A strong gesture

Everyone loves getting gifts. But getting gifts, or even small perks, from an employer can mean much more than they cost. During my many years as a journalist, I was rarely treated to the Christmas bonus, free meal, free drinks or other such thing at work. If something was given, it was usually during a holiday. To get a birthday gift was unheard of.



Well, something unusual happened last week. United Reporting, a Sacramento company I started working for part-time in July, sent me an American Express gift card for my birthday. They've also sent me a few Starbucks and Shell gas cards as thanks for the work I do, and I really have appreciated them. But this gesture went above and beyond and it's something I won't soon forget.

Maybe it's because I worked at newspapers for so long, and expected to be treated poorly. Many people have told me that when I do find a full-time job outside of newspapers, I'll be very thankful because at least I'll be treated better. Other companies remember the small things, such as perks like free water, soda, birthday gifts, Christmas gifts beyond a frozen turkey, and treat their employees with respect. Maybe those things won't come in my next job, and that's fine, but the respect it shows by offering even small tokens of appreciation is huge and helps show how a company values its employees.

Birthday wishes

Oct. 1 was a happy birthday, complete with homemade chocolate chip cookies made by my wife and daughter, cards, clothes and best of all, Thomas L. Friedman's new book "Hot, Flat and Crowded."

I'm excited because it's a book about the need for a Green Revolution, a cause I believe strongly in and a field I'd like to write about for somebody. While the newspaper business is slowly killing itself, the art of storytelling is very much alive and is moving to the Internet as more and more people get their news online.

I don't want to sound like a politician, but what this country needs is a new type of New Deal, or Green Deal. FDR put Americans to work building roads, and the next president should put people to work building solar panels and windmills. It's time for Americans to wake up to global warming and the effect we're having on the environment and do something about it. It's time for big steps, such as a Green Deal for the country.

Another book I'm looking forward to reading is Barbara Ehrenreich's "Bait and Switch," about white-collar unemployment. It looks like my blog kind of dovetails into her book, as I'm sure many other blogs do, in telling the tale of finding a job in a lousy economy but with many of the job skills you'd think would lead to fulltime work.