As Self-Confident As Bloomberg?

How self-confident are you at the office? What about as a parent?

I thought about this yesterday after I got done reading the comments of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was featured in an illustration on the cover of this week’s New Yorker gazing adoringly at himself in a heart-shaped mirror. At a news conference Thursday, a reporter quizzed the mayor on his reaction to the cover, as the WSJ reported.

“I’ve said this a thousand times –- I like what I see in the mirror….  I thought [the New Yorker cover] was great…I get up in the morning and I work as hard as I can. And my kids have turned out great,” Mr. Bloomberg declared. “You know, I’m a lucky enough guy to have made a lot of money, and I’m giving it all away and making a big difference.”

“Bloomberg gushed with tremendous pride and happiness,” the WSJ reported. “In Yiddish it’s called kvelling.

After I stopped laughing at the mayor’s boasting, the whole thing got me thinking. …

How Fashion Forward Is Your Office?

How fashion forward is your office?

That question is at the heart of Christina Binkley’s On Style column in this week’s Personal Journal.

Binkley writes how this year, brightly-colored or patterned stockings – think purple, lace, punk-shredded or leopard patterned — are all the rage among fashionistas. But is this haute hosiery appropriate for the office?

Binkley interviews career and image consultants who advise most workers to err on the conservative side, sticking with nude, beige or black-opaque hosiery (or even go bare in warmer weather) if there’s any doubt at all about what’s appropriate.

“There are penalties in everyday work environments. If someone wears the wrong tie, you may not think they’re worthy of working with you on a project,” says image consultant Sarah Whittaker.  “You may think it’s just a pair of red tights. But actually, it can make a big difference.”

Indeed, one chief investment officer, who says she hires plenty of free spirits, draws the line when it comes to office fashion…

Women Doctors Face $17,000 Pay Gap

Starting salaries of new physicians reveal a growing gender gap.

Newly-trained women doctors are being paid significantly lower salaries –about $17,000 less — than their male counterparts, found a new study published in the February issue of Health Affairs. The pay disparity exists even after the researchers accounted for factors such as medical specialty, hours worked and practice type. Women had lower starting salaries than men in nearly all specialties, the researchers found.

The gap has been growing steadily in recent decades, to $16,819 in 2008, from just $3,600 in 1999.  The pay disparity exists even as women now comprise nearly half of all U.S. medical students…

Makeup for Tweens?

How young is too young to wear makeup?

In today’s Personal Journal, Anjali Athavaley writes how Wal-Mart is launching a new cosmetics line for young tweens—priced from $4 to $6—that includes light pink blushes, pink and purple eye shadows and mascara. Other brands and retailers, such as Target and Bonne Bell, have also launched new products attractive to the pre-teen set.

Regular usage of items like lipstick, eyeliner, and mascara increased among the 8 to 12 age group, according to a survey released in 2009 by market research firm NPD Group. In fact, tweens were the only age group that increased its spending on cosmetics during the recession—from $8.50 per month in 2007 to $9.20 in 2009. (NPD says its the parents who are paying).

“Girls start cosmetics usage really as young as six years old in categories like clear lip gloss and nail,” says…

Would You Pay to Reduce Your Commute?

In today’s Personal Journal, Eyes on the Road columnist Joseph B. White asks an intriguing, juggle-related question: Is spending an extra half hour a day with your family worth $5 or $10 a day in extra tolls?

More commuters will face that choice as city governments try to control ever-worsening commutes. Trading money for shorter commutes, via privately-operated toll roads (dubbed HOT lanes, for high-occupancy toll lanes) is now an option in a growing number of cities.

Traffic congestion consumed the equivalent of a full work week or more in the country’s biggest cities in 2009 – and as the economy recovers, traffic tie ups will likely increase, White reports.  Tied for worst: Chicago, Ill. and Washington, D.C. where drivers idle for an average of 70 hours a year in traffic jams, according to the latest Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute…

Why Videogames Are Good for Girls

We’ve had plenty of discussions on the blog about exposing kids to screen time (TV, videogames and mobile phones).

A new study, though, found that videogames can have benefits for teen girls—as long as they play with their parents.

The research found that girls ages 11 to 16 years old who played videogames with a parent behaved better, felt more connected to their families and had better mental health than girls who played with friends or on their own. The study, by researchers at Brigham Young University’s School of Family Life, and published today in the Journal of Adolescent Health, examined 287 families with teens.

It’s tough for many parents to connect with their teenagers, who sometimes view the other as an alien life form.  Maybe bonding over videogames, at least for teen girls, is the way to go…

The Plight of the Training Widow

When springtime rolls around, I become a training widow, as my husband preps for a Memorial Day triathlon here in Austin, TX. When he’s training, he tries to swim early in the morning, goes on runs most evenings and cycles on weekends, in addition to playing in a weekly squash league for an extra workout.

I never minded his fitness enthusiasm before we had our kids, since he enjoyed the challenge and I knew how healthy it was for him to get in top-shape. But his training regimen grew more taxing (for me, at least) once our first son was born and we were caring for an infant. Last year, soon after our second son arrived, he opted not to compete in the tri, and I quietly breathed a sigh of relief. But he may gear up again this spring, leaving me tri-widowed anew.

In today’s Personal Journal, Kevin Helliker examines how exercise can intrude on intimacy, especially when partners have different philosophies about fitness.  Inside endurance athletics circles, talk of spousal resentment is commonplace…

When Negativity Infects Your Office

In my experience, few factors have a bigger impact on the juggle than the emotional climate where you work. At a previous employer years ago, the prevailing employee attitude was ceaseless, simmering resentment and cynicism over ever-rising workloads and a lack of recognition to us for shouldering the burden. I tried to keep an optimistic attitude there, but a fierce desire to get out drove me to work weekends and holidays to land a better job at a better place to work. When I did, my energy for family and personal life soared.

So I was pleased to read a profile of Kathy Savitt, the CEO of Lockerz, a social-networking and e-commerce site…

Clearing the Potty Hurdle

My husband had the last two weeks of the year off and he spent most of it in the bathroom. No, he wasn’t sick or hung over. He was potty training our older son, who’s almost 3 years old.

Potty training poses a tough challenge for dual working-parents: How do you get your kid to go if you’re not there to spur them on during the workday? In my family’s experience at least, the process has been time and labor-intensive, requiring discipline and diligence (“Do you need to go potty?” every 20 minutes or so) and lots of time spent hanging out in the bathroom waiting for action.

In a move that has ignited much controversy, one Arlington, Va., public preschool recently suspended an almost-potty-trained 3-year-old girl for having too many accidents…

How to Nag Effectively

“Nagging.” I’ve never liked that word. It always seemed to me that it turned something perfectly reasonable—“requesting” that my husband close the fridge behind him, “casually mentioning” to a co-worker that his garbage can is still overflowing onto my side of the cubicle, “reminding” my friend to RSVP to my dinner party when I’ve already asked her once—into something  unacceptable. Like, that somehow I’m the bad guy for asking twice (or, admittedly, three, or four, or five times, but who’s counting) when it’s those other people who are being rude by ignoring me in the first place.

So the question is, how do you nag without being too naggy? Or put another way: How do you get people to do what you want when they don’t want—or can’t seem to remember—to do what you want?

I asked a few people whom I consider to be the least naggy people I know…