The Myth of the Two-Income Family raises some interesting thoughts:
*two-incomes today are equivalent to one income in the 1970s (with some caveats);
*the United States is “shockingly behind” the rest of industrialized nations in terms of maternity care and parental leave; and
*yet there is just about total silence in Academia and beyond on the issue.
A photo essay of office pranks, most of which involve a lot of paper.
Today’s theme: Stupid Workplace Policies
Please vote for whichever one you think is the stupidest.
Rarely have I anything positive to say about any health care insurer, but I really think this is a brilliant idea: Kaiser Permanente Farmers Markets:
Kaiser Permanente has 30 farmers markets at medical facilities in four states where patients, staff and community members shop.
Locally grown fruits and vegetables also are used in 23 Kaiser hospital kitchens.
Innovative programs like the one sponsored by Kaiser Permanente are extending the reach of the farmers market ideal, bringing high-quality fresh produce grown by small farmers to a wider audience.
Doctors are so focused on disease that they may not always see the value of a bunch of fresh kale or an ear of just-picked corn, Maring says, but Kaiser Permanente’s emphasis on preventive medicine seemed a good fit for farm-fresh food.
That’s such a good idea.
Ms. Theologian,
Your response from yesterday reminded me of something:
Once I had a job interview, and I commented on the enormous photo of my potential employer’s kid (”Cute kid!”) and then she asked if I had children. She’s not supposed to ask, right? I didn’t know what to say, so I just answered truthfully (”yes”).
-Still puzzling over it
Dear Still puzzling,
Yes, “Do you have children” and the variant, “Do you plan on having children?” are considered big no-no’s. Also in the list are:
What is your religious background?
How old are you?
Do you have a disability?
Are you married? and
Do you have children?
There are actually a bunch more variants here (and feel free to browse the extensive information here at the EEOC on ways that folks discriminate) but the major questions really are above. Unfortunately inappropriate and/or illegal questions are much more prevalent in interviews than you might think.
The best strategy to formulate an answer may be to gauge what is trying to be discovered, and then address that. Did the interviewer need to know if you had children that would interfere with overnight travel? Did she purposefully (and deviously) place the giant kid photo there in order to solicit comments and ask job candidates about children? Was she just being politely reciprocal and doesn’t know the law? Was there some other reason?
Ms. Theologian sees at least three options for you, none of which is ideal:
1. Answering truthfully as you did;
2. Lying, which may have unintended consequences if you’re hired; and
3. Reminding the interviewer politely that the question is illegal, which is hard to do (one suggestion here).
Because Ms. Theologian is above all a practical theologian, she thinks that answering truthfully as you did and then moving quickly on is not a bad idea, providing you wanted the job and providing that the question was asked merely as a reciprocal sort of thing. But that doesn’t make Ms. Theologian very happy. After all, whether or not you have children should not be asked.
Readers, can you think of a nice way to say the question was inappropriate (one suggestion is linked to above) without jeopardizing the rest of the interview? The suggestion I’ve included above seems like it would kill your shot at the job.
-Ms. Theologian
If you’d like to write to Ms. Theologian, send an email to ms dot theologian at gmail dot com.
It’s interesting to see what professions may be going extinct (providing you’re not in that profession!).
Realtors in California are finding it very hard going. Not only have home prices decreased dramatically, many buyers see no need for their services.
What other professions do you think will decline? There’s some hints here in terms of predictions about the future.
While web sites like Monster and Careerbuilder allow you to apply for jobs on-line and with relative ease, you shouldn’t be under the impression that you can get away without avoiding tailoring your resume for every job you apply for. You do need to customize that resume.
A few tips for customizing your resume:
* Use a Summary Section at the top of the resume (right under the address) to describe yourself in the language of the job advertisement. The Summary is now considered preferable to describing an objective at the top. The Summary does not need to be in complete sentences.
* Use the language of the job advertisement in the body of the resume. This means using the same action verbs as in the advertisement.
* Edit your resume. Check that all verbs for past jobs are in the past tense. Check that all verbs for current jobs are in the present tense.
* One to two pages is all you get unless it’s a CV and you’re an academic.
* Do not list hobbies or volunteer work unless it is relevant. If it’s relevant, by all means, list it at the very bottom.
Dear Ms. Theologian,
I have read your blog for quite a while, and have even commented thereon a few times. And, at the moment, I find myself in need of some advice.
My situation is thusly: My “boss” (quotes explanation in a moment) seems to have gone completely mad. (The reason for the quotes is that technically she’s my boss’ boss, but she is actually The Boss. I cannot do anything to please her, and I recently was told that she wants to: 1) give me a “needs improvement” review and 2) open my position in order to replace me. Read the rest of this entry…
Dear Ms. Theologian,
I just found out that I was very well qualified for a job for which I applied, but was also one of 1000 well qualified applicants for the same position. My question to you is this—when inundated with applicants, how does an employer determine who to hire, aside from the loaded issue of racial quotas and preferential hiring statistics?Thanks,
Seeking Among Thousands
Dear Seeking,
What gets your resume plucked from a stack of thousands of qualified candidates? having a clean, short (1-2 page) resume that stresses the language of the job advertisement and some luck
No one ever admits to the luck since we live in a meritocracy where people seem to think they get what they deserve, but there is quite a lot of luck involved in who gets hired, who gets fired, and who and what are successful.
What gets you hired from an interview among a dozen equally qualified candidates? being likable and, of course, we all tend to think of ourselves that way, so here are some tips to make sure we are (in short, be empathetic and interested).
-Ms. Theologian
It looks like there’s a small tax credit that you may be due through your employer.
is probably not a good idea.
School policy varies on twittering and blogging, but as you can see from the article, some schools ban teachers from blogging entirely, and haven’t begun to consider Twitter.
Dean Dad at Confessions of a Community College Dean has two explanations for boss types: the narcissist and the church lady. Terribly amusing, though, of course, generalizations to the extreme.
The Raging Narcissist — usually male, but not always — thinks that it’s all about him. Although they’re sometimes selfish, their real calling card is an inability to tell where they end and other people begin….
The Church Lady — usually female, but not always — is the micromanaging control freak who mistakes ‘means’ for ‘ends’ without even knowing it. They live and die by administrivia, and love nothing more than holding grudges for years on end….
Encountered either of these types?
I’m going to be brief today, because my hips hurt and I’m tired and my husband appears to have food poisoning or maybe he just ate way too much of the leftover potatoes au gratin.
I have three articles that I’ve been saving for a rainy day. They don’t really fit in with anything else, except that they are about the economy and they are mostly irritating:
In Man’s Unique Job Search is Sign of the Times we read about a Florida man who is looking for work by standing around on a street corner with a posterboard advertising his unemployed status. Judging from a Googled profile on LinkedIn, it may well have worked.
In Recipe for Adventure: 52 Weeks, 52 Friends, I see a guy who would earn a smack upside the head and not a couch from me. But then, I’m not really a fan of anyone who chucks a perfectly good job in this economy and then sponges off his friends in the guise of being artistic and bohemian.
I could have sworn this was already written about in this blog, but I didn’t find anything in my search so perhaps Ms T and I merely bitched about it via email. Can Two People Eat on $67 a Week? Oh, it’s so difficult to give up the mesclun and butchered duck legs, I know.
Okay, I’m hobbling off to make some rice for the invalid.
I love this story about hunting for a job post-baby:
I had a great deal of trouble finding a new job, partly because my son never slept for more than 90 minutes at a time, and I was showing up for interviews with raccoon eyes, slapped-together toilette, and a brain composed of Swiss cheese. Eventually, in despair, I consulted a professional career counselor, who attempted to hone my interviewing skills through role-playing.
“Why did you leave your last job?” she asked.
“I have a baby at home, and I need more regular hours.”
“Stop right there! You just lost the job,” she informed me. She explained that “nobody wants an employee who is more concerned with her kids than with her job.” She advised me to “forget you even have a baby” during the interview: “They’re not allowed to ask, so just focus on the professional issues. Tell them your previous job was a ’student job’ and that now that you’ve graduated you are looking for a long-term, career-building position.”
The following week, I had a preliminary phone interview for a student counseling position at a university in another state. Everything seemed to be working in my favor: my son had just fallen asleep when the interview started; the interviewer was impressed with some extra training experiences I had sought out which would prove useful in this position; we discovered some mutual acquaintances in the field. I could hear the enthusiasm in his voice.
Then my son started to whimper. Surreptitiously, I picked him up and began nursing him — and as the prolactin began to kick in, my answers became more vague and dreamy. I jerked myself back to attention, and my son unlatched — and delivered a huge, unmistakable belch into the receiver.
She didn’t get that job, but you can read the positive ending to the job search here.
Here are a few mini-summaries about workplace articles that I’m reading.
Tomorrow a bill will be introduced that would guarantee 7 paid sick days for employees at companies with more than 15 employees. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t have guaranteed short and long-term sick leave.
Did you know that bosses are often unaware of how closely they are watched by subordinates? Apparently other primates do this too.
And, of course, according to 7 Ways to Be Happier at Work, it’s very possible to be happier in the workplace, you just have to decide to do so. It’s easy enough to say….
Could anything be more pleasing than giant pink pie charts for results of an office romance survey? I don’t think so. And by “pleasing” I actually mean gag-able.
Good tips for making your workplace friendly to the bicyclist-commuters.
Today’s theme: Getting Fired
If a teacher tells a student who attempted suicide that his attempt was weak, and to “carve deeper next time,” isn’t that enough to get him fired? Apparently not.
How about making a student clean up the clog they created in a toilet using paper towels? Possibly.
What else can you get fired for…talking about buying medical marijuana for your aunt who has breast cancer is not a good idea, if you are a police dispatcher. I have to say despite being pro-legalization, I’m with the employers on this… the first rule of Pot Club is, you don’t tell all your coworkers.
You can also get fired for getting caught riding a 66-mile endurance race when you’ve been out on sick leave for more than 90 days.
As a patient, the last thing I would want is for one of the nurses to get laid off mid-surgery. I’m just saying.
And finally, the last thing you want to come home to after you get fired from your job? Your house, on fire.
And on that happy and uplifting note, have a great week everyone!
I’m not sure what it means that I’m terribly amused not only by the office in a box, but by the commentary here, here, and here.
I went to Wesleyan, and although workplace violence is extremely common, this really seems to hit home as it’s a murder at a bookstore I used to frequent.
At the cafe at Broad Street Books near Wesleyan a 22 year old student was shot to death multiple times at point blank range. Early reports were that she was shot by a boyfriend, and later by an older man from her hometown, and now it is totally unclear how she knew her murderer, but apparently she did. The guy has been identified, and the hunt for him is on. Very scary photo here.
More at the Tenured Radical on how she coped with the news on campus, reflections from a child psychiatrist who happened to work next door, details about the murderer’s threats in his journal toward the Wesleyan community and/or its Jewish students, and student posts. Meanwhile, the students have been told to stay inside locked buildings and the faculty and staff are supposed to stay home.
No one has asked Ms. Theologian a question in a while, so she’s going to take someone else’s: a job hunter wants to know if she can leave off her major in women’s studies from her resume (she has a double major in English and Gender and
Women’s Studies).
Um. Yes. Please. Feel free to leave off your major in Gender/Women’s Studies. In fact, I would highly advise it. And I like the fields, but those are all terms with a ton of baggage, and you don’t know what it’s going to trigger in someone who sees it.
Of course, we could say that you need to find a job in which a double major in English and Women’s studies would be applauded. But I am far more practical than that. You need a job. You are not lying if you leave something off. So leave it off.
You are in no way obligated to portray the totality of who you are as a human being on your resume. You need to tailor it to the job (despite what some folks say in comments).