Job Title

On the June 6 primary ballot, Michelle Steel is identified as a deputy to a member of the powerful tax board on which she is seeking a seat. It is a job title that political analysts say is likely to help her win votes. But Steel held the job for only three months. In the meantime, the man she replaced was demoted, took a salary cut, and found a second job: working for the Steel campaign.

A Vice magazine writer newly arrived from London recently put out a top 10 list of reasons to hate Los Angeles, and one had the ring of truth: Nobody here will tell you what they do for a living. The writer, Jamie Lee Curtis Taete, said that's because everyone pretends to be mega-successful or to work in Hollywood, but I have a different take: Jobs you can easily make sense of are going the way of the floppy disc. Butcher, baker, candlestick-maker? All vanishing. In their place are buzzy-sounding, multi-syllabic titles involving social media, the cloud and other nebulae.

There are 1,500 job titles in the city of Los Angeles' massive bureaucracy--straightforward ones such as "plumber" and "mayor" and nebulous ones such as "asphalt raker" and "wharfinger." The job classifications have become so specialized over the years that only the most entrenched City Hall denizens appreciate the subtle difference between, say, an "office equipment repairer" and a "typewriter repairer" or a "clerk," "clerk typist" and "data entry operator."

Republican attorney general candidate John Eastman has chosen the job description he will show voters on the June ballot: assistant attorney general. What he isn't saying, though, is that he is an assistant attorney general in South Dakota. Eastman resigned as dean of the Chapman University School of Law in Orange in January. But he opted to use a title given to him for a case he's working on in South Dakota. His opponents in the GOP primary contest are crying foul. "Eastman's cynical move makes a mockery of the ballot designation system.

Managing a Career: Mark Alch, managing director of the outplacement firm Drake Beam Morin in Irvine, has a holiday gift for today's beleaguered worker. He calls it: "The Seven Steps to Making Sure You're Not the Other Shoe That Drops." Step 1: Learn your value in the wider job market. In other words, he says, find out how many jobs there are out there for someone with your job title, education and experience. Are your current salary and benefits above or below the norm?

Fashioning a sensible, long-term mass transit rail plan for Los Angeles and its environs has been difficult. That goes beyond the difficulties involved in dealing with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, those 13 cooks in their crowded but opulent kitchen. There were disputes in Washington, for example, in the planning of a rail system that would link the District of Columbia with suburban Maryland and northern Virginia.

Item: Bob Knight coached his Indiana Hoosiers to the NCAA title last Monday. If you've been conscious at any time during the past week, you probably already knew that. Item: Al Schoenberger resigned from the head baseball coaching job at Cal Lutheran University on Tuesday.

Dear Alana: I "accidentally" saw a colleague's pay stub. We have the same job title, similar backgrounds and have worked at the company for the same amount of time, but she makes significantly more than I do. Is there any way I can discuss this with my manager without getting myself in trouble for snooping? Mona in Los Angeles Dear Mona: I should tell you that snooping is bad and you should be troubling yourself about your nosy habits, not your pay stub.

Kate Beckler, scoring machine. It was a job title, a position, a way of life. From the time Beckler first set sneakers on Alemany High's campus, she was an offensive threat to be taken seriously. Drives, pull-up jumpers, three-pointers, off-balance one-handers. Few shots weren't in her arsenal. By the time she was done, almost every team in the region had been riddled by her sharp shooting.

For a visionary, Kurt Andersen is keeping it pretty low-key. The writer is sitting quietly in blazer and jeans in front of a class at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. He's not just a visiting professor but the school's visionary in residence. The class' students, with their retro hats, black duds and horizontal stripes, could be making a French New Wave film or rehearsing the latest edition of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Dear Alana: I "accidentally" saw a colleague's pay stub. We have the same job title, similar backgrounds and have worked at the company for the same amount of time, but she makes significantly more than I do. Is there any way I can discuss this with my manager without getting myself in trouble for snooping? Mona in Los Angeles Dear Mona: I should tell you that snooping is bad and you should be troubling yourself about your nosy habits, not your pay stub.

For a visionary, Kurt Andersen is keeping it pretty low-key. The writer is sitting quietly in blazer and jeans in front of a class at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. He's not just a visiting professor but the school's visionary in residence. The class' students, with their retro hats, black duds and horizontal stripes, could be making a French New Wave film or rehearsing the latest edition of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Drug company agents, who say they routinely work 60-hour weeks visiting doctors' offices, said Thursday that they had sued Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and six other drug companies for failing to pay overtime. The lawsuits, which could involve tens of thousands of U.S. employees, add the pharmaceutical industry to other sectors that have been accused of giving rank-and-file workers managerial-like job titles to avoid paying overtime.

On the June 6 primary ballot, Michelle Steel is identified as a deputy to a member of the powerful tax board on which she is seeking a seat. It is a job title that political analysts say is likely to help her win votes. But Steel held the job for only three months. In the meantime, the man she replaced was demoted, took a salary cut, and found a second job: working for the Steel campaign.

Who: Stephen Dinger Company: Washington Council for Private Education Age: 49 Has held title for: One year Previous title: President, Washington Federation of Independent Schools In private-school circles, innovation is a hot topic. But how do you anticipate the needs of private institutions and support schools that are willing to take risks? Stephen Dinger, executive cheerleader for the Washington Council for Private Education, an advocacy group based in DuPont, Wash., has a few answers.

Kate Beckler, scoring machine. It was a job title, a position, a way of life. From the time Beckler first set sneakers on Alemany High's campus, she was an offensive threat to be taken seriously. Drives, pull-up jumpers, three-pointers, off-balance one-handers. Few shots weren't in her arsenal. By the time she was done, almost every team in the region had been riddled by her sharp shooting.

As business classes get underway at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, MBA students open their laptops and professors fire up PowerPoint presentations in many classrooms. In the Executive Mind class, however, professor Jeremy Hunter pulls out decidedly different tools: a brass singing bowl and leather-wrapped mallet. The chimes from three strikes on the bowl quiet the dozen or so students, who have put away smartphones and other devices. They close their eyes.

Dean Conk has been named women's volleyball and basketball coach at The Master's College, replacing Becky White, who coached both sports last year but resigned in June for personal reasons. Conk, 36, coached volleyball last season at Fresno Christian High. He was an assistant at the University of San Diego in 1986 and also has coached Junior Olympic volleyball teams in San Diego and the San Joaquin Valley.

Back in the 1960s when John Hart was a gymnast, a track star and a cheerleader at the University of Georgia, he majored in math because it came easily and he mostly wanted to goof off. As chief technical officer of 3Com Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif., Hart gets little slack time these days, busy as he is devising the networking company's technical strategy, chatting up customers around the globe and applying for patents on his many inventions. One of his proudest engineering feats is his own job.

Fashioning a sensible, long-term mass transit rail plan for Los Angeles and its environs has been difficult. That goes beyond the difficulties involved in dealing with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, those 13 cooks in their crowded but opulent kitchen. There were disputes in Washington, for example, in the planning of a rail system that would link the District of Columbia with suburban Maryland and northern Virginia.