When I covered the auto industry for a local newspaper many years ago, some of the autoworkers took to calling me Lois Lane. I’d show up in my fitted suits — notepad in hand — at the plants, at local bars they hung out at, and in parking lots where some of them drank beer to deal with the horrific summer heat in non air-conditioned facilities.

Even though I knew some of workers were mocking me a bit, I secretly was proud of the title. All I ever wanted to be was a reporter since I was probably around 11 or 12. Lois Lane happened to be my idol early on when I’d watch reruns of the original Superman series.

So, what’s weirder than a career writer writing about her new career?

Yes, I’m leaving the world of full-time journalism and heading into the nonprofit world. But I won’t be leaving the workplace and labor world my friends.

As of mid August, I’ll be joining a New York-based think tank called Families & Work Institute, or FWI.

I’ll still be blogging about workplace issues here on CareerDiva and writing occasionally for NBCNews.com, but my full-time gig will be getting the message out about the great research and advocacy FWI does.

This moment is bittersweet. I leave behind a profession I’ve loved for more than 20 years, and I leave behind a great crew of journalists at MSNBC.com, now NBCNews.com.

Change can be scary. I’ll admit that. But change is what makes our lives exciting and enriching. (more…)

There’s some good news for job seekers who have been faced with financial issues, or have had brushes with the law.

Fewer employers are snooping into your criminal or credit background today.

Criminal background checks have become increasingly popular partly because technology has made it easier to dig up dirt and partly because hiring managers want any tools to help them weed through the many applicants, given the tight labor market.

But such reviews had a tendency to disproportionately hurt African-Americans and Latinos, according to many labor advocates. Not to mention the fact that lots of other job seekers from all groups who’ve faced unemployment, or underemployment, have faced money woes and may have had their credit histories impacted as a result.

Steps by the federal government and states to crack down on the practice have gotten everyone looking more closely at the process.

“Some of the decline in the use of credit checks may be related to measures put in place by state governments and municipalities, as well as increased attention to the issue,” said Mike Aitken, vice president of government affairs at the Society of Human Resource Management.

The organization just released its figures on such background checks and found:

More than one-half (53 percent) of respondents to a SHRM survey said they don’t use credit background checks in hiring. That’s an increase from 2010, when 40 percent of organizations reported not using credit checks, and from 2004, when 39 percent did not.

“Employers – through their HR professionals – are continually evaluating practices and programs. And this is no different,” Aitken said.

“We think employers are looking more closely at these practices,” he continued. “They want to ensure that any screening or evaluation tool used during the hiring process is related to the duties of specific positions and consistent with federal law prohibiting job discrimination.”

Amen to that.

Government workers can’t get a break.

They’ve become the target of endless negative attacks. Many pundits keep beating the drum that government should operate more like Corporate America when it comes to the workforce. Businesses, not government bureaucrats, know how to save money and motivate employees, they stress.

Turns out, few really believe government managers should take a page from private business managers.

Last night CNN did a scathing piece on the General Services Administration saying they uncovered evidence of wasteful spending. The government agency reportedly provided cooking classes for employees as part of a team-building exercise.

The GSA has come under fire recently for a host of spending decisions on employees but this particular one got CNN’s Anderson Cooper up in arms last night. Cooper is still mad they went to Vegas on the tax-payers dime last year for a conference.

You would think the team-building cooking classes would be getting kudos from critics of how the government works. Team-building workshops are a key tool used by private corporations, including Turner Broadcasting, the owners of CNN. (more…)

I got a reality check from a friend on Facebook yesterday.

I had just finished a story on NBCNews.com yesterday about Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer and how she plans to balance her new gig and the new born she’s expecting in October, and after posting a link on my Facebook page a friend Kathryn wrote:

“Wow. I’m just really shocked that no one even mentioned the father. We don’t even blink when men return to work after having a child.”

She is so right. I wrote the story looking at her decision to take only a few weeks off after the baby comes, and her plan to answer emails from work right after giving birth. Many women, and men, got on her case saying she doesn’t know what she’s in for. (more…)

Can you bench press your weight? Some police departments in this country ask applicants to do this. This, among other physical aptitude tests, often keeps women out of the running.

A recent Justice Department lawsuit against a Texas police department claims such tests discriminate against women.

The government case against the city of Corpus Christi, Texas

“Challenges the police department’s use of a physical ability test for the hiring of entry-level police officers. According to the complaint, the physical test used by the city between 2005 and 2011 had the effect of excluding qualified women from consideration for hire as entry-level police officers and did not screen candidates for job-related skills.”

Cases like this get a lot of anger on both sides. Do we want our cops to be as strong as possible to fight crime, or have we created tests that have nothing to do with the job of policing, and keep out qualified applicants? (more…)