Let's face it. Advice is a dime a dozen. If you ask two people their opinion you'll get at least three or four different answers. Every corner you turn in your office, in your business stands someone who wants to tell you what they think you should do. So, how do you know who you should listen to?

Three years ago, I saw a story on the news while I was at the gym. An investigative feature on the breast cancer awareness contributions that various corporations pledged during Breast Cancer Awareness Month found that most of these promotions led to increased sales and windfall profits that dwarfed the piddling donations that the extra sales generated. Until that moment, I was gung-ho about buying products marked with pink ribbons.

We've heard the saying "if women were in charge of this it'd be so much better" and laughed it off as just our own gender bias speaking. Yet some recent studies show that there may be some fact to this statement. And, that is reason to give companies pause as they face an increased risk of these valuable women leaving their jobs.

Today many of us who work outside of our homes who were fortunate enough to have a long holiday weekend celebrating the efforts of the American workforce will return to our cubicles, classrooms, construction sites or wherever it is we earn our living. And chances are, whatever our place of business, we will not be alone when we get there, like it or not. Wherever you work, whatever you do, more often than not you do it with other people. 

It's almost here: flu season, swine or otherwise. As always, the media is seizing on the opportunity to scream PANDEMIC WE WILL ALL DIE, but the truth beneath the hype is this: 'Tis the season for a virus.

Every time I read an article like the recent "How social media can hurt your career" on Careerbuilder, I am grateful that we didn't have social media back when I was in college. Young, testing the waters, and with a lot of opinions to share, I wonder if I would have unknowingly committed a faux pas in the weakness of a heated moment that would have hurt me professionally?

How curious are you when it comes to your professional life (or life in general for that matter)? Did you know that curiosity can not only increase your chances for success but also bring a host more meaning to your days even if you work at the most mundane tasks?

The paradox of these changing times is that on the one hand it is an ideal time to re-evaluate your career path whether you still have a job, got laid off, or started/own a business. On the flip side these anxieties are transforming the workplace and business climate in such a way that many people are scared into full paralysis.

The debate about whether women or men make better managers has shown its face yet again. Like all long-standing debates: PC vs. Mac, Pepsi vs. Coke, Ford vs. Chevy, ... we seem to know the question always lingers just around the corner, is impossible to conclude with certainty, and is likely to rear its head every so often just to keep things interesting. That's exactly what happened when the NY Times published "No Doubts: Women Are Better Managers".

I talked with Louise Rasho in the Microspa room sponsored by Microsoft at BlogHer09. We talked about Office Web Apps, which will be released when Office 2010 is released. Wish I'd had time to stay in the microspa for a massage or some pampering, but I had to rush off after our chat. Louise is @Office_Live on Twitter where she tweets about Microsoft Office Live. Our meeting was arranged by a PR rep Krista Ulatowski, who also sat in on the chat and helped get some answers that Louise didn't have at her fingertips.

Former General Electric Co. CEO Jack Welch left women shaking their heads at the Society for Human Resource Management's annual conference when he said: "There's no such thing as work-life balance," Mr. Welch told the Society for Human Resource Management's annual conference in New Orleans on June 28. "There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences."

I am planning to give my daughter my old laptop for her birthday. It's a two year old MacBook that I have completely filled up. When it's all cleaned up from my files and programs, it will be perfect for her. Her only worry is that she is so used to a Windows machine, she won't be able to use a Mac.