're not mom enough.
No. You're just not famous enough.
According to the press release, the 2008 honorees are...drumroll, please:
Elizabeth Edwards - Author, Attorney and Children’s AdvocateCaroline Kennedy – Vice Chair of NYC Fund for Public Schools
Vera Wang – Fashion Designer & CEO of Vera Wang, Inc.
Debbie Murtha – SVP Cosmetics, Macy’s Merchandising Group
Not to mention...
Joy Philbin, Mistress of Ceremonies - Television Talk Show Host and 2005 Outstanding Mother
"Past honorees," the release goes on to say, "have included Former First Lady Barbara Bush, Andrea Jung, Estee Lauder, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bobbie Brown, Katie Couric, Marie Osmond, Chris Evert, Meryl Streep, Reba McEntire, and many other outstanding mothers." See? All famous. All moms.
No one ever said motherhood was all about the trophies. Unless you count the macaroni tiara, construction-paper Valentine and the extra hour of sleep on Mother's Day.
May 5, 2008 11:00
In times of trouble, is HR your friend?
Over the past few years, my employer has imposed a few rounds of layoffs. During the run-up, we were encouraged to visit with our human resources department if we wanted to inquire about taking a package. We were assured absolute, air-tight, witness-protection-program secrecy if we chose to do so. Who needs our bosses knowing we're entertaining an exit?
Quite a few of my colleagues did visit with HR. Then a funny thing happened. A few of them found that some management types dropped by to nonchalantly express their appreciation of the staffer's work.
Now, you have to understand my workplace culture to truly comprehend how completely weird that is. Where I work, bosses do not randomly drop in to tell you you're fab. My colleagues suspected an HR leak to management. I don't think they were being paranoid.
I bring this up because we're squarely in recessionary times again, with more American workers sure to be hit with layoffs and offers of early retirement. In these times of trouble, is HR your friend? Or can you ever trust a department that, after all, reports to the same master?
May 5, 2008 9:00
Maria Shriver: "Where's my job packet?"
My colleague Vanessa Kaneshiro just produced this terrific interview that our boss, Rick Stengel, conducted with Maria Shriver. It's part of our 10 Questions series; we compile questions for notable people on Time.com, conduct the interview before an audience and then print the answers in the magazine. Who told you TIME was old school? We're omnimedia, baby.
Anyway, check out the interview with Ms. Shriver. I love the part where she talks about what she tells her children: that she loves them for who they are right now—not who they'll become. "They don't need to achieve anything for me to love them," she says. "They don't need to go to a fancy college or become president of the United States." In most households, that last would just be a turn of phrase; in hers, achieving higher office must really feel like part of the game plan.
The funniest bit is when she talks about how she adjusted to her role as First Lady of California. Of course, there's no "job packet" for that position, no orientation, no HR pep talk. When she arrived, she was seated in an office called Special Project of the Governor, and told to evaluate Christmas decorations. Her response: "Are you kidding me?"
May 2, 2008 12:00
And the most adoption-friendly workplace is...
Every year, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption announces its picks for the most adoption-friendly employers. Here's what it says about its 2008 winner, Wendy's:
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Wendy's International, Inc. offers up to $23,300 in financial reimbursement and up to six weeks of paid leave for employees who adopt. Wendy's was among more than 50 companies who enhanced or established adoption benefits as a result of what they learned from the Foundation's first Best Adoption-Friendly Workplace list in 2007.
But wait a minute, you say. Dave Thomas was the founder of Wendy's. So isn't this award a little nepotistic?
Sure. But so what, I say. If the founder of your corporation was a strong advocate of a good cause, it makes sense that he imbued his company with his own values. (Thomas, in fact, grew up in the foster-care system.) I wrote about how more employers were helping workers adopt children by offering financial help, time off or employee networks in this article last year. It's an important benefit to the growing numbers of working parents who want to grow their families this way.
May 2, 2008 11:00
Show me your paystub, I'll show you mine
In this week's issue of TIME, I presented a modest proposal for the persisting problem of pay inequity. The piece begins:
I have no clue what my colleagues make. I suspect some earn more than I do and others take home less. Like most American workers, I consider my salary my own damn business. Turns out that could be a big mistake--at least in the opinion of a petite grandmother with an Alabama drawl.
The article centers on Lilly Ledbetter, whom you've already read about in this earlier post. When I spoke to her again last week, she was disappointed that her eponymous bill had failed to pass muster in the Senate—but still determined not to let the issue die.
My proposal:
What if employers made all employee salaries known? If you think about it, who is served by all the secrecy? Not you.
Read the article for the full argument. And do buy the issue, why dontcha. It's the TIME 100, you know. And spend some time on Time.com's fabulous web extravaganza. The biggest news: neither Rain nor Stephen Colbert won the Time.com public poll.
May 2, 2008 8:54
What to do when a colleague stinks
...and by that I mean an officemate who smells. Badly. Of body odor. Or Wal-Mart perfume. Or ambition.
In my husband's line of work, this is a serious issue. Not because classical musicians tend not to bathe, but because if you can't breathe, you can't play. In an opera or Broadway pit, someone who saunters in reeking of cologne is likely to cause a union-backed revolt.
Since I met him 800 years ago, I too stopped using perfume. And since I became pregnant 8,000 months ago, I too have become hypersensitive to scents. Riding the bus to work the other day, I looked up in time to see a woman across the aisle spritzing herself. In the bus! She was too far away for me to protest, and anyway, the damage was done. But then the lady who sat down next to me pulled out a bottle of nail polish, and it was on, baby.
"Excuse me," I said. "Please don't use that in here." She looked at me like I was insane. But then I looked back at her like I would chew her manicured hands off. She put the bottle away.
Lisa Belkin writes about people who are allergic to work in yesterday's New York Times. No punchline: many workers report that their workplaces trigger or heighten allergies, sometimes to a serious degree. This blog, BreatheFreeorDie, is written in passionate defense of the olfactorily sensitive. But others, like this blogger writing on the topic, feel this is one more example of the neurotic few dictating the individual rights of the masses.
What do you think? Should I suck it up when my officemate reeks? Or should all offices make like orchestra pits and ban the use of smelly potions and lotions?
May 1, 2008 1:14
Women can't excel at dangerous jobs unless they're allowed to try
Did anyone see this story in WaPo today? Ann Scott Tyson writes,
Pfc. Monica Brown cracked open the door of her Humvee outside a remote village in eastern Afghanistan to the pop of bullets shot by Taliban fighters. But instead of taking cover, the 18-year-old medic grabbed her bag and ran through gunfire toward fellow soldiers in a crippled and burning vehicle.
Brown won a Silver Star for her bravery. But she also lost her post.
Within a few days of her heroic acts, however, the Army pulled Brown out of the remote camp in Paktika province where she was serving with a cavalry unit -- because, her platoon commander said, Army restrictions on women in combat barred her from such missions.
These rules were apparently forged in 1992, and critics call them outmoded in today's wars. Her commander only assigned Brown the post because he had no other medic. Brown is one of two women to ever receive the Silver Star—likely because women aren't allowed to serve in dangerous positions.
Am I the only one thinking, okay, never mind her gender—she's 18! If the military is letting soldiers that age go into combat, who cares which toilet he or she uses? Anyway, is it right for women to be held back from combat?
About Work In Progress
Nina Subin
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen is a staff writer for TIME. She blogs about work. Why? Because TV was taken. Think of her as the grumpy colleague ranting by the water cooler.
More about the Author
Email her here:
lisa_cullen at timemagazine.com
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