SmartMoney (a Dow Jones publication) recently published a great story, Ten Things Your Boss Won’t Tell You. Here’s a doozy:

4. “Your kid? Your problem.”

By now it’s common knowledge that women earn less than men – about 81 cents for every dollar. Having a kid hurts women’s earning potential even further. The so-called “mommy penalty” may manifest in many ways: A mother may get passed over for a promotion because the boss thinks she takes off too much time to care for her kids or that she’s more concerned about the family than her career. A mom may get overlooked for high-profile projects because the boss fears she won’t devote enough time and energy.

Those are hard slights to quantify. Not so for the penalty faced by women who take time off to raise a child – even for a period as short as 18 months. Women with M.B.A.s who left the workforce for a year and a half to raise children make 41% less than men with the same degree; female Ph.D.’s make a third less; lawyers, 29% less, and doctors, 16%, according to a 2010 study by Harvard economics professors Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz. “Business occupations place heavy penalties on employees who deviate from the norm,” Goldin and Katz write in the study.

I’m not saying this is fair. I am saying this does exist and goes unspoken in many environment and can work against you.

Please take the time to read all 10 and think about what your boss is — and isn’t — telling you.  –And let me know what you think.

Recently, the American Express blog, Open Forum, posted on that topic and it makes for some interesting reading:

It’s not unreasonable for employees to expect policies that allow them to continue to build their careers. In all likelihood, your employees will be looking for other jobs in a few years. Telling them that personal branding is not an option is just a way to speed up their decision to go job hunting. If you can make it a win-win situation, you may just wind up known as the small business owner who has snagged some excellent (and well-known) employees. [more]

It’s been my experience that great managers want their reports to be famous. In fact, excellent managers are actively helping members of their team become famous throughout their company and beyond.  –What’s your experience?

These are the winners in the 11 categories:

1. Entrepreneurship and small business. Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim.
2. Leadership. Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening.
3. Management. The Four Conversations: Daily Communication That Gets Results by Jeffery Ford & Laurie Ford.
4. Marketing and advertising. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith.
5. Sales. A Seat at the Table: How Top Salespeople Connect and Drive Decisions at the Executive Level by Marc Miller.
6. Finance and economics. False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World by Alan Beattie.
7. Biographies and narratives. The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy.
8. Current interest. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin.
9. Personal development. Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life by Rodd Wagner & Gale Muller, Ph.D.
10. Innovation and creativity. The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger L. Martin.
11. Big ideas. What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis.