When I used to write about the retail sector many years ago there was one major truism — the only people who worked on Thanksgiving were those poor workers who had to help run the Macy’s parade.

It was just bad taste to sell stuff on a day when the whole nation was supposed to be giving thanks for things beyond the material.

Well, this Thanksgiving ushered in a whole new world thanks to retailers who felt you all wanted to shop before you even digested your turkey. One employee at Target tried to fight this by posting a web petition to stop the injustice of working on such an important day. Anthony Hardwick got lots of attention for his efforts but didn’t get very far in convincing Target to roll back its decision to open late on Thanksgiving day.

In his petition he wrote:

A full holiday with family is not just for the elite of this nation — all Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones and get a good night’s rest on Thanksgiving!

Hardwick’s petition called for 300,000 signatures, but as of this morning he only reached two-thirds of his goal. Maybe most of us just don’t care if people are forced to work on holidays. And come to think of it, why do we need any time off at all? (more…)

Despite continued tough economic conditions most employers will be getting their party on this holiday season, and many of them plan to serve booze.

A study released today by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found alcohol will be flowing at many companies this year.

“The most surprising finding of the survey was that about half of the respondents said their companies would be serving alcohol at their holiday parties,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer for the firm. “In addition to the added cost, serving alcohol adds a level of risk that most companies should strive to avoid. However, despite the increased cost and risk of including alcohol, many companies still embrace it as part of the festive atmosphere.”

Employers want you to party hardy, but that doesn’t mean you should whip out the lampshade. (more…)

There’s so much written and discussed about work/life balance today that our brains have become foggy.

We talk about whether kids or our loved ones should come first, and we suffer over the choices we make.

I’ve often ridiculed women in the past who whine incessantly about family, and see themselves only as extensions of their kids, significant others, or family members.

But we should never diminish the family-and-love perspective that women can bring to the table, especially mothers, and their influence is badly needed in today’s work world tainted by greed and egos, in everything from business to government. One woman crystallized this for me last night.

Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the powerful International Monetary Fund, was on 60 Minutes last night and she said some things about the realities of life that were inspiring. (more…)

You might want to think twice before you have a Big Mac for lunch, or take a cigarette break.

Companies are beefing up their efforts to make you healthier and they’re taking out the big guns. You’re costing employers too much money for medical coverage and increasingly firms are imposing penalties on workers who don’t get with the healthy program.

But is it legal or a smart business move? (more…)

Now that the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York have been kicked out of Zuccotti Park, they should camp out at corporate board meetings instead, and set aside their no-one-issue agenda and take up one cause that could really eradicate corporate greed.

The cause: Calling for more women leaders in Corporate America.

According to a just-released study by research firm Catalyst and Harvard Business School the more women leaders a company has the more charitable that company is.

The study, titled “Gender and Corporate Social Responsibility: It’s A Matter of Sustainability”, found that companies with more women board directors and corporate officers contributed significantly more charitable funds, on average, than companies with fewer or no women in senior roles: (more…)

The news lately has been focused on a bunch of people who decided their careers were more important than stopping an alleged pedophile. But what would you have done?

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky didn’t do a great job keeping his behavior hidden, even showering with boys where others could see. So the big question has been, why didn’t someone step up and stop his claimed inappropriate behavior with young boys?

Famed coach, Joe Paterno, knew what Sandusky was doing, but he turned a blind eye. Why? A columnist for the Boston Herald, Gerry Callahan, did the best job explaining his actions. Of Paterno, he wrote:

The kids in the shower with Coach Sandusky? They were a nuisance. They were threat to the fairy tale that Paterno had spun for decades.

Paterno has been like a god in college sports, and exposing Sandusky’s actions could have potentially hurt his own career.

We can all say right now that we would have stepped up. But there are always risks when taking such actions, especially for rank and file employees who don’t have oblivious college fans supporting them. (more…)

If you had the displeasure of watching Fox’ Hannity show last night you would have heard something disgusting that goes to the heart of why sexual harassment exists.

Dick Morris, a former Clinton adviser who has since done everything in his power to dog his former boss, was commenting on the newest Herman Cain sexual harassment revelation involving Sharon Bialek, who used to work for the National Restaurant Association’s education foundation when Cain was there.

She now claims Cain, the head of the NRA at the time and presumably in a position of power over many other women, put his hand under her skirt and also pushed her head towards his genitals. She didn’t report him at the time of the event, which she alleges happened more than a decade ago, but has now come out to tell her story during the Cain firestorm.

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Morris isn’t buying any of her claims, which is his prerogative, but he joined the sleaze parade when he made this comment about Bialek: “I look forward to her spread in Playboy.”

I’m sure he does, and I’m also sure that this type of lecherous behavior, and the acceptance of it by men, and often women, is what keeps it coming. (more…)

The one question I get asked often is when to bring up salary requirements during the interview process.

Some hiring managers I’ve talked to over the years have told me they don’t like when money is the first thing out of a job candidate’s mouth. But sometimes a job seeker just needs to know right away so they’re not wasting everyone’s time. It’s a fair thing to want to know and that’s exactly the dilemma of one of my long-time readers HikingStick.

If you missed it, check out his recent post on how he’s handling job loss.

I promised to update you all as he went through the job-search process so below is his latest installment, including his when-to-ask-about-pay problem. He expects to make less money than he did at his old job, but he needs a gig that will pay the bills, and can’t afford to lose unemployment if they pay is too low.

I’d love to hear from HR folks and hiring managers about what he should do to deal with this. Comment below, or email me at careerdiva@verizon.net. (Check out the great input on when to ask from HR experts at the end of this post.) (more…)

Tragic events impacting several families came down to a father choosing his son over his job.

It’s a story that has been playing out in the local and national media for some time, and ended yesterday with jail time for the dad.

A Philadelphia tugboat pilot, Matthew Devlin, was sentenced to a year in prison yesterday for putting aside his work to deal with a family emergency, a decision that ended up costing the lives of two young students who were on the boat he was navigating that day. His wife called him on his cell phone to tell him a routine surgery on his son had gone bad, and he spent the rest of his time on the phone and sending emails form his laptop, distracting him from his job at hand. His actions that day led to a tragic crash.

In another time, the pilot would never have known about his son’s near-death scare. He would not have been an easy phone call away. But today we know second by second what’s going on with our children, as we track them via text messages, phone calls, email, etc.

And today, the ideal parent is considered one who sacrifices everything for their kids, jobs, dreams, etc. Worklife balance has become code, in some respects, for employees setting aside work for family matters. And this is clearly not just a woman’s issue, as witnessed by this sad tugboat story.

The question is, have we parents gone too far? Sometimes work has to take precedence over our children, no? (more…)