I just finished a story on the teen summer job market and one thing I kept hearing from business owners was that kids today just aren’t independent, and as a result don’t always make the best employees. One woman who owns a water ice shop in Dover, DE told me parents come in to ask if she has jobs for their kids instead of the kids coming in themselves. “That’s a bad sign,” she said, when it comes to how they’ll perform on the job.

Are we not hard enough on our kids? Do we do everything for them to the point of progeny paralysis?

In the last installment from my book, “From the Sandbox to the Corner Office,” I share one CEO’s experience with stern parents who toughened the executive up for life. (more…)

The only real good worker news recently has come out of Google. The company announced it was giving its entire global workforce of 23,000 a 10 percent pay raise starting in January.

Even though the search engine giant has had some layoffs during the recession, they are nothing like other large companies, and Google’s been hiring consistently through the bad times.

Clearly, lots of folks want to work for Google and companies like them. But how do you get on the Google job track?

With so many college kids graduating and finding no work, it makes sense for high school students and their parents, who are now scouting colleges, to wonder whether the school they pick will lead to a solid job for a solid employer.

But how do you find out whether the school you’re in is more likely to be a recruiting favorite of companies like Google? Social networking sites! There’s a wealth of information on these sites, particularly LinkedIn, that can shed light on this and I’m going to show you how to find it. (more…)

Yesterday I met two very smart 16-year-old girls who surprisingly knew little about what’s appropriate in the workplace.

I spoke at a local library about teens and work, and one of the parts of my presentation that intrigued the two teens I met the most was on workplace rights, including everything from being paid what you’re owed to sexual harassment.

I talked to them about minimum wage, and making sure you get paid overtime if you work overtime. And I also told them it was not cool if your manager pressures you to date him, or a co worker sends you sexually explicit text messages.

They both giggled a bit, and the one teen felt comfortable enough to ask me a question about a friend of hers who worked at a fast food restaurant.

The friend, she said, had seen something at work and wondered if it crossed the line. A male manager at the store, who was in his early twenties, told a female worker who was 16 that she had to clean up an area in the kitchen. The girl said she would get to it when she was finished cleaning another section he had asked her to clean but he wasn’t happy with her response.

He said, “you can either clean this up now or you can give me a blow job.” (more…)

I have a confession to make. I’m also sexist.

My 10-year-old daughter was so excited the other day about being asked by her teacher to help a six-year-old girl to read.

“She’s so smart mommy,” she said, about the little girl named Simaya.

“Then why did they want you to help her read?,” I asked.

“She just needs some help pronouncing the big words,” she said with such pride in her voice and a huge grin on her face.

My first reaction was to think to myself : “You’re not going to become a teacher are you?” (more…)

I remember the first job I had as a teenager where I had to punch a clock. It was at a Syms clothing store on Long Island, NY, and in some ways that job as a sales associate helped my career. (more…)