In the 21st century, in the richest nation on earth, some people are still struggling to make ends meet. African American men make an average of $0.87 for every dollar a White man earns, and Latinos come in at $0.91. It gets worse when we factor in gender: Black women make $0.62 cents to the…
DetailsI have White privilege. I’m biracial, and honestly I identify more with my Asian side, but the fact is that I “pass” as White, regardless of my sense of self. That means: · I do not get characterized because of the color of my skin. · People don’t compliment me on my English or…
DetailsYou have the right to safety. You have the right to personhood. You deserve to feel safe and protected at work, on the streets, in your home. It’s taken me a while to marshal my thoughts around the needless death of George Floyd, coming as it did right with the harassment of Christian Cooper and…
DetailsWhat if you’re still not clear about what you are meant to do? You may be someone who doesn’t need to love your job. In fact, your job might just be something that gives you the room to do the stuff you love—a means to an end, rather than the end in and of itself.…
DetailsLiking your coworkers is so important to liking your job. In my last job, I really struggled because there were a lot of challenging people there. Briefly, there was a fellow who called himself “Mr. Diversity” and complimented a Vietnamese American student on “good Asian work ethic.” There was the person who cleared his throat…
DetailsFinding what you love can be a double-edged sword. How can you be sure that doing it for pay won’t kill off your passion and enthusiasm? I enjoy food a lot, and for a while I’d thought that maybe I wanted to be a restaurant critic. I mean, get paid to eat? That sounded…
DetailsBut how can you determine what you really enjoy? It seems like this should be simple, but often it’s just not. We get so bogged down with other people’s advice, opinions about prestige, messages about what’s realistic, worries about money, etc., that sometimes we just can’t tell. And sometimes we haven’t really had the space…
DetailsWhat are you doing with your holiday? If you get one, that is, and if it’s different from your current state of employment. I ask because often what we do in our leisure time can give us a sense of what we really enjoy doing. Things are different these days, of course, so maybe…
DetailsHow can you say no when your boss wants you to do something more? I’ve been talking about saying no this week, and I know this particular issue is a big challenge for a lot of us. It’s certainly something I’ve struggled with in previous jobs. In terms of approaching this issue,…
DetailsThe first real job offer I turned down was terrifying. I was fresh back from Japan, and had realized through my time there that I didn’t want to teach—the thing I’ d clung to as a possible career all through college and my 3 years on the Japan Exchange & Teaching Program. So in…
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