Tomorrow I’m off to the Great Place to Work (GPTW) conference in San Diego. GPTW is the company that administers Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” and “50 Best Small and Medium-Size Company” lists. And although I try to make it to this conference most years, this time I’m particularly curious about it, because […]
healthy companies
Recovering Ourselves: The Secret to True Diversity at Work
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is upon us, and disguise is on my mind. Let me explain. I’ve been mulling over the concept of “covering”—a word that is new to me in this context but has apparently been around since 1963, when it was coined by sociologist Erving Goffman. “Covering” refers to the practice of […]
Six New Year’s Resolutions for Employers
I’m not very good at New Year’s resolutions. It’s never made sense to me to pick an arbitrary date and pretend I’m going to start doing something—or everything—differently from that point on. Any gym owner can tell you how the weight room and spin classes swell each January, only to return to near-empty by […]
Seven Work-and-Life Advances I’m Grateful For This Thanksgiving
It’s been a tough year, both personally and for the country and for the world. And, to my amazement, it is already drawing to a close. Hanukkah just two weeks away? Is that possible? But before Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc., comes Thanksgiving. So once again this year, in honor of all the turkeys to […]
The Trouble With
Parental Leave
Parental Leave
A few weeks ago, at Working Mother’s annual “WorkLife Congress,” I attended a breakout session that made me think of Adam Pertman. I’d had a conversation with the adoption reformer a few months ago about the status of employer supports for adoption—see my last post for some of what I learned. The breakout session I […]
When a Tie is Not Just a Tie
My husband has a beef about ties. Or, more precisely, about the lack thereof. A future sociologist exploring the culture of work at the setting of the 20th century and dawn of the 21st would undoubtedly take note of the changing mores of appropriate office wear. The era of casual dress crept up on us […]
