I don’t do book reviews because I don’t read books. This has not stopped the publicity department of every major publisher from continuing to send me workplace, business and management–related books. I collect them in a bin, and when the bin fills up, I drag it down the hall to the dump (not really: all [...]
Last week, I penned an article for Time.com titled, “Does Obama Have an Asian Problem?” The story predicted the senator from Illinois would handily win Hawaii’s primaries, which were to occur later that day. He did. But it also sought to explore why other states with large Asian populations saw their Asian votes go overwhelmingly [...]
So I had an evaluation the other day. My supervising editor, Bill, came in and we had a nice chat. I outlined my goals and described the obstacles I foresaw. For his part, he told me how he thought I could overcome those obstacles, and informed me of qualities management values. Overall I thought it [...]
When I consider the narrowed field of Democratic presidential candidates, I don’t think that much about them in terms of race or gender. That, to me, is a huge development. Sure, those factors will loom in our final choice. But it’s not everything. And that shows how far we’ve come. You’d think that if we’re [...]
Classical music matters in my household. That’s because my husband, Chris, makes his living in that field, as a professional clarinet player. Before I met Chris, I could not tell a French horn from a flugel horn, Mendelssohn from Mozart, Menuhin from Midori. Okay, I still can’t (but aren’t you impressed that I can spell [...]
Last week, my “mom” Marlene Kahan sent me a link to Lisa Belkin’s article in The New York Times: “I’m Ill, But Who Really Needs to Know?” At first I thought it was an FYI forward; Marlene and I share many things, among them duels with our respective chronic illnesses that have deeply affected how [...]
There’s a lot of anxiety these days about job security. Maybe it’s the oncoming recession. Maybe it’s the presidential campaigns, which keep telling us we’re anxious about job security. Maybe it’s the job evaluation I’m having later today (for a workplace that shunned evaluations for years, suddenly we’re up to one a quarter). Whatever it [...]
Who wants to graduate from J-school, toss some things in a suitcase and set off for a career covering the far reaches of the earth? Who would eschew the comforts of a desk in a midsize American city for the mountain trails of Viet Nam, the opium dens of Egypt, the crowded factories of China? [...]
There was an Oscar pool stuck under my office door this morning. It reminded me once again that I have no life. I have seen none of these movies. None. I have not seen Atonement. Or Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood. It’s not that these films don’t appeal [...]
It sounds like the arithmetic of a delusional person, right? It’s real math for a Chicago couple called the Mayvilles. They’re profiled today in the McClatchy newspapers (I read the piece in Rochester, Minn.’s Post-Bulletin), in what for me was a really uplifting, informative story about people making work work. The Mayvilles have two kids, [...]
In the olden days in my home country, it’s said that poor families used to practice elder-dumping. There was even a designated dumping ground they called the Obasuteyama: literally, Granny-Dumping Mountain. (Don’t believe me? Watch the 1999 film Ikitai.) I’m ready for a trip to Obasuteyama. With both my parents. Here’s the situation. They live [...]
