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 Advocate

Caroline 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.

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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?

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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?"

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