HR Doesn’t Care About Your Work/Life Balance

HR doesn’t care about your work/life balance. Well, that’s harsh. They care, but they have problems of their own. Human resources departments have undergone a transformation. They are agile, data-driven, and aligned with the executive agenda. Employee advocacy, when it happens, happens because it benefits the company’s bottom line. Your work/life balance bottom line is your own…

mushroom coffee

The Busy Trap, Revisited

One of the most important things I’ve ever read in my life is a short essay called “The Busy Trap” by Tim Kreider. (Have you read it? Read it right now.) Kreider is a writer who finds himself too busy to write. He forces himself into a state of solitude and contemplation and reaffirms a crucial…

Good Friday, 1986

It’s Good Friday 1986. I am in sixth grade at St. Wenceslaus, a weird and quirky Catholic school on the northwest side of Chicago. My classmates are working-class descendants of Polish, German, Mexican and Filipino immigrants. There’s a first-generation Peruvian American in my class, too. We are the model UN of Catholic schools, and our…

People on the Internet

Someone googled “what to do when husband beats you and you have kids” and they came to my site. Many people on the internet are jokesters and fools. Some people on social networking sites are stalkers or bullies. But most people are honest, hardworking people who are looking for reliable answers to tough questions. I…