Confessions

By Brian Jones A retired Navy SEAL is poised to blow the doors off the military's policy on transgender people. Kristin Beck was a member of the most elite special operations unit in the world -- SEAL Team 6. She deployed 13 times. She earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. She served in the same unit that...

By Paul Szoldra Life behind bars is a challenge for prisoners serving time, but they aren't the only ones in maximum security prisons dealing with stress. Corrections officers responsible for overseeing prisons work in one of the most stressful and hazardous jobs in the U.S. -- topping the list of occupations...

All of the controversy over the Internal Revenue Service's investigation of Tea Party groups has unleashed a torrent of criticism of IRS tactics. But what do IRS agents think of their profession? And what do they actually do all day? Carroll McKibbin, a former IRS agent, gave AOL Jobs permission to reprint a...

Companies usually have a tight muzzle on employees when it comes to talking to the press, and even fire workers for embarrassing them in the media. But a San Diego worker at Forever 21, the retail chain, didn't expect to lose her job when she told a local weekly her story of overcoming a life of drug addiction...

Everybody seems to have an opinion on the best ways to combine work and family without being consumed by stress and misery and doubt. But AOL Jobs contributor Laura Vanderkam has made it her business to figure out exactly how people manage their lives successfully, by the minute. She's investigated the...

By Sallie Krawcheck There are some things worth being fired over. Sometimes your personal values don't mesh with the company's (regardless of what the company's "Values Statement" says). Back in 2008, at Smith Barney, we had sold supposedly low-risk investments to our clients. But instead of their value...

By Lydia Whitlock I spent the last five years working as a Hollywood assistant. When I meet people outside the film industry and tell them that, they almost always say, "Oh, like in Devil Wears Prada?" and I say, "Just like that, but without any of the free designer clothes." And my hair is way less shiny than...

You may already know that a garbage man (very few women still opt for this job) is dirty work that won't get you rich. (The average salary is $27,000 a year.) But what most people don't know is that it's also incredibly dangerous work. Sanitation workers experience twice the fatality rates of police officers...

"Did you see the 'Daily Show' clip?" asks Larry Lawton, the ex-gangster responsible for some of the biggest jewelry heists in American history. "They were telling me to curse more," laughs Larry Lawton, right, whose body is tattooed with ink from melted chess pieces, applied with a guitar string. Lawton's...

By Vivian Giang It takes a special kind of person to provide health care for accused murderers, rapists, and drug addicts. But these doctors do, in some cases, receive "better pay, better hours, retirement benefits, and free malpractice insurance," Parija B. Kavilanz has reported on CNN. "Typically a salaried...

"Let's take a look at your numbers." It was only days after 9/11, when he'd narrowly escaped his World Trade Center office, and this comment from his manager made Jack Alvo snap. He quit his six-figure job at Morgan Stanley and began a decade-long career path that would end in an unlikely spot: As a New York...

Lying to your girlfriend about your job probably isn't the healthiest thing for your relationship. But lying to your girlfriend about being a deputy sheriff might be illegal. One Florida man reportedly knew this, but he still spent six months tricking his girlfriend with a stolen deputy's outfit and...

By Vivian Giang A man who works in a mortuary led a Reddit thread to give a glimpse into what it's like to deal with issues of mortality on a daily basis. Covering topics that included the strangest requests he's ever had, and what happens during cremation and embalming, here's the closest most of us will ever...

Every night at 6 p.m., smooth as a well-oiled clockwork, Fox's Special Report goes on the air. Host Bret Baier reports the major events of the day, analyzes the latest political stories and also leads a panel of pundits and political reporters who discuss their broader significance. Like most televised news...

By Abby Rogers A single dad in Culver City, Calif., is begging for work as a lawyer on Craigslist, claiming he is so desperate he's willing to take basically any legal job.

By her own assessment, Kate Baker was a competent attorney who also wanted a personal life. But her boss, Chris Lingard allegedly saw things differently, berating Baker and her work, and telling her not to have a relationship or children. The "bullying" that she experienced at the Follett Stock law firm,...

Gail Belsky will be blogging for AOL Jobs about her quest to find a new job -- and reinvent her career. This is the first post in her weekly series that will run Mondays. At 51, I've become both a cliche and a victim of circumstance -- neither of which makes me happy. A cliche because I'm a middle-aged woman...

Funeral Director Daniel Honan is busier than he'd like to be these days. As the only undertaker in Newtown, Conn., Honan is working overtime to provide funeral services to families of 11 of the 20 first-graders murdered Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School. To help keep pace with the demand, Honan...

Cheryl Cohen Greene is a 68-year-old loving grandmother and cancer survivor who's been happily married for 33 years. In that time, she's slept with hundreds of other men in her conjugal bed, and transformed many of their lives. Greene is a sex surrogate, treating patients with sexual difficulties through...

They show up each year in malls and department stores like clockwork, seemingly eager to hear every child's Christmas wish list and pose, broadly smiling for photos. And, of course, there's that unmistakably hearty "Ho, ho, ho!" that signals that the holiday season -- and Santa Claus, himself -- has...