What Happened to Jay Could Happen to You

Jay Leno tells Parade he has the new job jitters. No big surprise.
What is still surprising is that NBC fired him from The Tonight Show when he was No. 1 to make room for “the future” of late night, Conan O’Brien.

What type of boss fires the strongest performers, especially during an economic crisis? It’s a hotly-debated question — since the 15 million Americans who’ve been pink-slipped are hardly slackers.
Sure, there may be some among them, but unemployment is an equal opportunity offender.
If a guy like Leno, whose new 10 p.m. show kicks off Monday on NBC, can get the ax — even one that was long planned — what does it mean for other superstars within their organizations?

One silver lining: getting rid of the top dog makes it easier for those waiting in the wings to shine.
The team at ABC’s Nightline, for example, has seen its ratings soar in the wake of the late-night shake up.
Do you know anyone who’s been laid off whose performance was so strong that it’s left you scratching your head? Or, on the flip side, tell us about someone who’s found a way to thrive in a challenging climate because the opportunity presented itself?

A First: Women Almost Outnumber Men at Work

For the first time in history, women are on the verge of outnumbering men in the workforce — thanks to long-term societal changes in women’s roles and sharp job losses for men in the recession.

Women held 49.83% of the nation’s 132 million jobs in June and they are gaining the vast majority of jobs in the few sectors of the economy that are growing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At the current pace, they’ll outnumber men as early as next month, USA TODAY reports.

“It was a long historical slog to get to this point,” Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, told the paper.
The change reflects the growing importance of women as wage earners, but it doesn’t show full equality, Hartmann says.

On average, women work fewer hours than men, hold more part-time jobs and earn 77% of what men make, she says. Men also still dominate higher-paying executive ranks.
Women have been a growing share of the once heavily male labor force for nearly a century, recording big bumps during epochal events such as the Depression and World War II.

Recession Reality: Postponing Retirement

Atlanta hospital nurse Barbara Petrucci is 58 and had expected to retire or cut back to part time soon.
But stock market declines in the recession took such a hit on her savings that Petrucci now plans to stay on the job indefinitely.
“Retirement is kind of an elusive dream at this point,” Petrucci told The New York Times.
Her retired husband, Ned, 61, has been interviewing for jobs, so far with no success. “We tease at work about someday having to go around at the hospital with our walkers,” she says.
Elsewhere in the world, people are retiring as planned thanks to intact state and corporate pensions.
But here, financial security in old age rests increasingly on private savings, which nosedived in the last year. Prospective retirees are now clinging to jobs.
As a result, companies are not only reluctant to create new jobs, but have fewer job openings to fill from attrition. For the 14 million Americans looking for work — a number expected to rise — this lack of turnover has made a tough job market even tougher.
Tell us your story? Have you postponed your retirement or, if you plan to, how are you making it work?

Low-Wage Workers Get Squeezed

Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The New York Times reports.

The study found that 68% of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week.

Researchers said one of the most surprising findings was how successful low-wage employers were in pressuring workers not to file for workers’ compensation. Only 8% of those who suffered serious injuries on the job filed for compensation to pay for medical care and missed days at work stemming from those injuries.

Boomers: We Need New Skills

While guardely optimistic about the future, most baby boomers think its more difficult for anyone over age 50 to find work in this recession.

Almost half think they don’t have the necessary skills to compete in today’s job market, a survey of 1,300 people by Thirdage,com. a boomer website.

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Finding Your ‘Quiet Strength’ as an Introvert

Four out of five introverted professionals say extroverts are more likely to get ahead where they work, says Jennifer Kahnweiler, author of the new book, The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Quiet Strength. What’s more, over 40 percent say they would like to change their introverted tendencies, but don’t know where or how to begin. Women For Hire asked Jennifer Five Questions.

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