Back To Work

Keith Cyphers, one of the thousands of Verizon Communications Inc. workers out on strike for more than two weeks, earned an honest day's pay yesterday, back on the job repairing telephone lines, and was downright happy to do it. The Belcamp resident, a cable splicer in the Baltimore area for the phone giant, was among the first of the thousands of Communications Workers of America members to return to the job yesterday after a 17-day strike ended at...

Now that I'm back in the office full time after a few months of maternity leave, I've got to reorient my thinking and remember how to act when I'm around adults more often. I also need to return to my workplace habit of making to-do lists to stay organized. To that end, here's the Top 8 things I need to stop doing now that I'm back in the office: 1. Going to the bathroom with the door open so I can hear whether anyone is crying or up to any mischief. (Or both.) 2. Corollary: Announcing that I'm going "potty" now. 3. Going "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

How come professional beach volleyball players never go on strike?When it sees more people going back to work the Fed concludes that the economy is broke and needs fixing.A lot of congresspeople can't tell health care from crime but are against them both.

Most of the Sparrows Point steel mill employees who were laid off several days before Christmas will be returning to work, according to a union representative. "There will be a little bit [of] a trickle, but the bulk of them will be returning this weekend," said Chris MacLarion, acting president of United Steelworkers Local 9477, which represents workers at the Baltimore County steel mill. Employees who work in the initial stages of steel making will return to work first, he said.

In times like this, a nation finds out who its friends are. Those who claimed Clinton hit Sudan to distract from his sins and those who denounce Sharon for overreacting ain't seen nuthin' yet. To hit Afghanistan is one thing. To do the Taliban tangible harm is quite another. Now people may quit trying to build the tallest building. Defeat the terrorists. Go back to work.

LEAVING ASIDE the cross-claims in the high-stakes class warfare that brought West Coast docks to a standstill for the first time in 40 years, President Bush's much-anticipated move yesterday to use the Taft-Hartley Act to reopen the 29 ports was necessary. But history strongly suggests forcing the longshoremen back to work for 80 days doesn't guarantee a solution to the negotiations -- and could even delay one. Resolution still must come from talks between the dockworkers and the Pacific shipping industry, as it properly should.

Suzanne Mensh, who in 28 years of running for countywide office in Baltimore County has never lost, cruised to an easy victory in a hard-fought, bitter race to retain her job as clerk of the county Circuit Court."

Forget the popular notion that everybody was a loser during the long, boring baseball labor dispute. The real umpires went back to work yesterday, and, make no mistake about it, they came back as clear-cut winners.There might have been some some anxious moments, but even the players have to be envious of the settlement negotiated in baseball's "other" labor dispute. Don Fehr, executive director of the players association, always drives a good bargain for his clients, but he'll be hard-pressed to match the deal made by Richie Phillips, his counterpart for the umpires.

Dear Joyce: My husband and I identified with the married engineering team who moved to Seattle to find work.We, too, are engineering (computer emphasis) graduates of the 1980s and would like to move to the Northwest.Our first priority is to find jobs. Then we are thinking about starting a family within two years, and maybe I would drop out of the work world for 10 years or so and then go back to work.What are you seeing for women in my situation concerning career moves? M.E.P.For right now, find out who's who and who hires in a guide to 1,700 companies in the area's software and computer industries, "Northwest High Tech 1991."

DEBORAH Armenti and I worked in the same data processing unit at USF&G, both of us as technical writers.I met her early in 1988, not long after I had started working at USF&G and only shortly after my first daughter, Anna, was born.One of my concerns at that time had been finding a reliable day care provider. My wife had recently gone back to work after 12 weeks of maternity leave, and we were not able to find somebody we could trust to care for the baby while we were at our jobs. After two distressing situations with sitters who lasted only a few weeks each, Deborah told me of a lady in her neighborhood with whom she left her own children -- then 3 and 6 years old -- and provided an introduction for us.Deborah was a good friend and an interesting conversationalist.

"When I grow up, I want to be a supply chain analyst. " You don't hear these words too often - but I'm hoping that changes fast. When I was a child, my siblings and I would sit around the kitchen table and tell our parents about the jobs we might hold as adults. My mother bought me a bag with bandages and a toy thermometer; I wanted to be a nurse. Radiologic technologist, debit card specialist and, yes, supply chain analyst just weren't common terms back then. But today these jobs - and thousands more - are providing opportunities and hope to people entering or re-entering the workforce.

Now that the Howard County public school system is up and running after delaying its first day in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, school board members are turning their focus back to the search for a replacement for Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin, who will retire next year. Board members had met the week before the storm to discuss the selection of a company that will conduct the search, according to Chairwoman Janet Siddiqui. She said that the board plans to approve its request for proposal for a search firm on Sept.

Monday dawned wet, gray and windy, but Ann Varghese wanted to get back to work. Needed to, she felt, after all that had happened. At 7:15, she pulled onto Charles Street and drove out to Carroll County for the first time since enduring 55 hours in a collapsed hotel in Haiti. "Hi, everybody," Varghese, 31, said cheerfully as she walked into the New Windsor offices of IMA World Health. One by one, she hugged several co-workers amid smiles and bits of laughter. Someone clapped. Hovering over the happy reunion was a yellow balloon with a big smiley face.

Frank Voltaggio, uncle to newly minted celebrity chefs, watched them take first and second place on "Top Chef" at a swanky late-night party. Then it was off to work, stocking shelves at Safeway overnight. Most of Frederick came back to reality Thursday, the day after native sons Michael and Bryan Voltaggio completed their run on the Bravo television show. It was a hard landing for some in town, and not just for the few who overdid it on drinks at the unofficial viewing party at Bryan's restaurant, Volt.

Frank Voltaggio, uncle to newly minted celebrity chefs, watched them take first and second place on "Top Chef" at a swanky late-night party. Then it was off to work, stocking shelves at Safeway overnight. Most of Frederick came back to reality Thursday, the day after native sons Michael and Bryan Voltaggio completed their run on the Bravo television show. It was a hard landing for some in town, and not just for the few who overdid it on drinks at the unofficial viewing party at Bryan's restaurant, Volt.

For eight weeks the hulking General Motors White Marsh Powertrain Plant has sat idle, empty and eerily quiet, with no one in sight but a security team making sure the premises were safe. But Tuesday the plant came back to life as 200 hourly and 40 salaried employees streamed back to work for the 6 a.m. shift. After a short employee meeting, the machines were revved up and the first transmissions in months began rolling through the assembly line. The plant had been shut down since May 8, the longest ever for the plant, which opened in 2000.

PHILADELPHIA -- When Bill Heriegel was hit by an oncoming truck at work last month, he thought he was going to die.His body was twisted by the impact, which left tissues in his back and side permanently damaged. Going back to work was probably the last thing on his mind.But thanks to an innovative work-rehabilitation program that his employer paid for, all Mr. Heriegel thinks about now is getting back to his job."I am looking forward to going back to work on August 19," Mr. Heriegel said proudly as he worked on a rowing machine designed to build upper-body strength at WorkHab, a work-rehabilitation center based in suburban Huntingdon Valley, Pa.Instead of becoming a "couch potato with nothing to do," Mr. Heriegel said, he's been able to build up his strength by doing exercises that simulate his duties as a driver for the Philadelphia General Asphalt & Paving Co. His company is one of a growing number of employers that are electing to place injured employees on work-rehabilitation programs such as WorkHab.

Nan has gone back to work. Her oldest will soon go to college and her youngest can keep track of a house key, so it is time.And while the three boys she has been at home with for 15 years have not missed a beat since she returned to teaching, Nan's friends may never get over the loss.She will not be there for a cup of coffee after the kids leave for school -- her front porch was just the place to postpone the start of your day. And though she will be home after school (as in: "Kids, if Mommy doesn't get home in time, just go to Nan's")

They stared, disbelieving, at the electricity bill, as if their scrutiny could somehow force the ridiculous number into a more reasonable form. "Why is it so high?" her husband asked. "Because I'm home all day," answered Jennifer Hart-Walters, who had quit teaching school to be with their two kids, who wanted to sing them the ABC song all day long, who now, faced with that electricity bill and so many other increasing costs, realized that her days as a stay-at-home mother were over. In February she reluctantly left the kids in day care and took a part-time job. "We were noticing much less spending money in our checking account - no money actually in our checking account," said Hart-Walters, 35, who lives in Baltimore's Hunting Ridge neighborhood.

Unemployment in Maryland is 3.9 percent, which is better than the nation's rate of 4.7 percent. But the unemployment picture for disabled residents in the state is dismal: 60 percent. Nearly 18 percent, or 850,000 residents, of the state's population are classified as disabled, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The Maryland Department of Disabilities, which became a Cabinet-level agency in 2004, works to coordinate the policies of public and private agencies serving disabled residents, identifies and recommends ways to improve services and provides information and referrals.