Dear J.T. & Dale: My company has announced that we have to come into the office three days a week. However, my boss has not come in. Nobody has discussed this with her, but we're all pretty upset. Can I say something to her? It doesn't seem fair. ─ Bianca
J.T.: I agree; it doesn't seem fair. More importantly, it seems really odd that the manager isn't explaining herself. I don't think I would specifically ask her why she isn't adhering to the rules, but I do think you could email her and tell her that you're looking forward to seeing her in person and were wondering when would the next time she'd be in the office. That way, you're putting a positive spin on your inquiry. That might also prompt her to explain why she hasn't been coming into the office. But, if she doesn't give an answer, then I think you just have to accept that at the management level, maybe she's been given different criteria than the rest of you.
BEST OF CAREER RESOURCES
J.T.: It's time for our review of useful career resources, and this time it's a book that Dale brought to my attention: "Summer Camp Jobs USA: Find Your Job, Get Your Job, Love Your Job" by Michael Pastore. The first surprises are the numbers involved: There are more than 16,000 camps serving 14 million campers, and get this, an estimated 1.5 million staff members. By the way, when I think of summer camp, I think of spending days or weeks at camp, but Pastore reports that 7,000 of the 16,000 summer camps are "day camps," rather than sleepover ones.
DALE: If you or your favorite teen might want to be one of the 1.5 million staffers, now is the time to apply ─ this is their hiring season. The book details 10 "classic methods" for a job search along with a "Super-List" of 20 websites and search engines. For instance, there's a site for the American Camp Association (acacamps.org) which has a jobs center where you can sign up for email alerts when new jobs are posted. But Pastore points out that only about 20% of camps are members of the ACA, so there are plenty of other places to search.
The U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in March while unemployment ticked back down to 3.5%, according to the latest jobs report.
