What an odd question! I don't know anyone who finds unemployment fun — stressful is more like it. Or if we're looking for other words to describe getting laid off from work and looking for a new job, particularly in this economy, how about scary, frustrating or depressing? Yet, CBS' the Early Show managed to find people who are actually having fun, not in spite of being unemployed, but because they are unemployed. I learned about this report on "Funemployment" (certainly not my term) from The Work Buzz. Blogger Anthony Balderrama, in his Thursday's Good Reads Roundup, linked to an article about it on Gawker.com. Take a look at the video. It's almost laughable.

Sure, it's important to have a positive attitude when you are job hunting. It certainly makes you a more attractive candidate. The people the report features certainly have a positive attitude. As a matter of fact, they've embraced that concept, but not in regard to seeming self-assured about finding another job. They seem more resigned to the fact that nothing is out there for them so why bother looking. One spends his time at the beach or golfing. Another, after leaving a stressful job in advertising, is now a starving artist who spends her time having coffee with friends and gardening. I wonder when she does are artist thing. I guess if you're single, don't have kids to support or many bills to pay, that's fine. I do wonder, though, how they plan to explain the lengthy gap between jobs to prospective employers once they do decide it's time to move forward. What do you think of this? Click on comments and let us know.

If you needed another reason to carefully proofread your email before you hit send, take a look at this survey sponsored by The Creative Group, a staffing firm that works with marketing, advertising, creative and web professionals. The survey asked 250 advertising and executives via a telephone interview, "Have you ever mistakenly emailed someone the wrong message or copied someone on a message without intending to?" Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed responded "yes." Wouldn't you rather be among the 22% that responded "no"?

The respondents were also asked to describe the worst email mistakes they know of, either ones they made themselves or ones they've heard about. Here are a few of them:

• “I once sent a job offer to the wrong person.”
• “Someone made a nasty comment about a supervisor and it was sent to the supervisor by mistake. It eventually led to dismissal.”
• “Confidential information about one client was sent to a different client. It was certainly embarrassing.”
• “I once sent an internal memo about restroom etiquette to a prospective client by accident.”
• “Someone meant to send a racy picture to a couple of friends but ended up sending it to the entire staff, which caused her much embarrassment.”

Of course mistakes happen, but you can take precautions that will help you avoid them. The Creative Group recommends some tips. They include giving the email your full attention, saving the distribution list for last, checking attachments to make sure you are sending the right ones, avoiding sending emails while you are angry and keeping your emails professional.

Share your email blunders? Click on "Comments" and tell us about a time you hit send and wished you could take it back.

Read More:
Tips for Professional Email
Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Hit Send
Mistakes at Work

When considering a career change, one thing that often holds people back is the idea of training for a new career. That can seem quite daunting particularly if you're over 35 (or whatever age you consider "too old"). I'm always reminded of something I read once about a conversation between a person who is worried about going back to school to train for a new career and her friend who is trying to encourage her. "I'll be forty when I get my degree in four years," she says. Her friend answers, "How old will you be in four years if you don't get your degree?"

That pretty much sums up my opinion that age shouldn't stop you from making the career change you desire. For as long as you have to work, you should be doing something that fulfills you. If that means you have to go back to school or get some other form of re-training, then go for it. Or at least don't throw the idea out of consideration because of that. I just came across some good resources that can help you deal with the re-training aspect of your career change. They are included in the article Laid-off Workers Find Fulfillment in New Careers on CNN.com. Go to the section of the article titled How to Manage a Successful Career Change.

When Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 it became illegal for an employer to make hiring or promotion decisions based on one's gender, race, religion or national origin. While an employer couldn't refuse to hire someone because that person was, for example, black or Jewish or Italian, he could still keep gay or trans-gender employees off his payroll. There wasn't a law on the books that protected discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Some states and communities now have such laws, but according to an article on CivilRights.org, "more than three out of five U.S. citizens live in areas that do not have these laws."

On June 24 the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which makes it illegal to discriminate against employees or potential employees because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, was re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The original version of this bill was passed by the House in 2007, but not by the Senate. At that time, it only included language that prevented discrimination based on sexual orientation, but not on gender identity. The reintroduced bill does not leave out trans-gender individuals.

More: Coming Out at Work