This post isn’t going to be about PR for the most part, so if that’s your interest, you can stop reading.

OK, not so fast.

What’s got me going today is the topic of jobs. Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain, and the accusations flying around about his role in destroying (and creating) jobs with the blunt instrument of private capital, is everywhere in the news. Data-driven analyses of job trends are much harder to find than criticism of Romney, although this piece by Holman Jenkins in the Wall Street Journal is on point.

Anyone who’s been in the work world for more than a year knows what it is to fear his or her job is at risk. In a way we’re the lucky ones – we have jobs – but to be a private-sector employee is to live with uncertainty, to constantly worry if skills are up to date, your employer is financially viable, good recommendations are available, your personal network is bigger than you and your spouse/partner, gray hairs don’t show and so on. Being in a job today, in short, is no guarantee of having a job tomorrow.

Norma Clarke, a very wise woman who was VP of HR at the Open Software Foundation, once told me no one had the right to deny another person the basic dignity of a job.

Of course the comment above is out of context – we were having a discussion about a staffing problem – but her comment stuck with me, even if I don’t completely agree. I’ve been a manager, an employee and self-employed. I’ve worked for crazy people, lazy people, brilliant people and clueless people. I’ve worked with superb writers, designers and craftspeople, idiots-savant who were brilliant at certain things, entrepreneurs who were terrifying in their single-mindedness and manipulators whose malicious and selfish impulses nearly destroyed the workplace. Most of the people I’ve worked with and for have been decent, hardworking, intelligent and reasonable. But all of us – employers and employees alike – have always been at the mercy of the markets, the government and the inexorable march of technology. There is no guarantee of a job. There never has been.

Economists (Schumpeter is credited with coining the term) like to call one of the forces most affecting the average employee ‘creative destruction’. As Holman Jenkins points out in the WSJ today, it’s a continual process. What he doesn’t get to is what each of us can do to guard against becoming its victim.

In my fairly limited experience the only way to protect oneself from creative destruction is to keep moving. Constantly learn, retrain and expand your skills at every opportunity. Push for on-the-job training; read widely, take classes and go to networking events. Live as though every day is your first day on the job, and possibly your last day. Be prepared.

Back to where I don’t completely agree with Norma: carry your dignity within. We are not all, it turns out, afforded the dignity of a job or continuous employment. So don’t count on work to make you a whole person. Live with dignity and curiosity, and the job will come.

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Technorati Tags: creativity, economy, jobs, Romney

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Years ago when I was in J-school we were taught many useful things: how to write pyramid style, how to copyedit, how to conduct an interview with a less-than-willing subject, how to check facts and the importance of primary sources. The most important lesson, though, was how to be an impartial observer, a reporter of the news. There were courses for those drawn to fiction writing, which was viewed as a separate discipline.

Sounds quaint, doesn’t it?

And because I was a child of the 60s and 70s, we were encouraged to view women as equals, worthy of fair treatment in life and in the press. Strong, intelligent, capable and due the respect men automatically received. Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Germaine Greer fought for women’s rights. Steinem is still at it. While abstract arguments about the fair treatment of women may have advanced women’s causes – more women now graduate from college than men and more receive advanced professional degrees – real equality, and fair treatment, are still a fiction.

Especially in politics, and especially in the media’s treatment of women in politics.

What prompted this little trip into nostalgia and outrage is Newsweek’s treatment of Michele Bachman on this week’s cover.

Looks like a nut, doesn’t she?

Of course the article was written by a woman, Lois Romano (the magazine sports her flattering glamour shot) and the magazine is edited by a woman, Tina Brown. Bachman’s photo appears to be credited to Chris Buck (gender undetermined), but we’re checking that.

So here’s the outrage part: apparently we are supposed to believe that what’s been done to Bachman is ok, since it was done (largely) by women. After all, she’s a Tea Party nutcase, right?

But the journalists have put themselves into the story. Rather than presenting a neutral, normal picture with which to illustrate the story, they have chosen a photo because it makes Bachman look like a nutcase.

Bachman, of course, is not the only female politician to receive the madwoman/ fat girl treatment. Recall the many photos of Sarah Palin looking unhinged or impossibly coy (here’s a relatively benign snap that manages to make Palin look merely paranoid):

Of course Newsweek/The Daily Beast is not the only offender. Here’s Sonia Sotomayor looking like she needs a haircut:

And candidate Hilary Clinton looking a bit zaftig:

Political men, on the other hand, receive different treatment (especially if they are Democrats):

The candidate Barack Obama:

Former President Bill Clinton:

Harry Reid, looking thoughtful:

Sadly, things really haven’t changed much since the 70s. Sure, women are in the workplace (earning less than men, unless, of course, they are single and childless) and hold positions of political power (however, women are now only 17 percent of Congress – we lost seats after the most recent mid-term election.)

It remains true that women, especially when they seek positions of power, are suspect, and portrayed as edge cases. And heaven help them if they’re conservative.

It’s a story that’s getting really old. And as a trained journalist who works with the media every day, it’s never easy watching the wall between news reporting and creative writing blur.

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Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Journalism, Michelle Bachman, Portrayal of Women in the Media, Sarah Palin, Sonia Sotomayor

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In this episode of PRobecast, Renatta Siewert and Justin Martell join me in talking about the man who live-tweeted the Bin Laden operation, Google adding video chat to the Android phone and Assange calling Facebook a spy for the government.

Man live-tweets Bin Laden operation – A Pakistani man live-tweeted the raid that killed Bin Laden – the most wanted terrorist in the world. As he strangely heard the noise of a helicopter above him he started tweeting about what he heard. Quickly, he gained 14,000 followers. He continued to blog about the noises that he was hearing and became the first to document the operation. This goes to show the power of 140 characters.

Android phones will have video chat capabilities – Google recently revealed that it is adding video chat capabilities to the Android phone. This will allow users to chat from their phones, computers or tablets – however these capabilities are only available if you have an Android 2.3 version – it also requires 3G, 4G or a WiFi connection. Is this about time or right on time?

Julian Assange says Facebook is a way for the government to spy on you – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange recently was interviewed by Russia Today. During the interview he called Facebook “the most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented.” Harsh words, but he does have some reasoning behind it. While the government doesn’t run Facebook, they do have access to the database of information that people willingly make public. What do you think – is he just talking crazy?

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – meaning any aspects of PR could be the reasoning behind the pick. Is it the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

This week’s winner is the live-tweeting of the Bin Laden operation story. This just shows how social media has become such a significant factor into our every day lives. Social media allows people to become self-publishers, and while most people will never get recognition from their tweets – in this instance, it let a regular guy be the first to document one of the biggest events in history.

What story do you think should have won?

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Technorati Tags: Android, Bin Laden, Facebook, Google, Julian Assange, Twitter, video chat

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