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'First mom' has other roles
When Michelle Obama wrote this month that her number one job as first lady would be to be a mom, eyebrows were naturally raised. After all, she's a smart, Ivy League-educated lawyer who worked most recently as a top hospital executive.
Down, and no one to talk to
Hinda Swartz tries not to share too many of her work and financial worries with her significant other anymore, so she often lies awake at night, her mind racing.
As the economy worsens, more people are taking on additional jobs
Tina Wells is squeezed. Unable to find sufficient work in her field, the Clinton social worker and mother of two is now supplementing a five-hour-a-week consulting gig with weekend work as a restaurant hostess - a job she thought she'd left behind in graduate school. Her husband, Chris, is a project manager at a corporate audio-visual firm.
The art of mentoring, modernized
Layoffs are mounting. The stock market is sliding. How can you begin to recession-proof your career? Try mentoring.
Firm support for the family
When Beth Reilly returned to work this spring from nearly nine months of maternity leave, her husband, Patrick Callahan, began a summer at home in Needham tending full time to their son, Ryan. Next month, they'll get a nanny. But the couple was thrilled to share care for their son's first year of life. (8/24/08)
Coach Wellness
At the end of this past spring's exhausting tax season, Quincy auditor Jasmine Hsu began having doubts. She wasn't sure she wanted to stay in a field that demanded all-consuming, 60-hour workweeks for a big part of each year. And she especially longed to find time to exercise again. (8/10/08)
Job market wasted on the young
After shuttering his small Groton metal fabrication business in 2005, Gary Williams began looking for work. But he hunted for two years for a managerial post without success, and he thinks he knows why. He's 61. (7/27/08)
Creativity can thrive, if you keep the e-mail in check
It's not just the e-mail. The phone calls, instant messages, digital documents, meetings, conference calls, and text messages add up. The result is information overload, and a workforce increasingly buried under data points and communications tidbits. (7/13/08)
Attention class
In the fast-paced, distraction-plagued arena of modern life, perhaps nothing has come under more assault than the simple faculty of attention. We bemoan the tug of war for our focus, joke uneasily about our attention-deficit lifestyles, and worry about the seeming epidemic of attention disorders among children. (6/29/08)
From winning the bread to spreading peanut butter on it
The Mr. Mom joke is wearing thin. Millions of fathers are caring full time for their kids, turning the "stay-at-home dad" from an exotic rarity to just another breed of modern parent. (6/15/08)
Bringing up babies at work
Could that be a gurgle or - whoa - a stinky diaper in the next cubicle? (6/01/08)
More employers embrace flexible scheduling
Not long ago, Lauren Krikorian had a wish list. She wanted to get her master's degree in social work while keeping her job to avoid thousands of dollars in student loans. (5/18/08)
Corporate volunteers reaching worldwide
Corporate volunteering is getting a passport - and a new set of wings. Taking the idea of company-backed "service" three steps and a time zone beyond blood drives and litter pick-ups, pioneering firms are sending employees on intensive, monthslong stints in developing markets around the globe to volunteer at schools, hospitals, start-ups, or even city councils. (5/04/08)