Archive -- Career Center Blog

Archive: August 2008

Will we ever see mandatory paid sick days for all workers?

Last month I wrote a post about how the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee paid vacation days. I'm guessing you've also heard that our country's family-friendly workplace policies are sorely lacking compared with those offered...

August 25, 2008 | Posted by Michelle Goodman | 1 Comment

The secret to balance: Underspend, underachieve, and drop out?

BusinessWeek recently published an interesting piece about the steps some white-collar readers of the magazine have taken to keep their work out of their personal lives and lead a supposedly more balanced existence. Or as BW put it: "These are the...

August 21, 2008 | Posted by Michelle Goodman | Post a comment

Back to school -- on your employer?

I just received a press release from financial staffing firm Accountemps saying that 94 percent of the nation's 1,000 largest companies offer tuition reimbursement benefits to employees and 95 percent reimburse workers for other types of professional training programs. Of...

August 18, 2008 | Posted by Michelle Goodman | Post a comment

Not returning to work after maternity leave: A woman's prerogative or a way to game the system?

I was recently talking to a mother of two about how much maternity leave she received when she had her first child in her early twenties. At the time, she was an entry-level worker and barely scraping by financially. Ditto...

August 16, 2008 | Posted by Michelle Goodman | 1 Comment

New Cornell study: Stand by your man's crazy work schedule, even if it means abandoning your own career

Can you handle one more blog post about wives and husbands and kids and careers and stay-at-home parents? Because I can't resist mentioning this latest study on the topic. According to the study (courtesy of Cornell University's sociology department, and...

August 8, 2008 | Posted by Michelle Goodman | 1 Comment

Companies to home-based independent contractors: We don't trust you!

Sue Shellenbarger had an interesting (okay, disturbing) piece in the Wall Street Journal last week. Apparently one freelance job board (you can read which one in the WSJ article) and a couple of companies employing home-based call center workers (see...

August 6, 2008 | Posted by Michelle Goodman | 1 Comment

Is career ambition overrated? (and should you not taint your "passion" by turning it into a job?)

Chris Colin has a wonderful "On the Job" column in the San Francisco Chronicle today about forsaking ambition and simply treating work as a means to an end (i.e., eating). In it, Colin profiles a thirtysomething guy who lucked into a series of ample-paying,...

August 4, 2008 | Posted by Michelle Goodman | Post a comment