Carol's blog

This may come as a huge surprise to you but white males dominate the upper levels of management. Today, in the Wall Street Journal Carol Hymowitz wrote about the lack of diversity - only 15% of corporate-officer jobs are held by women. The news on pay disparity between men and women will not cheer you up, either. According to Hymowitz, women still only make 77% of what men are paid. It has been 40 years since gender discrimination was outlawed in the workplace. Where did the time go?

Neck-snapping, vertiginous, nausea-inducing. All appropriate descriptions of the stock market ride this week. We are dangerous close to the 20% drop in the market signaling a bear market. You can't open a newspaper without seeing the R word thrown casually around. Yes, Virginia, we are headed for a recession.

What does that mean for onrampers? Like any challenging time, you can either look at it with foreboding or as an opportunity. I prefer to look at the coming (current?) recession as a boon for those who want to find flexible, part-time and possibly temporary professional work.

This morning as I sipped my latte while reading the Wall Street Journal, something unusual caught my eye. On the front page of the Marketplace section there was a "teaser" for an article in that section. The teaser read,"Some busy lawyers ask a court for help in balancing work and family, B7" My first reaction was that it was a group of female lawyers who were tired of working 80 hour weeks and were trying to seek relief in the court system. As I flipped to the article on page B7 I realized that the article did not refer to women but men.

It's been a few years since company perquisites have been a hot news topic. After the "tech bubble" burst, we stopped hearing about ping pong tables in conference rooms, all-you-can-eat-for-free employee lunches and masseuses who knead away knots at your desk. Well, guess what?

On-rampers who have been out of the workplace for a while often wonder how to determine their "market value". You know you made $65,000 a year before you stepped out of the workforce (for what has been several years now) so what the heck can you expect now?

Hello, my name is Carol and I am a serial on-ramper. Of course, until last year I did not know my spotty work history had an official name. The last 13 years since my first child was born have been a hodge-podge of part-time, full-time, consulting, project-based work and occasional much-needed unemployment. I've had more on- and off-ramps than an LA freeway.

Want to re-enter the workforce? Take a page out of an ex-CEO's book. In the age of demanding shareholders, the job of a CEO is far from secure. After just a few bad quarters, a CEO may find his/her job on the line. Many choose to "pursue other interests", "consult" or "retire" only to find themselves trying to reinvent themselves for the next work challenge. This year an average of 6 CEOs will leave their jobs every day, according to the outplacement firm, Challenger & Gray. The number represents a record number of turnover in the CEO ranks.

As I pack my bags for my annual Santa Barbara beach trip, I can't help but rejoice in my current work situation - part-time and flexible. For the last few summers, I have been working full-time, checking my Blackberry between dips in the ocean. This summer, while I always have my Blackberry with me, it is not an obsession anymore. I feel lucky to work with women who cherish their summertime as much as I do.

Fox Network has a new reality show, as if we need another one, called "On the Lot". In this show, aspiring filmmakers compete for a chance to become a full-fledged Hollywood insider including $1 million contract with Dreamworks Studios. On one of the first episodes, the "challenge" was to pitch a movie idea to the panel of judges - Garry Marshall, Carrie Fisher and Brett Ratner. The contestants had 24 hours to come up with a winning pitch. Most agonized, stayed up all night and when it came time to pitch, they failed miserably. But one guy really stood out.