Dear Joyce: I've received three job offers, but none is exactly right because quality child care is a big value for my husband and me. A relative has been caring for our 2-year-old daughter, but we think she would get better socialization, language and problem-solving skills at a day-care center. So far I haven't found a great job combined with a center on site. Advice? -- T.M.

Dear T.M.: Corporate child-care centers are too rare to count on finding the perfect job with the perfect child-care facility. So do the next best thing: Start your quest by finding the right center-based day care. The National Association for the Education of Young Children accredits child-care facilities. After you have enough facts to recognize quality day care when you see it, decide on a job and negotiate benefits to pay for the care. At the least, ask your future employer to offer a dependent-care account that allows you to put aside up to $5,000 of tax-free income to use toward child care. The company may also be agreeable to providing matching funds.

Some work-/life-friendly companies offer a referral service to help you find spaces at choice local centers. And there's an outside chance that your future employer belongs to a consortium of companies that buy space at a backup center or funds priority slots at centers as openings occur.

I don't want to leave you with the impression that most employers offer generous child-care benefits. They don't. But remember the old saw, "If you don't ask, you don't get."

Put your job choice second because not only does our economy boast a riches of jobs, but you're confronted with a shortage of centers that qualify as high-quality. (Pay is low in child care; the average annual salary is under $15,000.) And you know this better than I -- when you're worried about your child, you're distracted from doing your best work.

Dear Joyce: I've been at my job for three years. I know that sabbaticals usually go to long-timers, but I really want to spend several months traveling the world before I dig in for a lifetime of working. What arguments can I use with my boss to get a six-month sabbatical? -- F.G.

Dear F.G.: How much fantasy were you thinking of presenting? Unless you can link a sabbatical with improved job performance, what's the company's incentive to hold your job open while you roam? Companies offering the sabbatical perk are pulling back -- 32 percent in 1995 dropped to 21 percent last year. Resign with grace, saying, "I hope the door will be open for me to reapply when I return." Or just find a new job.

Dear Joyce: I want to improve my technique in using office e-mail. Why? To position myself for promotion. I've looked at several "netiquette" guides -- smiley faces and warnings about writing in capital letters isn't what I mean. Do you know of a strategic e-mail guide to looking good? -- T.W.

Dear T.W.: It was inevitable that an art of the office e-mail book would appear as a follow-up to the guides of yore that advised us how to use paper memos to outclass the competition. "Office E-mails That Really Click" by Maureen Chase and Sandy Trupp, published by Aegis Books has its share of the smiley emoticons, but goes beyond the standard stuff to cover a variety of issues, such as these: