Sentinel staff writer Harry Wessel writes that there is job discrimination for those sporting tattoos.

Russell Parrish would like a better job. He manages his father-in-law's small restaurant, but other prospective employers won't even give him applications, let alone interviews. By his count, he's been turned down for more than two dozen jobs in the last couple of months, and he's pretty sure he knows why.

"It comes down to skin color," said Parrish, 29, who has dozens of tattoos that cover his arms, hands, torso and neck. "I want a career; I want same the shot as everybody else."

He reports receiving literally hundreds of supporting calls from the tattoo community, though he acknowledges having little luck in getting legislators or government officials to listen to his complaints of discrimination.

His complaints have merit on one level, employment lawyers agree. There is no doubt people with visible tattoos suffer workplace discrimination, "but it's legal discrimination," said Gary Wilson, a Winter Park employment lawyer.

Dawn Anfuso for DailyBreeze.com thinks mentoring shouldn’t just be for American Idol competitors.

Last week, the country (or at least the country's youth) selected the latest American Idol.
It's amazing to watch the transformation of the young men and women in this competition. They enter as regular folks with raw talent, and leave as polished, coiffed stars.
Of course they get a little help with this journey. They've got voice coaches training their technique, professional music industry people selecting their songs and stylists making over their hair, faces and wardrobes.

Wouldn't it be nice if all of us got this kind of help in our jobs? Someone who could provide insight into office protocol, groom us for advancement and teach us how to handle sensitive situations at work?

Unfortunately, a recent Accountemps survey reveals that it's uncommon for new hires to be matched with mentors, either formally or informally, within their organizations.

"Mentoring is a valuable way to transfer wisdom, foster talent and promote best practices within a company," says Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps and author of Motivating Employees For Dummies. "The faster a business can help new employees get up to speed, the more quickly these professionals can begin contributing."

Blogging from the Huffington Post, Hannah Seligson asks, Should I Have Written a Career Guide Called "New Kid on the Job: Advice from the Trenches?"

The number of women in my graduating class outnumbered the men. And if my class was anything reflective of what the national statistics bear out, the women graduated with higher grade point averages.

So why, with all these doors swinging open, would I write a book, (published today) called New Girl on the Job: Advice from the Trenches?

Because, distressingly, young women's academic success is not translating into workplace parity. Last month, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) found that women one year out of college make 80 percent of what their male peers do. And this month, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that white males from the class of 2007 are out-pacing their female counterparts when it comes to having a full-time job upon graduation.

Tory Johnson, the CEO of Women for Hire and one of the career experts I interviewed for New Girl on the Job puts it like this: "It's very easy for young women to get stuck in support roles...After a year or so you become pegged and it's more difficult for your employer to see you in a different light."

Ilene H. Lange, president of Catalyst, the leading research and advisory organization working with businesses to expand opportunities for women at work, attributes the glaring absence of women at the top to the fact that women are two and half times more likely to be channeled into staff jobs like Human Resources and communication than into operating roles where they would be generating revenue and managing profit and loss. The revised career calculus should be to use an assistant position as a springboard to bigger opportunities, not as a place to incubate.

Stephanie Armour reports that workaholics have long been a part of the workforce. But new research shows the number of these extreme workers is growing, driven to long hours on the job because of new technology, globalization and today's intensified business pressures. Research is also providing new insight into who these workaholics are: men who endure large amounts of travel and have responsibility for profits and loss.

"Extreme work is real. The technological age has exacerbated this problem beyond belief," says Ken Siegel, of Beverly Hills, Calif., president of The Impact Group, a group of psychologists who consult with the management of leading global companies. "You can take work into the shower or the bath. There's no escape. (Extreme workers) often feel like if they don't work like that, they'll fail or their performance will suffer. They focus externally on the next goal, the next task."

A study in the December issue of Harvard Business Review provided new information on the rise in workaholics: Of extreme job holders, 48 percent say they are working an average of 16.6 more hours per week than they did five years ago.

But there is debate among the mental-health community about how detrimental such extreme work is. Stress related to work can lead to heart disease and mental health problems such as depression, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Sun block. Beach umbrella. Laptop. Alan Fram for the Associated Press reports on a recent poll.

One in five people toted laptop computers on their most recent vacations, an AP-Ipsos poll released Friday said. Along with the 80 percent who said they brought along their cell phones, the survey shows going on vacation no longer means being out of the electronic loop.

Sizable numbers are interrupting their unwinding time to check in at the office and, even more so, to keep up with the social buzz.

About one in five said they did some work while vacationing, and about the same number checked office messages or called in to see how things were going, the poll showed. Twice as many checked their e-mail, while 50 percent kept up with other personal messages like voice mail.

The credit -- or culprit, depending on one's view -- is in part today's array of devices that can easily keep people digitally tethered to workplaces, friends and family. The electronic gear was most commonly brought along by younger people -- one in four below age 40 brought laptops, compared to 15 percent of those 50 to 64 and even less for older people.

Diane Brady for BusinessWeek Online asks GE: Still Holding Women Back?

Since coming to the top job at General Electric (NYSE:GE - News) in 2001, Jeffrey Immelt has basked in the aura of being today's man. He wants his businesses to help save the environment, he waxes eloquent about China and obscure markets in the Middle East, and he talks often about the necessity of diversity in the top ranks (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/11/06, "General Electric, the Immelt Way").

Now one of the company's top lawyers has slapped Immelt, GE, and a slew of other senior executives with a $500 million lawsuit that claims she--and other executive-level women at GE--are systematically discriminated against. Not only does the company underpay women in comparable jobs held by men, she says, but it promotes them at a slower rate and has failed to make any progress under Immelt's watch.

Boston’s NPR’s Tom Ashbrook, host of On Point, talks about keeping women at work.

It's been a long and winding road for women in the American workplace. First, they were frozen out or locked in the steno pool. Then came "liberation" with its open doors and glass ceilings. Then, a crisis of confidence over whether work and child-rearing could really co-exist.

Now, the new challenge is that of the era of "extreme work," when seventy-hour weeks and 24/7 demands can make work-life balance seem impossible. But we need the talents of women at top levels.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney of New York and the only woman on the Supreme Court have both vigorously responded to the U.S. Supreme Court's May 29 ruling against a woman's claims of gender-based pay discrimination by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

The court ruled against a female employee of the Akron, Ohio, company because she did not file her claim within a 180-day limit stipulated by current civil rights law. The decision is expected to uphold stringent time limits on claims based on race, sex, religion or national origin and limit opportunities for legal responses to discrimination.

In a biting oral dissent read from the bench, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called on Congress to enact legislation to correct the high court's "parsimonious reading" of pay inequity claims.
Ginsburg's words spurred Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney of New York--already outraged by news of the decision--to do just that.

Catalyst, the organization that studies, among other things, the progress of women in the workplace, released its "2006 Census of Women Corporate Officers, Top Earners, and Directors of the Fortune 500" report last month, featuring some interesting results, writes Selena Maranjian for The Motley Fool.

Why does this topic matter to investors? Well, as I've reported before, some studies suggest that having more women on a board of directors can lead to better governance. A previous Catalyst study, in fact, found, "the group of companies with the highest representation of women on their senior management teams had a 35% higher ROE [return on equity] and a 34% higher [total return to shareholders] than companies with the lowest women's representation."

Paul Maidment for Forbes.com reports on America’s Jobs

When we first looked at America's best- and worst-paying jobs a year back, we asked the question, "Why do financially pushy parents want their children to marry doctors?" Our answer then: Because, as Willie Sutton said of banks, that is where the money is. Still is.
The medical profession continues to dominate the top end of our list of the 25 best- and worst-paying jobs in America. Anesthesiologists have flipped places with surgeons to take the top spot, but the next eight places are firmly in the healing hands of various sorts of specialist practitioners.

At the other end of the scale are jobs in restaurants, hotels and leisure businesses. The lowest paid of all? People who cook, prepare and serve in fast-food joints, followed by dishwashers, busboys and the folk who show you to your seat in coffee-shops and the like.

Hannah Seligson writes that employers value youthful energy but not childish behavior that often goes with it.

You might be able to recite Proust from memory and hold forth on how migrant laborers are changing the demographics of the Chinese workforce, but your intellectual prowess is only one component of professional success. A host of other challenges await, such as learning how to decode the social mores of the workplace, fi guring out how to act and speak like a professional, and otherwise discovering how to get by and get ahead in a new environment.

There are no do-overs when it comes to making a first impression. And unfortunately, just putting on a swanky new suit doesn’t make you a professional. In practice, the process takes time, some good strategies and a certain degree of faking it.

Stanley Bing, Fortune contributor, says bosses aren't the only looneys in the workplace.

In the previous issue of this magazine there was a tasty excerpt from my new book, "Crazy Bosses," which investigates the irrationality of executives and offers some solutions to their care and feeding. When I consider this matter, which possibly afflicts everyone on the planet who does not work for Warren Buffett, I find a tiny grain of sand in the oyster of my self-possession. In this small space I will attempt to transform that morsel of agitation into a pearl of wisdom.

The problem is this: For years I have been considering the bad behavior of people in positions of authority. This is not only fun but also exorcises the anger, frustration and hurt feelings that roil within each of us against our boss at one point or another. While doing so, however, I may have turned a blind eye to one of the most important causes of managerial madness: the crazy employee

Susan G. Hauser, for Fortune Small Business, offers tips how to market your business online.

When Mark Bitterman, who calls himself a "selmelier," was trying to pump up sales at his gourmet salt shop, he knew standard marketing techniques such as radio ads and direct mail wouldn't be enough.

Seeking to capture the imagination of educated, adventurous gourmand prospective customers, he instead set out to draw more people to his Web site and his Portland, Ore., shop by writing an informative, entertaining and provocative blog, "Salt News."

Bitterman knows that people, including reporters, visit both the site and the blog, and many eventually come through the doors to see the 60 or so varieties of salt.

"You can't tell if it gets you new traffic or if it just shapes the expectations of those who come to the shop," he adds.

There are probably as many varieties of marketing a business and increasing sales as there are versions of high-end salt. But you can't expect to compete as a small business today without choosing from a growing arsenal of online marketing tools.

Jim Puzzanghera, for the LA Times, reports a media policy group's study finds a lack of diversity in who holds radio station licenses.

Women and minorities are largely absent from radio station ownership, thanks to a surge in media consolidation.

A public-interest group study made that case Tuesday, arguing that the groups were woefully underrepresented as radio stations increasingly are swept up by big chains headed by white males.

The findings, unveiled in a conference call by a group that included feminist Gloria Steinem and the two Democratic members of the Federal Communications Commission, sparked women's groups, minority activists and Democrats to urge federal officials to refrain from further relaxing restrictions on ownership of broadcast stations by large companies.

The FCC is considering changes to its media ownership rules, and opponents of further consolidation have complained at hearings about a lack of diversity among station owners.

"Women and minorities have been systematically cut off from media ownership," said FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps. "It's not that they're riding in the back of the bus … they're not even on the bus."

(Reuters) - Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday that it will shut down its stock research and trading business, in the insurer's latest pullback from a rocky 26-year stay on Wall Street.

The company said it is closing down Prudential Equity Group's offices and trading operations in nine U.S. cities as well as in London, Zurich, Paris and Tokyo. Prudential dropped research coverage immediately and said 400 employees will be terminated as operations are wound down during the quarter ending June 30.

"Prudential's strategy is to be in businesses where we have significant scale," said Prudential spokeswoman Theresa Miller. "The research and trading markets are really competitive, really challenging, and are not an area where we've been able to achieve that scale or success for our clients, for our shareholders and certainly our employees."

(Reuters) - Worker productivity grew at a slower pace than initially estimated in the first quarter, driving up labor costs and reinforcing concerns about inflation.

The Labor Department said on Wednesday that nonfarm productivity, a measure of how much any given worker can produce in an hour, rose at a 1 percent annualized pace in the quarter after a 2.1 percent fourth-quarter advance.

A month ago, the department had estimated productivity grew at a 1.7 percent rate.

On the labor front, U.S. employers announced plans in May to eliminate 71,115 jobs, up 32 percent from May 2006 when job cuts totaled 53,716.

It was the second consecutive month in which job cuts increased from the year earlier period, according to the monthly job-cut report released on Wednesday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

Gerald Skoning for the National Law Journal provides examples of workplace wackiness, from a family-leave hoax to a profitable panic attack, read the top ten here.

Richard Conlyn reports on a study that finds real wages and buying power are down from 30 years ago.

American men in their 30s today, on average, are making 12 percent less than their fathers' generation did, according to a study released by The Economic Mobility Project.

The report states that men in their 30s in 1974 had a median income of $40,000 in modern dollars, compared to men in 2004, who made an average income of $35,000.

"The American dream has been premised on this bedrock principle that each generation will do better than the one that came before," said John Morton, director of Pew's Economic Mobility Project.

Morton and his colleagues are looking for the answer to what is driving these economic trends. Future studies will address possible factors such as globalization and changing family structures.

"The crisis is growing, and factors like divorce and inflation have played a role in the decline of income for today's working man," Pinal Modi, accounting major, said.

"There are several factors to consider when looking at this study. Along with the convergence of women in the workplace, there is an impact and change in the economy with the influx of immigrants that are in the workplace today," said Robert Mead, Cal State Fullerton professor of economics.

"The demographics have changed. Women are more open and there are more stay-at-home dads and that makes a difference in these findings," said Sagnika Sen, CSUF professor of information systems.

The UN News Center reports on a new study by the United Nations labour agency finds that more than one in five workers around the world – over 600 million people – are working “excessively” long hours.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 22 per cent of the global workforce are still working more than 48 hours a week, “often merely to make ends meet.”

The study, Working Time Around the World: Trends in working hours, laws and policies in a global comparative perspective, spotlights working time in over 50 countries, and for the first time explores the implications for working time policies in developing and transition countries.

“The good news is that progress has been made in regulating normal working hours in developing and transition countries, but overall the findings of this study are definitely worrying, especially the prevalence of excessively long hours,” said Jon C. Messenger, Senior Research Officer for the ILO’s Conditions of Work and Employment Programme and a co-author of the study.

Sue Davis, for Workers World, writes, In a 5-4 decision on May 29, the Supreme Court ruled that it didn’t matter that supervisor Lilly M. Ledbetter had over the course of 20 years been paid less than her male peers. What mattered was a technicality. She hadn’t filed her case (Ledbetter v. Goodyear) with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 180 days of the first time the discrimination occurred.

In 1998 Ledbetter, the only woman among 16 supervisors at the same management level, discovered she was being paid as much as 40 percent less than the men, even those with less seniority. Though she started at the same salary, she received smaller and smaller raises between 1979 and 1998.

No wonder there’s been a firestorm of reaction against the reactionary decision. Groups like the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Women’s Law Center and the National Organization for Women have all denounced the decision for severely limiting all workers’ legal options.

Meanwhile business groups are clinking champagne glasses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Chamber Litigation Center hailed the decision as a “victory” because corporations will now be protected from “employees trying to dredge up stale pay claims.”

Carrie Napoleon, Post-Tribune correspondent, looks at how office design has changed over the years.

For years women entrepreneurs and managers have been taking their place in the business community and now their presence is influencing how the workplace looks and functions.
Tib Schultz, owner of Tib Office in Crown Point, said the influence by women entrepreneurs can be felt in the office furniture industry. Whether as owner of their own business or as a key decision-maker for a company, woman are taking charge when it comes to how an office comes together.

Schultz said he has seen a dramatic change in the way offices look during the past 21 years he has been selling and installing office furniture.

Certified interior designer Phylis Butler Mamula, ASID, owner of Designtech in Hammond, specializes in office environments. "In the case of professional women, it's a natural instinct to want people to be comfortable in your environment," Butler Mamula said. That means softer woods like maple, birch and cherry, a comfy sofa or seat for guests and furniture with storage and the potential to hide office work.

"You're spending so much time in your office it becomes your environment. You want to feel at home want to be comfortable there," she said.

Of those responding to the Business Journal's most recent online survey, opinion was roughly split over whether their office leadership reflects enough diversity.

Of the 132 responses to the question, "How diverse is your office leadership?," 49 percent answered by saying either, "neither enough minorities nor enough women," or "not enough minorities." Another 6 percent checked the answer, "not enough women."

The remaining 43 percent answered by saying, "diverse enough."

The poll ran between May 30-June 5. Here's a sampling of voter comments, which were made anonymously.

"Attempts are being made, but still not diverse enough."

"I think our company is run only by white men."

"We need more women in management, along with comparable pay. The 1950s model is dead. Women work, pay bills, raise the kids and must have (pay) equal to men."

Health care is the second-fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy, employing more than 12 million workers, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Women make up nearly 80 percent of the health care work force, and increasingly they’re moving into the executive ranks.

Julie Vincent for Business Journal writes how women are forging a path in health care management.

Like many women, Riverview Hospital CEO Patricia Fox got her start in health care as a nurse. She served as vice president for patient care services at Wishard Health Services before coming to Riverview.

Fifty-six percent of women in health care management, but only 31 percent of men, have previous experience as clinicians, according to the American College of Healthcare Executives.

“My personal barrier was getting past the image I had of myself as a nurse, which was clinically focused, to one of being business-focused,” Fox said. “I worked very hard to learn the business side of things and understand the cultural difference in the two worlds. It takes time to build the reputation of being business-focused.” Fifty percent of Riverview’s senior leadership team are women.

Beverly Fortune, for Long Island Press, writes about growing old in the workplace.

If youth is the advantage that some corporations crave, they should keep in mind that being young is a condition that won’t last. Everybody gets old.

Valentina Janek, founding member of the Long Island Breakfast Club, knows firsthand how cruel growing older in the workplace can be. "It used to be job stability was good. It’s not now," she says.

The victim of a corporate downsizing, Valentina embarked on a long journey to find another job she was qualified for. Along the way, she met three other unemployed 50-somethings, and in 2006, they formed the Long Island Breakfast Club, an organization that provides advocacy, support, career counseling and referrals for job seekers 40 and older. The club’s mission statement is, "Experience Counts!"

"We have almost 20 people in the club now," Valentina says. "We’re all successful and want to help others. There are mentors in the group and people who need to get jobs."

Going on an interview is stressful enough, says Valentina. She should know: It took 26 interviews and two years to find the right job for her. During the process, she maintains, "You are being interviewed by people less qualified than you." And, to add insult to injury, Valentina says, "seven out of ten interviewers don’t call you back."

Long weekends take the place of long vacations, reports Stephanie Armour for USA TODAY.

The two-week vacation is fast disappearing. Instead, employees are using their vacation days to extend weekends and take shorter breaks from the office.
The shift is being blamed partly on rising gas prices as well as mounting pressure for workers to be available to clients around the clock. And more dual-income couples are finding it difficult to coordinate vacation schedules due to work demands.

Only 14% of Americans plan to take a two-week vacation in 2007, down from 16% in 2006, according to a new study by Harris Interactive for Expedia.com, an online travel site. One-third of workers do not always use all their vacation days.

Lis Wiehl for Fox News looks at working women who decide to keep their maiden name.

Traditional social mores and values dictate that women should adopt their husbands’ surnames upon marriage. Women were once considered property and changing thelast name reflected this. Although not true anymore in the legal or social sense, name changing symbolically still reflects unity and commitment. Lucy Stone, a prevalent antislavery activist and woman suffragist, became the first woman on American record to not change her surname upon marriage in 1855. Now, Lucy Stone’s name continues to be synonymous with the movement against name change. In the mid-1920s the Lucy Stone League was formed, a committee dedicated to name change equality for men and women. The organization likens name change to certain prisons where prisoners are given a number instead of being called by their names.

Although many of us may not take this idea as far as the Lucy Stone League, questions of identity may be of importance when deciding whether or not to change your name after marriage. In a recent study by University of Florida Professor Diana Boxer, one woman expressed dismay at losing part of her ethnic heritage by changing her last name. The results of the study indicate that many women are concerned about the confusion their kids may encounter when mom has a different last name, and also that women who are in professional fields are less likely to change their names.

The results are not surprising. As women began to assume a more professional role in the workplace in the 70s and 80s, the number of women who kept their maiden names also increased. If I had to guess the reason behind the upswing, I’d say that women began marrying later in life, allowing more time for career and finding they have “made a name for themselves” in their respective professions. But, like bell-bottoms and aviator sunglasses, most trends come back around and women are once again beginning to adopt their husband’s names. Statistics now show that roughly 90 percent of all married women take on their partner’s surname — even though women are marrying even later in life.

Dr. Nancy D. O'Reilly writes about job stress and burnout: the equal opportunity destroyer.

Jane has years of experience as a company executive, a demanding position that requires her to travel and manage multiple projects and deadlines.

These challenges often leave Jane feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. She admits that she is not handling the job pressures well, and is calling in sick and missing days on the job. In fact, going to work is increasingly hard and her stress has become a chronic issue. She feels tired all the time. Her acute stress is painful and she has not found ways to discharge it. Jane is in danger of burning out.

For many people, the phenomenon called "burnout" is a typical stress reaction. Simply put, burnout means a worker has lost motivation and job performance has declined; it can lead to termination or leaving the job. Its effects need to be dealt with immediately to prevent valuable, well-trained, experienced workers from walking out the door. This can and does affect the company's bottom line.

Stress has been called an equal opportunity destroyer. No one is immune from its effects. Some workers may express their stress openly but others may suppress and ignore stressor signals until they are desperately ill. Stress can cause physical symptoms such as headache, stomach problems, and ulcers and can leave employees vulnerable to disease. Emotional and behavioral stressors can also impact the overall productivity of the workplace. A worker who does not manage his or her stress may find that job performance declines and sick days increase.

Most important of all, workers (and employers and supervisors!) need to remember that life is really much too short to waste it feeling freaked out and frazzled. By restoring some balance between the demands of the workplace and personal life, people can douse burnout and prevent stress from taking its terrible toll. Every person needs to take time to manage their stress so they can enjoy life.

Author Penelope Trunk, for Boston.com, shares myths about the workplace.

Each generation revolutionizes something. Today's younger generation is revolutionizing work. The goals people have, their values and opportunities have all changed drastically in the last 10 years. The new workplace demands new rules for success, yet people continue to get outdated advice based on persistent workplace myths.

Find out if job-hopping looks bad on your resume and if good things will absolutely happen with hard work.

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, for Time magazine, writes about going green at the office.

We can compost and conserve all we want at home. But as soon as we hit the office, we turn into triplicate-printing, paper-cup-squashing, run-our-computers-all-night-so-the-boss-thinks-we're-working earth befoulers. One office worker can use a quarter ton of materials in a year--which includes 10,000 pieces of copier paper. Heating, cooling and powering office space are responsible for almost 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. and gobble more than 70% of total electricity usage. Commuters spew 1.3 billion tons of CO2 a year. Computers in the office burn $1 billion worth of electricity annually--and that's when they're not producing a lick of work.

All our unnecessarily generated company waste adds up to unnecessarily wasted company cash. Goosed by the color of money, companies from global empire to mom-and-pop, from high tech to local government are embracing environmentally friendlier architecture, supplies and attitudes. Wal-Mart is placing solar panels on its stores. Los Angeles County may soon offer its 90,000 commuting employees incentives to buy hybrid vehicles; UCLA already does. The San Francisco Federal Building, Dallas' McKinney Green office building, and New York City's Hearst, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs towers were all designed under green principles. Want a tipping point? Here's one: in May, Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corp. would go carbon neutral.

(Reuters Life!) - Boston has the highest percentage of commuters who walk to work, Portland can boast the most cycling commuters, but the vast majority of Americans still drive to work, according to a U.S. Census Bureau study.

Analysis of data from the American Community Survey, gathered in 2005 and released on Wednesday, found nine out of 10 workers, or 87.7 percent, drive to work with most people, 77 percent, driving alone despite rising fuel costs.

In contrast, 4.7 percent of commuters used public transportation to get to work in 2005 which was an increase of about 0.1 percent over levels five years earlier.

"With each succeeding year, we'll be able to see how people respond to changing circumstances, such as rising gas prices," Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon said in a statement.

Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer, asks, Who gets the most (and least) vacation?

It's the start of vacation season, but you can probably count on one hand, if that, the people you know who are taking off several weeks this summer.

The tally likely would be much higher if you also had friends from, say, Finland, where workers must get a minimum of 30 days paid vacation plus up to 14 paid holidays a year. That makes it the country with the most generous paid time off laws out of 49 nations surveyed by human resource consulting firm Mercer.

Besides getting less vacation than workers in many other countries, Americans often don't use all the time that they do get, and what vacation they take is spent in small slices and often in contact with the office, according to findings from other studies.

Unlike in most other countries, there is no federal law mandating that companies pay employees for time off or that they grant them a minimum amount of vacation days unpaid.

The typical practice in the United States - among large companies anyway - is 15 days paid vacation and 10 days of paid holidays for full-time employees with 10 years of tenure, Mercer found.

WASHINGTON - Applications for unemployment benefits totaled 311,000 last week, unchanged from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The fact that claims remained at the same level was better than the small increase analysts had been expecting and supported their view that the job market has held up remarkably well in the face of a yearlong economic slowdown.

Claims have fallen in six of the past nine weeks. Those declines followed a period of rising claims which had raised fears that the slowing economy was starting to trigger higher layoffs.

For the week ending June 2, when claims had posted a small rise of 2,000, there were 29 states and territories reporting increases in claims and 24 reporting declines. The state figures are not adjusted for seasonal variations.

Women for Hire CEO and Good Morning America Workplace Contributor, Tory Johnson, offers some signs to help you determine if you are a workaholic.

It's a frequently asked question: Do we live to work, or work to live?

A growing number of Americans are finding that they live for work, and some of them are popping up at Workaholics Anonymous meetings nationwide.

Unlike people who simply work very hard, which quite frankly is most of us, workaholics never punch out. They always feel like they are on the clock, 24/7, physically, mentally and emotionally working.

They are more genuinely enthusiastic about work than anything else in their lives, even family and friends. There's nothing that person would rather be doing than working.

And we're not just talking about Fortune 500 executives; nurses and construction workers, among others, attend Workaholics Anonymous meetings to try to kick the habit.

Liz Webber for Inc.com writes, moms may be increasingly comfortable with their positions as working women, but it seems men are still coming to grips with life as working dads, according to a new study.

More dads say they struggle with work-life balance than moms, according to the survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Adecco USA, a career-services consultancy. A majority of men also said they would not take paternity leave if their company offered it.

The Workplace Insights survey, which polled 223 men and 272 women who are employed full-time or part-time and have at least one child, compared workplace attitudes toward parents and asked what companies could do to be more accommodating to those with children. When asked if it is easier for dads to maintain work-life balance, 50 percent of women claim that it is, versus 29 percent of men. Dads also seem to find it harder to manage their work time and their family time. Nearly half of moms polled said they devote equal time to work and family, compared to 32 percent of dads.

The study also found that 59 percent of men would not take paternity leave if given the option. These dads are most worried about the financial burden of taking time off — 46 percent said they could not afford paternity leave even if offered partial salary.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank reports that according to a latest study by the National Association of Realtors, a record 22 percent of homebuyers are single women.

Single women have outnumbered single men as homeowners since the mid-1980s, with single men comprising of 9 percent, according to the study.

There are more women in the work force, and they are in a better position financially than ever before, said Ellen Renish, vice president of the association’s Region Two, which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

‘‘Women today are waiting to get married and are more aggressive in the workplace. They don’t wait for a guy. They do it on their own,’’ Renish said. ‘‘Women today have purchasing power they didn’t have years ago.’’

Sheryl Berk, for New York Daily News, writes about workplace changes.

It's not the life most men imagine for themselves: swapping the boardroom for the nursery, the briefcase for a diaper bag. But Jeffrey J. of Brooklyn wouldn't have had it any other way. An interior designer and architect, there was no question in his mind that he would stay home and care for his newborn son while his wife, a corporate lawyer, returned to work after maternity leave.

"It just made the most sense. My work could be done from our apartment while the baby napped - and my wife's work brought in the steady paycheck. We knew it was the right decision."

At first, he got teased and taunted by other fathers - the ones who couldn't understand why he wanted to watch back-to-back episodes of "Barney." "You know, 'Oh, so you're Mr. Mom now, huh?'" Jeff recalls.

The neighborhood moms weren't much kinder: "I'd go to birthday parties or playgroups and I could sense the whispers. They felt like I was intruding.

"What people don't get is that it's the hardest job in the world. It's the most responsibility I had ever known in my entire life - and also the most rewarding thing I've ever done."

Plenty of other men feel the same way. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 150,000 stay-at-home fathers (SAFH) in the United States. But researchers estimate the real number to be closer to 2 million; the Census Bureau figures do not take into account fathers who work part-time or from the home.

Meanwhile, Phyllis Korkki writes in the New York Times that times haven’t changed as much, since stay-at home fathers are still a rarity.

Times have certainly changed since the days of “Leave It to Beaver,” when Ward Cleaver, in a business suit, won the bread and June Cleaver, in an apron, served it. But we are far from being a “Mr. Mom” society, too.

In 62 percent of married-couple families with children under 18, both the father and the mother are employed, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A sizable 31 percent adhere to the traditional ’60s sitcom mold, with the father being the sole wage earner.

A mere 5 percent of the fathers are not working while the mother is employed, the data show. The statistics are silent on which of these fathers are jobless by choice.

But it is clear that the urge to earn remains strong among fathers, and that a man’s ego may suffer a blow if he decides to stay home.

Martha Burk, director for the Corporate Accountability Project for the National Council of Women’s Organizations, writes corporate culture must start giving dads a chance.

In the 19th century, before Father’s Day was celebrated or even thought about, men literally owned wives and children. Women had to get their husband’s permission for a divorce, and were not entitled to custody of children. Kids were Dad’s property.

Few of us would want to go back to that model. But as the 20th century produced a more balanced legal equation, it also brought a cultural pendulum swing that went too far in the other direction, producing an equally harmful societal norm – mother ownership of children. In divorce, judges often mindlessly award custody to the mother, even in cases where the father is more nurturing and engaged with his children.

For married parents, you can see it most clearly in the workplace.

Our workplaces are still structured around the idea that family responsibilities will be taken care of by someone other than the employee, who is expected to have unlimited hours to devote to the job. And unfortunately, the father most often fulfills that role.

Tom Van Riper, for Forbes.com, reports on job markets here and abroad.

To live in one of the world's hottest job markets, you may need to move to South America.

At least that's the case into the fall of 2007, as Argentina and Peru join traditional economic powers like the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong among the countries with the most robust job outlooks for the third quarter of the year.

While both countries have a long way to go to escape the ranks of the world's poor, they're booming, in recovery from the downtrodden 1990s. Freer trade, private sector investment in the mining and telecom industries, plus rising commodity prices that have boosted export dollars, have begun to show signs of paying off. Peru's economy grew 6.5% last year, while Argentina's shot up 8.5%.

Manpower's quarterly Global Employment Outlook, which surveyed over 50,000 employers across 27 countries, ranked Peru No. 2 and Argentina No. 4 in expected job growth for the July-September quarter. The firm scored each country by subtracting the percentage of companies that said they plan to cut back on workers from the percentage that said they plan to add them. A country where 75% of employers plan to add to their workforces and 25% plan to cut them, for example, scores +50%. Peru rated +48%, while Argentina weighed in at +38%.

Explaining the rest of the Top 10 list is pretty simple: Free markets and minimal government interference mean more jobs. Of the 10 countries with brightest employment outlooks, six also show up on the Top 10 on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, a guide the free market think tank uses to recognize those countries that adhere to relatively lower taxes and a light government touch to running the economy.

The six: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the U.S., New Zealand and Canada. All are also among the seven countries rated highest by the World Bank for "ease of doing business."

New York Time’s segment What’s Offline reports “How Great Leaders Juggle Ideas.”

WHEN we look for ways to improve our life at work, how we can make better decisions, for example, or try to figure out the next step in our career, invariably one thing we do is look at what great leaders have done. This is why books like “Straight From the Gut,” by John F. Welch Jr., and those by Lee A. Iacocca sell so well.

But focusing on what a successful leader does is a mistake, according to Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto Business School.

“That’s because moves that work in one context often make little sense in the same company or within the experience of a single leader,” he writes in The Harvard Business Review.

Mr. Martin contends that the more beneficial thing to do is study how great leaders think.

He has, and he has concluded that they process information differently than the rest of us do.

“They have the predisposition and the capacity to hold in their head two opposing ideas at once,” he writes. “And then, without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other, they’re able to creatively resolve the tension between those two ideas by generating a new one that contains elements of the others but is superior to both.”

Mr. Martin calls this process of consideration and synthesis “integrative thinking,” and contends that it is this ability and not a “superior strategy or faultless execution that is the defining characteristic of most exceptional businesses and the people who run them.”

Intriguingly, Mr. Martin, who interviewed 50 exemplary leaders in doing his research, says many successful executives aren’t aware that this is the way they go about processing information.

Stephanie Armour, for USA TODAY, reports on companies that help employees save money on gas.

The breathtaking cost of gas has companies adopting programs to curb commuting costs and employees developing more economical alternatives to driving to work.
Employers are taking action as average national gas prices persist above $3 a gallon. Nearly 90% of employees drive to work, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Thirteen percent of companies offer transit subsidies, and 7% subsidize carpooling, according to a 2006 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Twenty-six percent allow telecommuting on a part-time basis.

For example:

•The University of Portland has launched an initiative to provide a Flexcar (which allows users to share access to vehicles) to faculty and students. The university subsidizes the first four hours of personal use of the car a month.

"We almost doubled (users) in the past month because of rising gas costs," says Jeffrey Rook, environmental health and safety officer at the Oregon university. The school also subsidizes bus passes, and last August launched a shuttle bus program.

Megan Dowd for Fox News writes about women in leadership positions.

According to the American Association of University Women, men account for 82 percent of engineering majors. In other words, women are taking themselves out of the running for this high-paying field before they even enter the job market.

Time and time again, one reason given for the absence of women from high-paying and power-player positions is a lack of mentors. Here’s your cue, dads — you are the grassroots mentors (and of course moms are too, but Father’s Day only happens once a year so I’m dedicating this one to the dads).

Make sure you remind your little (or grown) girl often that she can do whatever she can dream in life. Be sure to tell her about the many options open to her. Encourage her to speak her mind and explore different opportunities as often as possible. Never underestimate the influence you have on her outlook on life; I know from experience that that influence is indeed powerful.

Susan Felt, for the Arizona Republic, reports on social entrepreneur Marc Freedman proposing keeping boomers in the work force rather than enticing them to leave.

In three years, millions of baby boomers will turn retirement age, a time that their parents viewed as the Golden Years, when golf and rocking on the front porch seemed like ideal pastimes.

In his latest book, Encore (PublicAffairs, 2007, $24.95 hardcover), Freedman proposes changes that individuals, business, government and society need to embrace in order to keep that generation working, not retiring.

From a park bench in New Hampshire, Freedman, co-founder of Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think tank, answers questions about how he sees aging baby boomers launching second careers that could be more meaningful and productive than their first 40-plus years of work.

Question: In Encore, you describe the inevitability of a longer working life than our parents. What does a second career mean now that many of us are close to turning 65?

Answer: Much of the discussion about longer working lives is caught between two extremes. On one hand is the dreaded notion of another five to 10 years at the grindstone and not being able to afford to retire. Then the glorious tales of reinvention, transformation and almost a nirvana-like success in second careers. For most people, it's something in the middle. In reality, they have to work longer, and they want work to look forward to.

'Workplace Princesses' can be royal pains, writes John Eckberg for the Cincinnati Enquirer

A survey earlier this year from Rachelle Canter, author of the executive career handbook "Make the Right Career Move," (Wiley, $21.95), found that 48 percent of American workers say there is a Workplace Princess at their job site.

According to the survey of 506 adults, which is accurate to plus or minus 5 percentage points, 48 percent of Workplace Princesses expect special favors from employers; 47 percent believe they are being treated unfairly; and 35 percent make other people do their work for them.

Women do not have a monopoly on such entitlement either, according to the survey conducted by Opinion Research Inc. of Princeton, N.J., in March. One of every six workers, about 16 percent, believes that the Workplace Princess on their job is a man.

To find out if you are one, answer these questions:

Do most of your questions begin with "I want" or "I need"?

When things go wrong, do you blame the situation and other people?

Do you know the career goals of your friends and co-workers or only your own?

David R. Butcher writes in ThomasNet.com about gender equality.

The 21st century has been called the Woman’s Century. Hillary Clinton is running for President, women are playing stronger roles in the workplace and the female profile is rising in many professional fields. So why does no one seem shocked that gender discrimination still lingers in the workplace today?

Without doubt, discrimination in global business today persists, whether it’s based on race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or, of course, gender.

We’ve come a long way since the days when male executives expected women in the workplace to stay quiet and passive while fetching coffee. But not far enough, sadly. Although much more subtle, workforce and workplace barriers still persist.

Not only do these biases continue to fuel disparity and tension in basic human relations (and human rights), they are damaging the workforce and the workplace — and by extension, innovation and competitiveness in industry and business.

Joyce Gannon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette contributor, writes studies show moms still control bulk of purchase decisions in the home.

Beyond serving as the focus of shopping for a single Sunday in June, fathers aren't considered much of a force in the world of mass purchasing. Some may still get the last word on a new family car or which beer to stock in the refrigerator, but mom remains the power buyer in an overwhelming majority of households, say marketing experts.

Despite the rise of two-income families that has prompted more men to handle traditional female tasks such as grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking and laundry, women still make 80 percent to 85 percent of family purchases, according to several studies. This highly-sought-after female sector spends $1.7 trillion annually, says research by Ketchum, a communications agency.

"[Moms'] influence is being driven by them bringing more income into the family, so they have more to say about how the family spends" even in traditional dad-dominated categories such as automobiles and do-it-yourself gadgets, said Kelley Skoloda, partner and associate director of Ketchum's Pittsburgh office and director of the firm's global brand marketing practice.
"The clients we work with are trying to wrap their heads around how you reach the female purchaser. That's who spends the money."

Judith Sills, for Psychology Today, writes, various psychological factors explain some of the challenges females face.

A gentleman complained recently that, though his private club had committed itself to increasing female membership, the admissions committee had thus far been unsuccessful. "No matter which woman is proposed," he said, "some other woman blackballs her."

Two women are comparing career trajectories, one complaining that she was stalled for two years, until she finagled a lateral move.

"What was the problem?"

"Woman boss."

Could it be true? A woman's worst workplace enemy is another woman?

There are psychological factors that may explain this perception.

Anthropology. "Yo, Bernie. How's about bringing that bison over to my cave?" Since the beginning of social organization, female survival and the survival of their young depended on how well they could compete with other women for the resources that men could provide. Surely such competitive instincts are hard-wired. Why would they not surface clearly in the gladiatorial arena of the office?

Female gender expectations. Women train primarily for and highly value the cooperative skills so necessary to maintaining family and community. Open competition with each other is a direct violation of these social expectations. A man after the credit or the clout is, after all, only being a man. But a woman concerned with the same rewards is a backstabber.

Robert Preer, Globe Correspondent, writes that more women are now guarding men in the prison system than ever before.

Ninabeth Fay-Butler, clad in a dark-blue, military-style uniform with heavy black boots, strode into a housing unit one recent morning during her rounds at Bridgewater State Hospital. The 54-year-old captain, a supervisor in the medium-security, combination prison and treatment center, moved with confidence among the male inmates as she stopped to scoop up one man's stray sock and to chat with another inmate.

The casual exchanges belied the dangers of her job.

"I like challenges," said Fay-Butler, who has worked at the hospital for 17 years.

"One thing about corrections is you get to use your brain a lot. I've been in a unit by myself with 81 lifers. In that situation, you have to start thinking with your head."

Fay-Butler is among a growing number of female correction officers in Massachusetts and the United States. At Bridgewater State Hospital, where men are sent for psychological evaluation or treatment after involvement in serious crimes, 23 of the 235 uniformed officers are women.

Women guarding men was unheard of in this country before the 1970s. As recently as 1977, the US Supreme Court ruled that states could legally bar women from working in dangerous male prisons. In the past three decades, though, new legislation in states, as well as shifts in administrative policy, have opened the doors to prison as a female workplace. Today, about 13 percent of correctional officers in the country are women.

Forbes.com’s Matt Woolsey reports on the best cities for professionals.

Head to the Big Apple, and your chances of getting the corner office might not be as far off as you think.

That's because New York City tops our list as the No. 1 city for young professionals.

That likely comes as a shock to, well, no one. Many of America's best companies, as determined by Forbes rankings of the best 400 big businesses and best 200 small businesses, including financial giant Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people ) and media conglomerate News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ) are in New York. Throw in New York's bars, clubs and world-class dining, and you get a city teaming with young professionals.

Inside Recruiting reports One-Third of Women Claim Weekly Discrimination at Work

Thirty-three percent of female workers said their gender works against them when applying for a job, while 11% said it works in their favor.

Another 56% think their gender has no influence on whether they are hired.

Once on the job, 31% of female workers said they experience discrimination or unfair treatment at least once a week; 26% percent said once a month; and 34% said it happens occasionally.

In terms of involuntary termination, 12% of female workers said they believed they had been fired at some point in their career because of their gender.

These figures are from a new study, "Diversity in the Workplace," designed to gauge how diversity impacts hiring, compensation, and career advancement.

Unfortunately, the survey shows that a lot of this discrimination is swept under the rug. Almost 50% of female workers who experienced discrimination or unfair treatment said they did not report the incident; 72% said they didn't think reporting the incident would make a difference; 46% feared being labeled as a trouble-maker; and 34% feared losing their jobs.

When a woman leaves an employer to care for her family, she takes all of her skills and experience with her. Now more firms are working to retain that talent, offering flexible hours and easing re-entry into the work force, writes Julie Forster for the Pioneer Press.

Managing partner Jeffrey DeYoung was disheartened when one of his auditors, a 35-year-old working mom on a flexible work schedule, walked into his office recently and said it wasn't working out.

She had taken a new job and was leaving.

While the agreement she had with the accounting firm Virchow Krause to work reduced hours was nice in theory, she made it clear: In reality, it wasn't working. Enough was enough.

DeYoung tried to salvage the situation, but the auditing manager was determined to leave.

We just lost one of our top performers, DeYoung thought. Out the door walked money invested in recruiting and training, not to mention client relationships and the expertise she brought. In short, it was an expensive loss.

Becky Lewis, the departing employee, later told DeYoung that she should have been more insistent about the deal she had with the company. Her reduced hours were supposed to allow her to take her son to kindergarten and meet him at the bus later in the day.

Keeping employees like Becky Lewis in the fold is moving from rhetoric to action at a growing number of U.S. companies staring at seismic shifts in demographics ahead, changes that come as the labor force is growing slowly and competition for top talent intensifies.

The challenge is particularly acute for a small number of companies in highly demanding industries like financial services.

Lynne Marek reports on how women lawyers find their own paths as law firms struggle to keep them in The National Law Journal.

People were always asking San Francisco attorney Mae O'Malley how she lined up so much contract legal work as she juggled continuing her law career and raising three children. Her secret: As a former in-house counsel, she had built up a clientele, including Google Inc., and was ready for solo work after her third child was born.

Last year, O'Malley, 34, created a company built on her strategy, giving her the opportunity to share the trick with the many other women who have asked about it. She opened Paragon Legal Group in September and already has 20 lawyers working for her on either a full-time or part-time basis, 90 percent of whom are women.

As big law firms struggle to retain women lawyers and boost them into leadership roles, they're losing many to contract positions, smaller firms, in-house jobs, government posts and legal aid careers that women lawyers say give them more control over their work and personal lives. Law firms are trying to reverse the trend with some new policies as clients seek diverse legal teams, but so far seem to have had little effect.

For every woman who leaves a law firm to stay at home with her children or otherwise remain unemployed, there are nearly three who move to nonfirm law jobs and one who takes her skills to a nonlawyer job, according to the results of a study of Massachusetts attorneys by the MIT Workplace Center this year. The study also showed that women left firms in larger numbers than men at both associate and partner levels.

Charles S. Farrell for DiverseEducation.com asks, “Is racism a male thing? Study suggests that men have less tolerance than women.”

A new study that suggests racism within small groups appears to affect men more than women may have immense implications.

Jury verdicts could be swayed, military strategies changed, business decisions influenced because of the racial composition of a group, according to Dr. Larry E. Davis, one of the authors of the study and a professor of social work and psychology at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

"While many people might consider that an equal number of Black males and an equal number of white males would be an ideal composition when working on a project, our study shows that that might be the worst thing to do, setting up all kinds of conflict," Davis said. Interestingly, all-women work groups were less affected by the racial balance of the group, leading Davis to conclude that gender is a factor in racism.

The Bing Blog offers tips for those working from home.

1. DO NOT leave your cell phone back in the living room when you step out to the diner for a couple of hours.
2. DO take your BlackBerry and cell phone when you go to the bathroom.
3. DO schedule a few short conference calls with anybody who works for you, since they are probably at the office cursing your name. This will show them you are fully engaged in the business of the day, which, of course, you are!
4. DO NOT start a complex e-mail chain with your boss too early in the day, since they often result in incoming telephone action that will raise the question of where you actually are in the physical (i.e. non-virtual) sense. NOTE: Even if you have received permission to “work from home” don’t remind your boss that you have done so. Reminding him or her of your status may impair your ability to do so again next week.
5. DO NOT start drinking any earlier than usual. Not even beer.
6. DO send out that lengthy e-mail with several Excel attachments that people have been waiting for since last Tuesday. This will serve two purposes: 1) demonstrate that you are active and on the field, in spite of all appearances; 2) stop anybody from replying to you on any issue while they chew over a spreadsheet they have no desire to deal with on a Friday during July or August.
7. DO NOT leave your Elvis Costello album playing in the background while you talk with colleagues, even if they are junior to you. Word will get around.
8. DO NOT answer the phone during your nap. Allow the ring to wake you. Splash some cold water on your face. Then return the call and apologize for having been “caught up” in something else while it was ringing. You may not fool anybody but it will be worth the attempt.
9. DO attempt to call your boss at 6 p.m., when you know he has gone for the day. You will appear on his call sheet first thing Monday morning as any industrious corporate citizen should.
10. DO NOT conduct any sort of business in your underwear. People will know. I don’t know how, but they will.

Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer, reports on perks on the job for those who are flexible.

Employees at the Seattle office of the U.S. Government Accountability Office know that they have to put in 80 hours of work every two weeks. But they can configure those hours pretty much how they'd like, with the exception of the one day a week their managers require all employees to be at the office at the same time.

Plus, they can work from home for some of the week, or they can work compressed weeks so that they can take every fifth or tenth day off and still log their 80 hours.

Those policies are why that GAO office is among the recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan awards for excellence in workplace flexibility given by the Families and Work Institute (FWI) every year.

Three-quarters of big organizations now offer flexible-work benefits, according to Hewitt Associates. Watson Wyatt in its survey of mid- and large-sized companies found that flexible work schedules was the most commonly offered benefit, followed by telecommuting and compressed work weeks.

But just because an HR policy exists doesn't mean that your employer has your back if you're afraid to take advantage of it.

Karen Kerrigan, for Hawaii Reporter, writes that small firms are at risk under mandatory "card check" approach sought by labor bosses.

Editor's note: It is anticipated that the United States Senate will vote Tuesday, June 26 on the controversial "card check" mandate bill, which eviscerates the long-standing private vote that employees currently enjoy in deciding whether they want to join a union.

Washington, D.C. — So, you make the daily trek to the office one morning anticipating a typical business-owner type of day. At the early morning staff get-together it is announced by one employee: "We are on our way to becoming a union shop."

How could this be? Doesn't the federal government get involved here? How does this person know how the rest of my employees feel on this issue?

Well, a bill moving through the U.S. House, ironically called the "Employee Free Choice Act," H.R. 800, aims to fully change the rules of the game when it comes to union organizing. The long-standing "secret ballot" system, where employees cast a private vote for or against union representation in a federally-supervised election, would be replaced with a mandatory "card-check" approach.

Good pay, good prospects and a good quality of life: Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer writes about the best jobs for the long run. From an operations and production management to a fundraiser, these are some jobs from the list to consider.

Job: Operations and production management

President Bush's push to have the nation reduce its gas consumption by 20 percent in 10 years (and, by extension, increase its consumption of corn-based ethanol and other alternative fuels) has meant more money for biofuel makers and an even greater need for talent in the growing field, said Michael Jones, president of the bioenergy practice at the Richmond Group, a recruiting firm member of the MRINetwork.

There's demand not only for chemical and mechanical engineers, but liberal arts grads, too, Jones said. Some jobs require those with an engineering degree from college because of their technical nature. But someone with a liberal arts degree can start at a lower position in the company (e.g., a job that pays by the hour operating equipment in a chemical processing environment) and rise up through the ranks.

Job: Fundraiser

Every nonprofit needs a good development director to keep it in the black. The good news is "the ranks of the wealthy are growing. There's a great deal of wealth that's untapped," said Tom Damewood, owner of Management Recruiters of Mid-Hudson Valley, N.Y.

Being paid to raise money for a good cause can be a rewarding experience that puts you in touch with wealthy donors, corporate executives, foundations and, if you're involved in special fundraising events, top entertainers, intellectuals, politicians and other newsmakers.

You can get your foot in the door through volunteering, interning or working as a development assistant or special events program assistant, Damewood said. He also recommends taking courses in nonprofit management and joining a chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals

The number of employers offering adoption assistance is soaring, reports Stephanie Armour for USA TODAY.

Nearly 50% of employers offer adoption benefits, according to a survey by benefits consultants Watson Wyatt Worldwide. That's up from 37% who offered the benefits in 2003.

With some adoption costs topping $30,000, employers are increasingly providing cash reimbursement for adoption-related legal services, paid time off or other benefits to help. Unlike health insurance reimbursement of pregnancy costs, though, payments for adoption assistance are considered taxable income.

“Are many young adults today just not trying hard enough to launch their careers and gain financial independence?” asks MSNBC contributor, Eve Tahmincioglu.

My June 4 column addressed how many parents were struggling to help get their adult sons and daughters on the right career path. I suggested their kids needed a little bit of tough love. Mom and Dad can’t keep the gravy train going forever, right?

Well, I got a bunch of letters from folks who thought I was being too hard on recent graduates who couldn’t find jobs in their chosen professions.

Some readers pointed to a lack of economic opportunities for U.S. workers thanks to globalization and a growing chasm between the rich and poor. It’s harder today for young people trying to make it in the world than past generations, many of you wrote.

Anthony Chapman of New York writes: “I am amazed at the overall message of your article, which, like most articles or reports on this subject nowadays, carries a macho 'blame the victim' tone. The fact is, that these unemployed kids are through before they even start. Corporate globalism and feel-good pro-immigration attitudes in The United States have combined to mount a coordinated attack on American labor, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the days of Joe Hill and The Wobblies. Articles such as yours perpetuate the myth that Americans are the masters of their own financial destinies, which is, in my opinion, a laughable fallacy.”

The New York state Senate recently passed a bill that will allow women to pump breast milk while on breaks at their workplaces, writes Sarah Wolff for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

The bill, called the “Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act,” will permit women to take paid or unpaid work breaks in order to express breast milk up until their child is 2 years old. The bill also mandates that employers must create spaces for the nursing mothers to pump, discouraging them from inadvertently forcing nursing women to pump milk in bathroom stalls or storage areas.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) supports the bill, adding that if a woman who nurses is unable to pump milk during the day, she will slowly stop producing it until she ceases to lactate milk altogether, creating a possible health risk to her child.

The Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act will apply to both public and private employers in New York State. The bill was passed by the State Assembly on March 26, 2007, and will be given to Gov. Elliot Spitzer to sign into law.

Tory Johnson, Good Morning America’s workplace contributor and CEO of Women for Hire, writes that elder care is a costly struggle for employees and employers alike.

A MetLife study found that people who take on a caregiver role give up more than $650,000 in lifetime earning potential. And on the employer side, the same study estimated that American businesses see a $33 billion productivity loss each year because of employees' caregiving obligations. The numbers suggest there's clearly a business case for introducing benefits and support programs.

It's smart to let your boss know that you're coping with this issue. He or she need not be privy to every detail; you don't want to come across as overwhelmed or unreliable. The goal is to reiterate your commitment to work, but also be clear that this is a personal priority and an obligation.

In some cases, you may learn that your boss is dealing -- or has dealt -- with the same thing. And you'll also get a sense of whether he or she is going to be supportive.

Eric Wilson reports in the New York Times on the death of Liz Claiborne.

Liz Claiborne, the designer of indefatigable career clothes for professional women entering the workforce en masse beginning in the 1970s, died Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 78.

Before she became the most successful women’s apparel designer in America, Ms. Claiborne had worked for 20 years in the backrooms of Seventh Avenue sportswear houses like Youth Guild and Juniorite, making peppy dresses.

A strong-willed designer with an acute sense for business, she defied the male-dominated ranks of the fashion industry by starting her own company in 1976 with Mr. Ortenberg, a textiles executive. In an apt reversal of roles, she gave him the corporate title of secretary.

Ms. Claiborne correctly anticipated a market for affordable, professional-looking clothes that women could wear to compete on an equal footing with men in corporate professions. In her no-nonsense way, she became something of a role model, and her label an inspirational emblem, to those who, like her, were looking to break through glass ceilings.

Creating a Healthy Work Environment: Are Insurers on Board?

Chronicle Staff Writer, Victoria Colliver, writes companies offer exercise and nutrition programs for workers, but insurers have been slow to reward them with reduced premiums. Three years ago, Camico Mutual Insurance Co. tried to get a break on its medical insurance for offering on-site Pilates classes, fresh fruit and other good-health incentives to its 100 employees. But its insurers told the Redwood City firm they needed more evidence that such wellness programs actually reduce demand for medical services before they would trim premiums. Now Camico is finally getting insurers to pay attention. Click here to read article.

Study Reveals Sexual Orientation Discrimination at Work

Dennis McMillan, for San Francisco Bay Times, reports on a recent workplace report fromThe Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, a think tank dedicated to the field of sexual orientation law and public policy. The report summarizes findings from studies conducted over the last ten years to find out whether LGBT people face sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace. These studies include surveys of LGBT individuals’ workplace experiences; wage comparisons between LGBT and heterosexual persons; analyses of discrimination complaints filed with administrative agencies; and testing studies and controlled experiments.Click here to read article.

Eight Jobs Projected for Growth: Bachelor’s Degree Required

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has identified a number of exciting professions expected to experience above-average growth over the next decade. Dawn Papandrea of CareerBuilder.com reports on the top 8 jobs with the largest projected growth. Most of these positions fall within the top 25 percent of earnings for workers overall, and most require a bachelor's degree or higher.

Occupations With the Largest Projected Growth Through 2014:

1. Registered Nurses: 703,000
2. Postsecondary Teachers: 524,000
3. Nursing Aides, Orderlies, Attendants: 325,000
4. Management: 308,000
5. Elementary School Teachers: 265,000
6. Accountants: 264,000
7. Computer Software Engineers: 222,000
8. Computer Systems Analysts: 153,000
(Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

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