When you’re injured doing your job, most of us would expect sympathy from our employers.

Well, retail giant Sears offered workers pink slips.

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I’m all for giving ex-cons a second chance, but I have little sympathy for someone who doesn’t do the time for his crime.

I have been watching all the news about child rapist Roman Polanski and it’s got me feeling pretty bad about society as we know it. I keep thinking about the people who worked for Polanski knowing all the while that he drugged and sodomized a 13-year old girl.

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I was visiting my sister and her family over the weekend, and one of the topics we discussed was how her teen daughter was using Facebook.

It took a while for my sister to relent and let her get on Facebook, but she was closely monitoring her every move. The biggest fear for my sister, and many parents, is that she might say something, or post something on one of these social networking sites that could come back to haunt her.

My niece was writing posts on Facebook when I was there and I realized nothing she was writing to her buddies would be private. My sister’s glaring eyes would be watching. Even emails could be monitored. It seemed a bit oppressive to me and I wondered how a kid gets away from their parents these days.

That’s when it hit me. She could go old school and actually write a letter.

Parents are so wrapped up with protecting their kids from the Internet these days that I’m sure no mom or dad is going to waste their time reading through hand-written letters. And, a letter can be destroyed, never to be read again. Unlike the web, where almost everything you put out there is forever there.

I’m all about encouraging people to use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to connect with work colleagues and to network, but sometimes we put stuff on these sites that may be better served if they were in a letter. How about sending photos in a letter as well, instead of posting them for all the world to see? We can call it, “old-schoolin.”

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UPDATE: (Authorities are now saying the census workers apparently committed suicide but made it look like a murder. Here’s a link to a Washington Post article on the case.)

The apparent killing of a census worker has got me sick to my stomach this morning.

We don’t know all the circumstances of his death, but the few facts given out by the police are disturbing.

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Is a company working-mother friendly if working moms aren’t fully represented in the corner office?

I asked this question yesterday when I got an email about Working Mother magazine’s list of 100 Best Companies. Great family-friendly list, but WHERE ARE ALL THE WOMEN LEADERS??!!

Working Mother comes up with a list of companies annually and their criteria is basically based on firms that offer “benefits like paid maternity leave, the ability to work from home and wellness programs, as well as programs that enhance financial well-being,” according to Carol Evans, president of Working Mother Media. “Our 100 Best are helping to reduce stress in the busy lives of working moms. These companies epitomize family-friendly support at its best.”

Most of the companies that made the list were familiar to me and I decided to go through the top ten on Working Mother’s list and figure out if these companies really put their money where they’re mouths are when it comes to women.

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I was up for a job with a newspaper in the Southeast many years ago and the editor who was interviewing me invited me into his office, offered me a seat and said: “So?”

DOH!

I was prepared for a host of questions. I even practiced in front of a mirror before the interview so I would not be nervous but I was not prepared for “So?”

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This weekend I had the displeasure of watching a Progressive Auto Insurance commercial that pretty much mocked the “glass ceiling” phenomenon keeping women from getting to the corner offices of America.

It’s the latest Progressive ad with that perky sales woman “Flo”, but this time she offers to help a women rummaging through her pocketbook looking for coupons so she can save some money on auto insurance. (Go here and click on the first screen.)

The pitch is that the “coupon lady” can build her own policy and pay what she can afford.

Flo: Go ahead. You’re the boss.

Coupon Lady: I’m the boss of savings.

Flo: More like the CEO. No glass ceiling.

Flo says “no glass ceiling” as she puts her fist in the air like a timid Che Guevara.

The whole thing really bugged me. It’s no laughing matter that widespread bias against women in the corporate world has been a major contributor to the continued under representation of women in the top seats. And little has changed.

According to Catalyst, a research company, reports that:

“Women’s advancement in corporate leadership continues to stagnate, with virtually no growth seen in women’s share of top positions.”

# Women held 15.7 percent of corporate officer positions, compared to 15.4 percent in 2007.
# Women held 6.2 percent of top earner positions, compared to 6.7 percent in 2007.

Maybe if Progressive had a bunch of women head honchos they could use such a loaded phrase in their marketing scheme.

The company’s website shows one woman under its list of corporate officers and her title is “assistant secretary.”

Hopefully some day Flo will be cheering “no glass ceiling” where it really matters, in the corner offices at Progressive.

I spoke at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Conference for Women yesterday on cyber networking. Basically the theme was how you can use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, among others, to enhance your career

When I was doing the research for my speech, I figured I’d use comments made by the PA Governor himself on Twitter as an example of how to use the site.

Turns out, Ed Rendell, isn’t on Twitter. (And his state is the only state without a budget. At least he was just named one of the “75 Best People” by Esquire Magazine.)

I was a bit surprised by Rendell’s Twitter aversion and checked out some other governors to see if any of them were. New York Gov. Paterson was one of only a handful on Twitter, and he’s legally blind.

I figured I should poke fun at Rendell about his aversion to cyberspace, so I tweeted about it:

are gov. rendell’s people monitoring twitter?/i hope so, cause at #pennwomen conf. i want to find out why tweets make him quiver.

The next day I got this email from Rendell’s People:

“First of all, thank you for joining us at the Governor’s Conference for Women! I’m sure the participants are looking forward to your insight and expertise. Just wanted to let you know that we caught your tweets, re: Governor Rendell on Twitter. The governor’s press office is hopeful that we might launch a Twitter site for Governor Rendell in the future.”

And, his people added:

“As you may know, First Lady Judge Marjorie O. Rendell recently launched a Twitter site (@CivicsFirst) to promote her civics education initiative.”

It was nice to see that at least the women in the governor’s office were getting Twitter. Or so I thought.

I had the pleasure of meeting Judge Rendell at a reception the night before the conference, and I told her I was disappointed that her husband hadn’t gotten in on the social media act. But I was happy that she had.

As we chatted about the site, she didn’t seem to understand what I was talking about. So I blurted out, “do you even get Twitter?”

She honestly admitted, “I don’t.”

Her press person said the First Lady doesn’t actually write the tweets.

Hmm, I thought. That’s the whole point of Twitter. The person you’re following is supposed to be the person writing the tweets.

The next day, during my social media session, I talked about all the different sites but all the questions seemed to be about Twitter. Finally a woman stood up and said, “I just don’t understand Twitter. What is it?”

At that point I realized I needed to rush through my Power Point presentation and get online so I could show everyone how it actually worked. When I suggested this to the audience everyone cheered and applauded.

They all had heard about Twitter, some audience members had even been on it, but few really understood what the heck it was.

I logged on to Twitter, showed everyone my profile page, and there was a hush in the crowd. “So that’s Twitter,” I could sense people thinking in the room.

OK, my first suggestion to people who don’t get Twitter is to go check it out for yourself. That’s what I did.

Before you actually sign up, decide on what name you want to user name you want to use. I decided on CareerDiva because it’s easier to remember than Eve Tahmincioglu. Give this some thought though, you may be stuck with this name for a while.

If you want to use Twitter to help build your personal brand, then I would choose a name that reflects what you do. A friend of mine as a blog called Fridge Demons, so she chose fridgedemons as her user name.

After choosing a name I’d spend a lot of time following people that seem interesting. You can also follow news websites, or government sites. Just get a feel for Twitter by reading all the tweets you can.

A few women in the audience at the conference asked me it there were books about Twitter that might help them navigate the site. One writer, Sarah Milstein, has written a lot on the topic, including a great blog post on Twitter and she coauthored The Twitter Book. But I really think the best way to figure it out is reading it and seeing for yourself how it works.

Also, check out this funny “Twitter in Plain English” YouTube video:

I offered to give Gov. Rendell a private tutorial on Twitter when he was ready to take the tweeting plunge, and his people said:

“The governor’s press office would love any advice you can provide!”

Here’s one — Get On Twitter Now!

It’s been a little over a year since I hired an office organizer and swore I would finally put the clutter hound out to pasture.

I was drowning in clutter back then as my busy schedule kept getting busier and busier. My desk was becoming a fire hazard and all the old dried fruit and crumbs were surely going to attract some little furry friends. Things got critical when my desk took on the persona of The Blob and slowly started devouring my husband’s clean desk adjacent to mine.

I called upon Barb Bergeron, a professional organizer who runs SOS Organizational Service in Chester Springs, Pa. I was writing about how to de-clutter for MSNBC.com and figured I should practice what I was preaching.

The photos above were taken last year and are of my office before and after Bergeron got to it.

Clutter is bad. That’s what you hear from experts of all sorts. They all say the same thing: Disorganization breeds frustration and a less-than-productive worker.

Who wants to drop the ball on productivity in this economy when employers are looking to save money by firing workers? “You don’t want to be sticking out as having the most Frappuccinos on your desk,” warns Karissa Thacker, a workplace psychologist.

And you don’t want to be picking through the clutter trying to figure out what you should take if you are laid off, handed a cardboard box and given five minutes to clean out your desk.

Today’s worker has to be ready for change at a moment’s notice, and clutter is only weighing us down.

To help get the clutter monkey off my back, I needed help.

I emailed decluttering expert Bergeron a digital photo of my office, and that didn’t deter her from taking the job.

To find out how it went down click here.

It was a painful experience but a great one in the end. Getting organized definitely helped my productivity. I could finally find things.

So, did I keep up with all she taught me?

Drummm rolllll. This is a photo of how my office looked this morning:

You be the judge. Please offer your comments below on how I did?

The movie “Norma Rae,” starring Sally Field, was about a working mom fighting against deplorable conditions at the textile plant she toiled in.

The Norma Rae character became a hero to people all across the country in the late 1970s, whether they believed in unions or not.

After hearing about the death of the real Norma Rae, Crystal Lee Sutton, who died Friday after a long battle with brain cancer, it got me wondering what people would think of her now.

Would a movie have been made about Sutton today? Probably not.

For some reason, workers fighting for a level playing field and better working conditions are quickly labeled pinkos and commies today. I know it was happening back in the 1970s, but the vitriol we hear today is unparalleled against the working stiff and the labor movement.

Well, Sutton, who actually died poor, according to her son, should always be held up as a hero.

This from the Associated Press about her story:

In 1973, Sutton was a mother of three earning $2.65 an hour folding towels at J.P. Stevens when a manager fired her for pro-union activity. In a final act of defiance before police hauled her out, Sutton, who had worked there 16 years, wrote “UNION” on a piece of cardboard and climbed onto a table on the plant floor. Employees responded by shutting down their machines.

In 1974, a union won the right to represent workers at seven plants in northeastern North Carolina.

“Crystal was an amazing symbol of workers standing up in the South against overwhelming odds,'’ said Bruce Raynor, president of Workers United, who worked with Sutton to organize the Stevens plants.