I wrote an Op-Ed piece for USA Today that looks at the issue of whether teens should be working for a paycheck or only concentrating on academics and extracurricular activities.

Research suggests teens who work part time gain in a bunch of areas, everything from building confidence to understanding the value of a dollar.

What’s your take?

So I’m sitting here on a Sunday thinking about work, thinking about money, thinking about how my life is going to play out next year. I should be hanging with my kids, watching some holiday movie. Netflix just delivered Rudolph and some Santa Claus movie but here I sit thinking about what the future holds.

What about college, healthcare, the electric bill. Our bill last month was astronomical and we didn’t even turn the heat on that much. I’m afraid of our January bill. Maybe I will be so hungover from New Years that it won’t bother me that much. Maybe not.

I have one thing planned this year that is sort of helping my mood. My neighbors and my family are going to go around the block and do some caroling. The purpose is the get some donations for a homeless shelter in our town. Most of my neighbors don’t really want to go caroling but they’ve all agreed to do it since I’m so good at pushing people to do what they really don’t want to do. Okay, I’m also offering them some free food and drinks. That’s probably what’s getting everyone motivated.

I shouldn’t be hard on my neighbors. They are all serious working stiffs, working odd hours, doubling up on shifts during the holidays. My one neighbor burned herself really bad making breakfast one morning recently and her biggest concern was that she couldn’t get overtime in this holiday season for some extra cash for gifts.

The people in this neighborhood, and many neighborhoods across our beautiful country, are mostly hard working, trying to figure out how to raise great kids, help their parents, or trying to make ends meet. Will our jobs last? Will we be able to pay the bills? What will our golden years hold?

I’m not going to answer these questions, even though I’m the Career Diva.

I’m just going to say, who knows. All we can do is sing a little bit, party a little bit, share some happy moments with friends and family for a little bit, and hope that the future will be… Happy? Illness free? Prosperous?

I don’t know guys. We’re talking the future, and I ain’t got no crystal ball.

But I do have hope. I know it sounds corny. I am always hopeful. We have to be. The alternative is not being hopeful.

Remember Charlie Brown and his stupid, anemic tree?

Who ever thought Linus’ old, slobbered on blanket would give that tree a new lease on life.

Is it uncool for men to take time off to deal with a family emergency or to attend a kid’s recital? There’s a story in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about how some companies are trying to remove the stigma from flextime as a way to attract more female employees.(”To Retain Valued Women Employees, Companies Pitch Flextime as Macho”) They figure if they can get more of their male employees to take advantage of flexible schedules it will make them look like management is enlightened.
It’s amazing that we’re still having this debate. Women have to stop carrying the family-burden monkey on their backs. Is it because so many women still drop out of the work world to stay home with their babies even after they are no longer babies? Maybe we deserve what we get. And are men too chicken to step up to the plate and admit they want to and need to take over some of the family frenzy? Maybe they deserve what they get.
What’s going on people?

When I write the Boss columns for the New York Times where I profile CEOs about their early childhoods and early careers, I love to ask these executives what their dream job would be. Most of them say, the job they hold now, trying to be diplomatic and look like their lives revolve around their corporations. But for the most part, they all have a dream job. Many of the CEOs I interviewed in my book, From the Sandbox to the Corner Office, told me they wouldn’t mind having David Letterman’s gig, while others could see themselves being teachers, or lounge singers.
In my column today on MSNBC.com I profile an accountant who once worked for a big accounting firm and decided to give it all up to work for a youth ministry.
So, does everyone have a dream job? What’s your dream job?