Book Description

Reviews (694)

An Important Book
The value of Barbara Ehrenreich's troubling, but remarkable investigation of the dearth of opportunity faced by working class Americans, is evident from the gamut of highly emotional reactions it has raised here.

Many readers seem enormously offended simply on the grounds that Ehrenreich was not actually a member of the working class, and only "visited" a life of poverty and toil. These readers take great pains to say that poverty is a serious issue, while discounting the book on the grounds that Ehrenreich - who holds a PhD of all the horrible things! - has no right to raise it. This is a willfully deluded argument which would seem to white wash all kinds of investigative journalism across the board. The attacks on Ehrenreich's credentials appear designed to avoid a discussion of the book itself, a low but familiar critical tactic, shooting the messenger to destroy the message.

It is understandable, however, that people would seek to look away from the experiences that Ehrenreich relates from her sojourns in the waitressing, housekeeping, and retailing industries. The pay is meager, the work is often backbreaking, and the management is consistently exploitative. You may already have suspected this to be the case, but the hard details in Nickel and Dimed - of trying to find housing, of applying for community aid, of unpaid overtime, and a thousand other tiny indignities - confront the reader with the vivid reality of how many of their fellow human beings are forced to live.

Terrific book, terrific writing
I love this book. Some people seem to find it hard to believe that a person can't "get by" on minimum wage, or that people get stuck in low-paying jobs - some claim that "everyone starts at minimum wage in life, but they get promoted and make more", etc. That doesn't always happen, or even happen that often. Ms. Ehrenreich's book shows the struggles she faced in just a short term experiment, but imagine trying to do it for the long haul - there are other crises that occur in the lives of working people - such as, lack of medical insurance - a HUGE problem - and car troubles, to name a couple. In this book, Ms. Ehrenreich was working during the warmer months - God knows what she may have encountered during the winter in Maine or Minnesota!But this terrific book gives a glimpse into the lives of the working poor, even with everyone seemingly going right for Ms. Ehrenreich. By the way, several reviewers have claimed that she has 'contempt' for the poor, and has a snobby, yuppie-ish attitude. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't know why people make false allegations in a book review, I suspect it's to dissuade others from reading the book and deciding for themselves. Read this book, you'll be glad you did. And pass on a couple copies to your state reps, senators, etc. Teach them a few things. I look forward to future works by Barbara Ehrenreich after reading this - she's wonderful.

The Working Poor of America get a voice
This case study in, as the subtitle says "(Not) Getting by in America" was in many ways surprising. I thought I had a pretty good handle on the fact that there are people in desperate straits out there, that being in desperate straights is awful, and that it would be better if no one had to do it. But some of the problems that are described in this book were things I had never even thought of. One of her main contentions is that many of the working poor are borderline homeless, living, ironically, in expensive motels because they can never get far enough ahead to save the deposit for a real apartment. The lack of medical care and desperate penny-pinching wasn't surprising, but what struck me was that the author, daughter of a union organizer and left wing journalist, was consistently surprised at the importance that her co-workers placed on the jobs they were doing, quite apart from the monetary rewards or managerial incentives.

This struck me as especially tragic, because it just reinforces the fact that most people take satisfaction in doing something well, and it's obvious from the lives these people lead that they aren't in the habit of shirking work. Shouldn't hard, quality work bring you a life with the basics we should all have? A thought provoking, if not especially surprising book.

STAYS with you forever!
I read this book 3 years ago, and I'm STILL experiencing recall and flashbacks to some of its passages. For example: I might be doing nothing much in particular, as I set myself down to dinner at a family style restaurant...and WHAP!!! I will recall a passage from "Nickled and Dimed" concerning the not very pretty or easy plight of many waitresses and cooks who work at such establishments. And "Nickled and Dimed" does it all with a sense of humour, to boot!

Very thought provoking and enlightening for anyone who wants a better understanding the working poor and the flaws in our socio-economic system.

"Nickled and Dimed" should be required reading for every politician and social worker in the United States.

Try Living it for Real
The biggest problem with the "realism" here is the fact that the author knows, throughout all of it, that she will be going back to her 'real' job and some serious money along with her yuppie lifestyle. She doesn't even pretend to want to find out how it feels to live this life for real. Try having $5.00 in your pocket on the 2nd of January to last you the rest of the month, with 2 babies crying because there isn't any heat in your house. And then come to the realization that you REALLY only have $5.00 in your pocket with 2 crying babies and no heat. And try realizing that the reason you are in this situation is because your town was hit by a flash flood that wiped your home away and your insurance company refused to cover the damages because they don't cover "floods." Suddenly you are poor and desperate and nowhere to turn. Try that. Then write your book. The only problem would be finding someone to publish it. The general public still doesn't want to hear about the true struggles of the working poor or what the circumstances were that lead to that poverty... they only want to be entertained and feel "enlightened" because they now "understand the plight of the poor." Sorry... you really don't. Next time you sit down to a full meal, consider there really are people out there eating ketchup on noodles and nothing else. All week... maybe even all month. ... Read more

Book Description

This modern-day classic features a treasure-trove of proven, viable trading plans suitable for every type of trader. Based on the proven methods of trading legend W.D. Gann, this thorough work has been updated to be relevant for today’s most active traders – and even includes powerful new swing trading techniques. Each plan featured provides well-defined entry & exit rules, risk management assessments and profit objectives. And, the charts and support materials are large and clear, so you can easily grasp the essence of each plan, and incorporate them into your own trading. A companion video workshop is also included that clarifies each concept in detail, so you can understand exactly when, and how, to implement them. Having a solid, reliable trading plan is the only sure way to achieve consistent trading success. Now, Gann master Robert Krausz reveals numerous trading plans and trading techniques that have been proven to be profitable in all different market climates, and which have endured for decades. It’s the definitive guide to Gann trading methods for today’s trader.COMES COMPLETE WITH VIDEO! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This is it!
If your psychological temperament permits you to be a swing trader - AND you are adequately capitalized (a $25,000 account is 'way too small) - you will find a wealth of information in this book and its accompanying video. This book is one of the few available that was written by a successful trader. It is absolutely the best book on trading methodology that I have ever encountered!

If you want to learn how to actively manage your own speculative-fund portfolio, your effort will be well-served from studying this book! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A very interesting textbook about labor economics
I was a teaching assistant in a labor economics undergraduate course in Northwestern University that used this book. I found it very interesting and full of real-world examples and discussions. The mathematical level is simple and therefore the book is accessible also to students with only little background in mathematics or economics. The exposition is clear. About half of the problems and the review questions are solved at the end of the book, making it possible for the reader to practice and test her understanding of the material. I believe that most students can understand most of the material in the book even without taking a formal course in labor economics, and therefore I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the functioning of labor markets.

A helpful and informative book
I bought this book to use for my Labor Economics class at Cornell University. My professor, Professor Smith, is a contributor to this book and it was a wonderful supplement to the lectures. The book is filled with useful information and practical applications, so its appeal is not limited to economics students, but anyone who wishes to know more about payroll taxes, policy applications, work incentives and the like. This easy-to-understand book benefited me a lot and I would recommend its use to other courses in labor economics at other colleges and universities.

This book is too wordy, puts you to sleep
I bought this book for my economics class at Dartmouth College, but it was a horrible book. The text is wordy, verbose, too long. A lot of times, there are unnecessarily explains simple things too long. I hope all of you will find better labor economics text book. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Dry Reading
Sometimes books can't help but to cover dry material. This book does not excell past being extremely dry. The book is well documented, thorough, and comprehensive. The eight edition is aesthically pleasing, but still does not seem to achieve the ability to make itself an easy read. I would highly recommend another book for this study, or using this one as background information for study. ... Read more

Book Description

With every employee who walks out the door costing up to 200 percent of their annual salary to replace, retention is one of the most important issues facing business today. This bestseller gives everyone from CEO to front-line supervisor solutions for keeping the employees they simply can’t afford to lose. The authors show that what employees really want, even more than bigger salaries, are meaningful work, opportunities for growth, excellent bosses, and a sense of connection to the company. This thoroughly updated and revised edition includes a new manager’s troubleshooting guide with 26 strategies that can be used at every level and a chapter on saying thank-you in the workplace. ... Read more

Reviews (37)

The Best Book to help retain the employees you love!
Love 'Em or Lose 'Em is one of those books you want to give to every manager, supervisor, executive who has ever let a talented employee walk out the door, in turn causing them thousands of dollars to replace. Dr. Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans have made this book full of easy to use activities and useful To-do lists that are critical tools for ANYONE who has employees that they would hate to lose. I found the book extremely easy to read, and the 26 chapters fun to go through. The book is designed so that you can take and apply one chapter (or retention strategy) at a time, instead of being overwhelmed by trying to apply them all at once. A lot of the strategies in the book are common sense, but I know that managers still don't apply them when an employee is about to walk out the door. I would hope that ALL managers, supervisors, executives, etc. would apply just ONE strategy. I think they would be amazed and surprised at the effectiveness this one attempt would have on changing the employee's mind to stay. I highly recommend this book for all organizations, and for all levels within the organization. It truly is the best book I have read on retention strategies, and the authors make the book so applicable to the challenges faced in today's tight labor market!

A Practical Guide for Managers Committed to Retention
Love 'Em or Lose 'Em is a wonderful resource for any manager looking to retain valuable talent. Because the book is organized into topic areas that span an array of pertinent retention issues, one can easily jump around to those topics that are most relevant to them. Each chapter contains constructive and concrete suggestions, along with insightful quotes from employees who have dealt with decisions to stay or leave an organization. Also, the many opportunities for self-assessment are extremely helpful. It would be impossible to walk away from this book without any new ideas for retaining employees that are vital to your organization. The authors have successfully translated a compendium of research into practical, how-to explanations of what motivates people to stay in a job and what managers can do to influence this outcome. This combination of knowledge and advice create an experience of worthwhile reading and exploration.

A Message You Can Bank On
Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans' message is reinforced by the voices of those who are able to translate the investment in human capital to the bottom line. This is a book with sound principles and concepts -- one well worth taking to heart. Mr. and Ms. CEO, when properly implemented, these are concepts whose payoffs you can bank on!

Engage, Motivate, Retain
In working with literally thousands of managers a year, I find very few complaining about employee turn-over. Or its more positively stated corollary, retention of great people.

That doesn't mean that attrition of great associates isn't a problem---just one that most managers overlook or choose to ignore for its embarrassing implications.

What most managers do complain about (ad nauseum) can be summed up in two words: employee motivation. Which, of course, has everything to do with causing the very costly problem of human leakage from the company payroll (as well as most of the frustrations that deny managers restful nights and peaceful days).

And so, it is such a shame that the title of this superbly helpful guide is misleading. Or at least inadequate. Instead of "Love 'Em or Lose 'Em," it should declare, more appropriately: "Keep 'Em: Engaged, Motivated to Produce, and on YOUR Payroll!" Clunkier for sure. But much more accurate. If not compelling.

This book by veteran consultants Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans is a handy advisor for pressured, task-based (and, yes, even gruff) managers who are too consumed to always remember---but who know down deep---that people, the engaged and motivated variety, really do make the difference in producing great results.

POINTS OF DISTINCTION
Unlike so many other collections of myriad motivational techniques, this book is:

• Grounded in research (current and original by the authors, as well as contemporary and classic studies by others)

• Flush with very real world examples---many of them likely will seem hauntingly familiar and hit frighteningly close to home (perhaps striking dead-on in your very own solar plexus)

• Aimed squarely at managers who ordinarily reject, refute, and yeah-but all the trite touchy-feely, overly saccharine, and unrealistically techniquey advice about motivating people. (You know, the kind spewed by the legions of naive-to-clueless consultants who manage nothing more than to pen ridiculously over-idealized management books.)

• Packed with rich, diverse, immediately actionable tactics that are practical, low-or-no-cost, and doable. No matter how uninvolved or inept your own boss or HR department, you'll find lots and lots of choices and material from which even the most casual, or cynical, skimming reader can easily draw. (As the authors note in their Preface: "'Love 'Em or Lose 'Em' does not offer a single technique or a large, complex program for keeping good people. Instead, it provides 26 strategies, each of which includes dozens of small, easy-to-implement ideas." True enough.)

Unlike far too many "management cookbooks" (some unreasonably popular), this work distinguishes itself by helping a manager to:
• Assess his or her own management style---not against the standard of an imaginary "perfect leader" but rather in specific dimensions that truly affect employee performance; and
• Accept responsibility for affecting employees' engagement, productivity, and retention. (As the Gallup Organization and others have been harping on lately, it's the individual manager, not the CEO or mythical corporate culture, who really affects the day-to-day work of individual employees.)

This book by Kaye and Jordan-Evans encourages its readers to ask themselves important questions about their OWN needs and assumptions (critical to understanding why one does what one does). And it provides a remarkable treasure trove of questions that a manager can ask employees, in comfortable conversations, to gently unveil their personal interests, wants, and needs impacting their on-the-job motivation and performance. Moreover, it provides plenty of options for managers to deploy tactics that leverage those vital insights into productivity-changing actions.

PICKING NITS
A hidden gem in the book is its Quick-Start Guide. It provides a valuable overview of the book, and is itself full of practical tactics. But it is unnecessarily and inexplicably inconspicuous. Hidden really. Buried between the last chapter and the Notes and other end matter.

Likewise, a useful self-assessment that guides the reader to the themes most helpful to a specific reader resides in the LAST chapter.

Despite these curious editorial decisions, my advice is to buy two copies of this book. One for you and one for the least people-oriented boss you know. Then, read the book. Backwards and selectively. Begin with the Quick-Start Guide on page 243, and then take the "Retention Probability Index" assessment on pages 237 & 238.

Oh, be sure to take (with a deep breath and earnest commitment to brutal honesty) the Jerk Boss self-assessment on pages 91-93. To get full value from this uniquely helpful book, it's good to know what you're really up against.

-- Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute, [website]

Not just for managers
LOVE 'EM or LOSE 'EM contains 26 steps for improving employee retention organized in an A-Z fashion. Although written during the recent boom times when retention was a challenge, information presented is quite valuable now for managers who wish to stay employed. The suggestions will promote a happier and more productive workforce. Many of the concepts can be applied to all interpersonal relationships - between co-workers, family and friends.

The book's presentation is visually appealing - section headings and key passages are in a complimentary blue font. There are various other eye-catching features that make the book interesting and exciting. Each chapter starts with a short statement from a fictitious employee referred to as A.J some key excerpts follow

Introduction:
I quit.
I'm giving you my notice.
I found another opportunity.
I've accepted another offer.
Can we talk?

Chapter 1 Ask - What Keeps You
They never asked.

Chapter 2 Buck - It Stops Here
I think my manager actually could have kept me. But I don't think he ever saw it as his job.

Chapter 5 Enrich - Energize the Job
The job just became ho-hum. I mean, I was good at it, my customers were pleased, but I was just plain bored.

Chapter 13 Mentor - Be One
I wish I'd had someone to warn me about some of the political ins and outs that were never written in any policy manual.

Chapter 18 Reward - Provide Recognition
It wasn't about the money, really. Oh, sure, a bonus would have been nice when I brought that new client in or when I finished those specs ahead of schedule. But a "thank you-I noticed" would really have been appreciated.

Generously distributed throughout are "Alas" sections - short, as the authors state, "the-fish-that-got-away" stories that actually happened. There are numerous "Business Examples" - things that really worked in large and small organizations. As references to other parts of the book there are "Go To" Icons to augment the information being presented.

If you're wondering how effective your management skills are in retaining employees, go to Chapter 26 - Zenith and take the assessment of your "Retention Probability Index".

At the end of the book is a Quick Start Guide - you might want to go there first and get an overview of the entire book.

Employee retention as well as productivity is not just about the money and the other "hygiene" factors (work space, hours, etc.), it's about listening to and respecting others. In these difficult times, it's more important than ever.

This book is clearly for everyone. ... Read more

Book Description

Labor Relations, the most accurate, readable, timely, and valuable book of its kind on the market, provides readers with a basic understanding of unionism in its natural habitat and a fundamental appreciation of the union-management process.It focuses on the negotiation and administration of labor agreements, and emphasizes the more significant bargaining issues. The 11th edition includes much new material and an extensively revised and updated bibliography.For vice-presidents and directors of labor relations, union presidents, and others who are full-time labor-management professionals for either managements or unions. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Working Poor examines the "forgotten America" where "millions live in the shadow of prosperity, in the twilight between poverty and well-being." These are citizens for whom the American Dream is out of reach despite their willingness to work hard. Struggling to simply survive, they live so close to the edge of poverty that a minor obstacle, such as a car breakdown or a temporary illness, can lead to a downward financial spiral that can prove impossible to reverse. David Shipler interviewed many such working people for this book and his profiles offer an intimate look at what it is like to be trapped in a cycle of dead-end jobs without benefits or opportunities for advancement. He shows how some negotiate a broken welfare system that is designed to help yet often does not, while others proudly refuse any sort of government assistance, even to their detriment. Still others have no idea that help is available at all.

"As a culture, the United States is not quite sure about the causes of poverty, and is therefore uncertain about the solutions," he writes. Though he details many ways in which current assistance programs could be more effective and rational, he does not believe that government alone, nor any other single variable, can solve the problem. Instead, a combination of things are required, beginning with the political will needed to create a relief system "that recognizes both the society's obligation through government and business, and the individual's obligation through labor and family." He does propose some specific steps in the right direction such as altering the current wage structure, creating more vocational programs (in both the public and private sectors), developing a fairer way to distribute school funding, and implementing basic national health care.

Prepare to have any preconceived notions about those living in poverty in America challenged by this affecting book. --Shawn Carkonen ... Read more

Reviews (37)

A Searing Look At Poverty In America
Poverty is a marginalization of good and decent people. It is about a lack of money, and it is about far more. It is also about the myth that if one works hard that one will not be poor. In fact, most persons who are poor do work hard. Most hard work is rewarded at a low level of pay because our system rewards the employer who pays at the lowest level that can be achieved.

The author discusses the problem of Asthma in America caused primarily by the poor living in cities and in poor housing. He also discusses malnutrition in America.

The more money we invest in our children, the lesser amount of money we will need to invest in prisons. More than that, if we will reduce the poverty of millions of children then we will have a much more wonderful society in which to live. Our society works in part like a chain-link fence. That is, the overall quality of our society is no better than the weakest link in our "chain-link fence" of security for our citizens.

Fascinating but Misses Some Basics
I enjoyed this book tremendously; Shipler is a fine writer.His overall point is that a lot more could be done about poverty than we are presently doing, and that it wouldn't necessarily cost more money than we are spending now.I agree!
There are some glaring omissions in the book.Shipler talks extensively about the problems immigrants face, but he says nothing about how much the condition of the American poor would improve if immigration laws were enforced.In my opinion, by accepting immigrants from overpopulated countries America is, in effect, subsidizing other countries' irresponsibility in failing to solve their domestic problems.Shipler echoes the conventional wisdom that immigrants take jobs that native-born Americans wouldn't.Well, if jobs cleaning houses and picking produce paid $14 an hour, native-born Americans would be lining up for them.Why don't such jobs pay that much money?Because with America's loose immigration policy and lax enforcement of even the existing laws, employers know there's always another desperate immigrant willing to work for less. Restricting immigration would do a lot more to help poverty than using taxpayer money to pay for interpreter services, which Shipler mentions approvingly in Chapter 8, or anything else Shipler suggests.
Shipler also says too little about the role of free trade in lowering US wages.There's a big difference between free trade with countries that have labor and environmental standards similar to our own, and free trade with countries like China where labor and environmental standards are almost non-existent.Free trade between a high-standard and a low-standard country increases poverty in both countries:in the high-standard country because it can't compete on the wage front, and in the low-standard country because it ruins its natural resource base.Subsidizing that trade (as we do when we subsidize transportation costs with artificially cheap oil) simply ruins the trading countries faster.
Shipler's most important omission is in the area of birth control.I am married and between my husband and I we make a good middle-class income.We have one child, age seven.Between paying for child care (after school and during vacations when the public schools are closed), getting the child back and forth to school and child care, taking him to the doctor, attending school events, taking time off to care for him when he is sick, etc., etc., my experience has been that even one child is incredibly expensive both in money and time.I can't see how our family could possibly manage financially with two children.Yet over and over again, the poor families in Shipler's book have three children, five children, even eight children or more.Shipler doesn't even mention that poor families might find it easier to manage if they had fewer kids!As far as I'm concerned, anyone who has more than two children has NO right to complain that his poverty is society's fault.Where a nineteen-year-old has three children and ishaving trouble feeding them adequately, as a clinic patient described on page 211 of Shipler's book does, this strikes me as the sort of problem that is a lot easier to prevent than solve.Tubal ligation is one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent poverty known.And yes, I had one.

hidden right wing agenda
First half of the book:
Don't let the description of this book fool you by telling you that both right and left wing readers won't like this book. That is a ploy to get you to think that you must be more open minded of, and accepting of, this book. It was immediately clear to me after having read only a few pages that this book was written with a serious right wing slant utilizing typical right wing stereotypes. Before I even started the first chapter of this book I noticed that there wasn't one person in the list of those consulted in the writing of this book that was poor! They were all people of privilege. It was also apparent that every editorial review listed in the book was either a newpaper or a person of affluence. Do you see any editorial reviews from anti-poverty groups, womens groups, immigrant groups, or any other group that represents the poor? NO, you don't. Who controls the newspapers? Well, let's see, umm how about the affluent and the heads of corporations. All people who have much to gain from giving the average American the impression that the poor are poor due to their own defects! How typical it is that people write books about poor people without poor people being consulted as to the real causes of poverty and what their needs are! I would remind readers that people who *think* that they know what poor people need, and are not poor themselves, have no actual personal experience to judge by but rather judge based on stereotypes of the poor. I would throw this book into the fire except that I feel that you must know your enemy to fight them. Reading this book is infuriating. The author makes it appear that every poor person has a combination of drug problems, alcohol problems, childhood abuse issues, poor parenting skills, poor budgeting skills, and an incomplete education. He doesn't seem to have been able to find poor people anywhere in the entire United States that don't fit this desciption! Please! The interviews with poor people were written *in their own words* and I found it extremely difficult to understand these people as their grammar was so poor. According to this author nearly all poor people are illiterate, or if not, still sound as though they are! None of them could pronounce a simple sentence without using improper grammar or slang! Are there NO poor people in America that can speak properly? Come on! In the chapter on child abuse which of course leads to those same people abusing their own children there isn't a poor parent in America that hasn't been abused by their parents and all are at risk, if not already abusing, their own kids! They all need to take parenting classes! My God, talk about stereotypes! When the author discusses illegal immigrants, particularily farm and factory workers, and describes their terrible living conditions I suppose he wants to make the reader aware of this sad fact and that it needn't exist but instead gives the impression that poor immigrants must be terrible slobs that can't see anything wrong with their living conditions and are satisfied with them as long as they have work. He wasn't able to find a single illegal immigrant farmer or factory worker in the entire United States that had anything negative to say about these conditions! Does this author really expect people to buy this? I must do some research and find out who financed this writing. I'm sure I will find out that it has been financed by the spin doctors.

Though there are problems amongst poor people and often more than there are amongst the affluent, these problems are almost always caused by poverty itself and could be significantly reduced by providing universal health care, access to decent and affordable housing, livable wages, reliable and efficient transportation, affordable food and nutritional suppliments, affordable and reliable child care, and a comprehensive education for all members of our society. Don't BUY the SPIN!

Part 2:
In this section the author has finally found one poor person in the entire US that has an education and doesn't sound illiterate when they speak. This person, however, is the token *middle class* white woman who has been unfortunate enough to have divorced and fallen from her higher position in society. Of course there are no poor people in America that haven't fallen from this higher rung on the economic ladder that are literate so he must use this example. Here he portrays her as making the correct choice of working part time to spend more time with her kids and to send them to private school by making sacrifices in other areas while she lives off of the generous support payments that her husband provides. Now we know he can't use a welfare mother as an example of making the right choice to stay home because that would not sit well with the affluent readers. Did I mention that nearly every poor persons home is dirty, dishes everywhere, clothes on the floor, filthy conditions generally? Oh yes, they all live like pigs. Oh we mustn't forget that none of them have *soft skills*, a spin word used by the welfare reform spin doctors to denote cases that must be forced into training programs which consist of resume writing, interviewing skills, basic computer usage, getting to work on time, etc. Yes it's true, according to this author, all poor people have low self esteem and can't even speak to or look at an employer when in an interview never mind arrive on time or call in when they can't show up!. They are all so terribly damaged that they can't even communicate on a normal human level with another human. Sub-human poor people they are really you know, they need help in this area. I'm sure forced participation in a *program* that will address these soft skills and then direct the poor into *entry level* positions will be the cure for this!
After all, do you really expect employers to pay decent wages to people when they are so damaged and so useless that they are nearly animals? They are costing companies money by putting up with them you know. Come on!

Have I mentioned that there aren't any employers in America to blame? Yes, the author mentions a few employers who say they can't cut into their profit margins or it will put the business at risk. These are all small operations he mentions. Does the risk to employees mean anything? NO! Have corporations that have billions a year in profits been mentioned? NO! We can't upset the corporate guys or they won't buy the book!

Really is just amazes me that so many readers are taken in by this book. I wonder how it is that having lived in poverty for many years and knowing literally hundreds of others in the same position that I can't recall a single one that sounds illiterate. Nearly every poor person I have ever met has astounding skills at time management, budgeting, problem solving, and most are computer literate today as well. They all keep relatively clean houses and none of them beat their kids, in fact they are usually the first ones to point out minor flaws in each other parenting and offer helpful suggestions. They have developed a fine network of bartering and support amongst each other. They are skilled at resume writing and communication skills. So how come they aren't working or working and still poor? Well, lets see, how about.. there are no jobs that pay enough money to support a single person, never mind a family. How about the lack of economically feasible and decent childcare. How about tuition costs so high that only a fool would go into that kind of debt for a higher education with little means to pay it off upon graduation. How about the fact that jobs once performed by unskilled labour now require a masters degree to get hired. Does a thousand applicants for every one position say anything to you? Let's not forget that if you are working at a low paying job, your chances of promotion are nil. Low paying jobs don't have promotion opportunites. Neither do they provide raises for skills, experience, and time on the job. Oh you say, I know a poor person who got a 10 cent raise last week! Lets see, a 2% raise a year when inflation is say 5% leaves you how far into the hole?. You call this a raise? Employees wages are decreasing every year to the benefit of the employers. How about preventative health care including dental care so that it doesn't cost more in the long run? Oh yes, then there is the cost of public transportation or a car if your rural, clothes for work, quicker, more costly, meals to cook and you end up without enough left for food to sustain you to go to work. I guess poor people are supposed to work hungry and like it. This will really increase self esteem people! Does this author actually expect us to buy the idea that a lower income job that is usually something that no one wants to do, doesn't lead anywhere, and doesn't pay enough to fill their stomach or pay their bills is going to increase people's self esteem!? Let the author work at one of these low wage jobs for a few weeks and see how his self esteem is.

While I don't dispute that the people mentioned in this book are actual people with the problems cited, the author has conveniently selected a group of experiences which very carefully fit into the spin doctors stereotypical view of the poor in order to justify their welfare reform, low wages, and forced back to work *programs*. Very clever and hardly noticable by the general population who are not acutely aware of the real issues and elaborately planned, corporate funded, political brainwashing attempt to divert your attention from the problems of the free market system to the defects of the poor.

Absolutely no mention was given to the responsibility of corporations in paying livable wages and his end remarks regarding government responsibilty were diluted at best. Mr. Shipler, nice try but you haven't fooled all of us.

The Weight of the World
This book, at somewhat of a more superficial level, reminds me of Pierre Bourdieu's 1990 narrative sociology of hard lives in France and Chicago, The Weight of the World.

What's most interesting about the pathologies narrated is that they are shared by the middle and upper middle classes in America, but become much more consequential when the money isn't there.

Of course, each pathology has to be narrated in its own unique context. Tolstoy started the Karenina famously by saying "All happy families are happy alike, all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way".

Both sides of this dictum, which was at best a snappy way of starting a good book, can be interrogated. Part of the Weight of the World on people (such as my fellow students at Roosevelt University in Chicago) who start with silent disadvantages is that they learn not to narrate their lives with any justice.

This is because to do so in a dysfunctional family is often to get whacked.

In drug and alcohol rehab, which we see in Shipler is where welfare to work must often start, language STARTS with the absolute requirement for a true recognition of what Marx described as one's relations to one's fellow man in his purple passage "all that is solid melts into air".

But then, in computer classes and classes in resume writing, the Clintonian compromise with an uncompromising Republican class war changes this, and suddenly, the narrative becomes highly structured.

As Shipler points out, it becomes a narrative entirely concerned with satisfying naturalized employer needs.

Shipler gives a telling example. Physicians, who spot serious childhood illnesses, almost never think to call the mother's supervisor at work to ask that accomodations be made because excessively privatized health care makes the physician "think like a manager and not a physician"...in a society in which members of professional guilds outside the legal profession (and to an extent within it) are increasingly encouraged to subordinate their professional judgement to "thinking like a manager"...a rather unpleasant sort of chap, at the limit: rather something out of Dickens, forever making nasty little calculations.

Thus "thinking like a manager" means the physician will have internalized a mental "block" in which the job arrangements of a poor mother are assumed to be absolutes, and unquestionable. The block of course has a very good reason, and this is the resurgence of the legal doctrine of employment at will, which since the 1980s has been used pretty much without mercy on lower-level employees.

Shipler is a thoughtful supporter of the Great Bubba and his Missouri Compromise with forces that since Reagan are as Uncompromising as the slave-owner South (and whose avatars are generally silent about their spiritual and at times physical inheritances from antebellum arrangements).

The problem for Shipler is that untangling arrangements at once partly benign, partly pathological, and in all cases intertwined is difficult social re-engineering in a society where the Uncomprising forces have greatly benefited from them.

Furthermore, nobody can call a work ethic, the willingness to get up and go, and wage labor an agreement with death and a covenant with hell, as did Garrison refer to the slaveowner's Constitution. Quite the opposite: progressive forces in Abolition times thought precisely as do modern Republican apologists.

They believed in the American dream of salvation through wage labor and saving money, as does Shipler: as does Bill Clinton. But where anti-slavery's simplicity of opposition meant that it escaped being an ideology, support for the eternal verities of work and save is not support for anything simple.

I mean, there is in my experience work like a dog, and blue one's hard earned dollars like a sailor in port: just because you work you don't have to save (although it's impossible to save if you don't work, unless you steal). Many of Shipler's poor remain poor because of odious lending arrangements in a society which has forgot the evils of usury. Others remain poor because they, like Sir John Falstaff, don't think sack and sugar a fault.

But nearly all remain poor because of a Gestalt, in which Shylock, sack and sugar combine. Their personal biographies (as Bourdieu also relates) are saturated with post-modern complexities and puzzlements.

Bourdieu's elder French men and women made decent lives for themselves in France of the 1950s. They joined the Communist party *sans peur*...which then taught them an interesting, but terribly real work ethic: since they were workers, enmeshed in a doomed system, it was their dignity, in nearly all cases, to show up on time, *en masse*, and work hard if only to frighten the bosses with a show of strength.

But as happened in the USA, where Vietnam and the 1960s intervened in the same way in France, where Algeria, Vietnam and the French experience of the 1960s intervened, resistance, for the children and grandchildren became what Eric Hobsbawm called "the anarchism of the lower middle class", a disempowering brew of passive aggression, drug and alcohol abuse, and cynicism.

The result today is that the lower middle, working and lumpen classes can't speak of their own dignity without being immediately suspected, in rehab, computer classes, and resume-writing classes, of a Bad Attitude and a desire to return to the Dreamtime of the 1960s.

The Hobbesianism, this war of all against all, pervades American, and American-influenced, society from top to bottom, and as a result, it's become a strange society of monads who counsel each other to Look Out for Number One.

In this explicit Hobbesianism, we're all Number One, but the trouble is paradoxically that which Orwell saw in Communism. Some of us, like Donald Trump, are more Number One than others and (in a regression to theological barbarism) one gains indulgences in the resulting foofaraw by serving more successful men.

Thus the business book advises a paradoxical, almost Buddhist path, to personal empowerment: the celebration of a successful self who in reality is another, more polished version of one's sweating self.

From top to bottom in American society, this has created mass delusion and the preconditions for reproduction of the same pathologies Shipler describes: anomie, isolation, aliteracy, cynicism and despair.

Capitalist "shock therapy" cured the Communist forms of these pathologies in those countries like Poland and the Czech Republic (for Communism as ideology naturalizes nonsense just as fast, if not faster, than capitalism as ideology). But no exogenous shock seems to be in prospect for capitalism unless Space Monsters from the Planet Zork arrive.

Capitalism, interpreted as the ideological exclusion of solidarity and in signal cases elementary acts of kindness, may be at this point an addiction in the West. In the epistemological crisis described by David Caute (in Critical Psychiatry) characteristic of the lower middle class family, we may need to marketize relations in preference to actually judging ourselves and others: to keep the world at arm's length.

Hopefully, this process has an end point.

While in France, I saw a French review of this book which in French shed new light on what's hidden in America: for the French writer spoke of "single mothers" as "meres celibataires".

To so speak of single mothers illuminates their flat situation with sudden light and shadow, for the Latinate language images them as an order of nuns, "chanting cold hymns to the moon".

It implies that single motherhood is less, as is described by the grim Puritan divine, a product of "choices" in an America in which we're always making choices later used against us, than a guild or a calling, in a Middle Ages unexperienced in America...where the single mother takes upon herself the inability of the patriarch to change a nappy or send a child support check.

But for the same reason the physician doesn't pick up the phone and yell at the uncaring boss, single mothers chant cold hymns to the moon on the bus to Walmart at 3:00 AM, and somewhere else no dinner is ever thrown, with beer and lap dancing, for men who've paid their child support.

The situation is occult in Adorno's naturalized sense, for lucky and successful people in America have been as it were possessed by a daemon. This daemon (whose spelling I make antiquarian to avoid any confusion with theological fantasy) has instructed his adepts never, on pain of exclusion from bien-pensance, to emotionally overtip the help, in the sense of ever recognizing that over and above a paycheck, the working poor are doing us a favor.

We even train ourselves never to think we're doing anyone any favors by working, because in the hegemonic ideology (so there: take that) the equation has to come out to zero: the pay we get is what we deserve, and, it's best to megaconsume (whether in the short term Yuppie sense, or the longer term, whee let's buy more house than we can afford, sense) than to show solidarity with fellow workers or even demand psychic satisfaction.

Well, if even the Shortest American in the World, Robert Reich of Harvard could not even for one minute ask himself WHY Republicans can't compromise, don't compromise and don't have to compromise, why friend Reich and Bubba can't THEORIZE, then even Hilary's 2008 nomination won't work. We'll wake up as in Groundhog Day, to find that the election was stolen from Hilary despite exit polls showing a Hilary landslide.

As antiphilosophical Americans (insert appropriate reference to Tocqueville right here, as soon as I get around to actualy reading that prolix Frog), we don't think there is any such thing as Objective Spirit, and the Germans who used to discuss such nonsense over beer and sausage on Chicago's Lincoln Avenue are now silenced.

But what Objective Spirit MEANS is that we have no control whatsoever over a political Groundhog Day, in which cockroach exterminators drown what's left of any welfare state in the bathtub and in which our voices for peace and economic justice have no air: in which like spacemen we scream in silence.

It was at this point that the late Derrida, in Specters of Marx, had to go around the bend, and start speaking of ghosts. We know a slave when we see one, dodging the ice on the Ohio while we cheer him on in the old play.

But precisely as the static Weight of the World is in fact silently borne, we realize that this World Trade Center is all we have. Materially, like Hamlet in Act One, we tend sadly only to reproduction of intolerable lives. It takes an exogenous, ectomorphic event such as Dad cap a pie on the battlements to make us imagine negative, and positive possibility.

But absent this, we have Bill Murray in Groundhog day, punctured only by what old Tom Eliot heard in The Waste Land: murmurs of maternal lamentation, Erde-Kundry (whom none could call fair) sighing under the cumulative weight.

We'll wake up to find that the American electoral system, superstructure as to its base, in fact is fair in that it transmits not what we know, what we think we want, but our darkest and innermost Fear and Loathing, expressed in the very idea that when we've learned not to cut ourselves a break, we're damned if we'll cut dem welfare queens, dem bums, a break.

The code was tweaked for a Neil Bush win? What else is new? Shipler's working poor fight a rigged system, rigged today using high technology which has become a second nature, and in the next installment, the bien-pensants will learn once and for all that Bush v Gore was only the first shot. They can "vote" for the next multimillionaire Democrat until they are blue in the face, but in their heart they want what's delivered to their mortgaged door by the wretched of the earth.

The Weight of the World, Allen Ginsberg's "Trees! Clocks! Radios! Tons!" is known only to the structural engineer as frozen energy, frozen anger, and bodies turned to stone as heavy as the moon. The Working Poor, of course, know that their situation is never absolute, like slavery: my Mom's loyal maid knew instinctively that they were both mistress and servant, and coequal servants to my Dad's absolute need for a quiet, upper middle class, home (as compared to the usual *menage* of screaming wife, hounded husband, and noisy kids).

I conclude (aintcha glad I wrap it up) that we are ALL working poor: like Bob Marley said, we bellyful (maybe) but we hungry. But this should be a call to arms and to the strong compassion of Marianne, or forgotten Molly. When the storm breaks, it will be a mighty storm.

Spoiled by a Desire for "Balance"
This is one of the best books about poverty to have come out in recent years. Shipler writes beautifully and he is one of the few writers on the subject who has been able to shift almost effortlessly from anecdotal stories to the "big picture".

His basic thesis is entirely free of the sanctimonious BS one usually hears from both right and left: yes, poor people do make a lot of bad decisions, but then again so does everyone else. Rich people, however, are generally insulated from the effects of their bad decisions by their wealth and/or social connections, attributes which also tend to naturally put them in positions where it is easier to make good decisions.

If Shipler had stuck with this basic thesis, I could have given this book 5 stars. But somewhere along the way it seems that Shipler falls prey to the journalistic malady of "finding balance". This, of course, is immediately taken to mean that he, the author, should write something which "challenges both left and right". The above-mentioned thesis thus gets banged around and Shipler ends up with a confused message.

The worst parts of the book are when Shipler interviews supervisors and other non-poor people. Suddenly his BS meter seems not to work anymore. While Shipler is a master of explaining the mistakes and self-deceptions of the poor, he cannot seem to say anything even remotely critical about the actions of the employers with whom he talks. Everything they say gets taken at face value, even patent absurdities such as when a Proctor and Gamble spokesman tells him that the reason the company cannot have more regular working hours is that it would be bad for workers' career prospects not to be able to work with all three shift supervisors! This, mind you, after just explaining at length how the irregular working hours were causing serious havoc with the life of a single mother. Shipler sets aside his good journalistic instincts and feeds us this nonsense as a "reasonable" statement. The author is a bit too worshipful of the dictates of the "free market", accepting the employers' claims of being "helpless" as patently true, even though he knows little or nothing about the industries involved.
If we should expect the poor to take responsibility for their lives and be active moral agents, why not extend that same requirement to those a bit up the income ladder? This is a book about poverty whose main (and pretty much only) fault is that it doesn't examine wealth at all. ... Read more

Book Description

The seventh edition of this best-selling book continues to provide readers with a realistic picture of actual collective bargaining and labor relations situations drawn from the authors' considerable experiences. Sections of actual labor agreements as well as arbitration cases and decisions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the courts illustrate and emphasize contemporary issues of collective bargaining and labor relations. Experts in the fields of labor law and arbitration have contributed “tips” on how the concepts in the book can actually be applied.In addition to covering history and law, workplace challenges, the collective bargaining process, and labor contracts, major features of this new edition include expanded coverage of public sector labor relations, international collective bargaining issues, union organizing and avoidance strategies, and collective bargaining in professional sports.Because of its comprehensive coverage and excellent resource material, this book is an excellent reference for human resource directors, labor relations directors, personnel directors, and labor negotiators. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great Book
Great book for the novice negotiator or student.Current, easy to read, practical examples.

Concise & complete
The authors provide a complete & concise discussion of the process of collective bargaining within a general labor relations context. Many, current cases, tips from experts, and historical references help present the concepts. A solid text for the novice negotiator or interested student.

Carrell and Heavrin Update The Field
Michael R. Carrell and Christina Heavrin's 6th edition of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining; Cases, Practice , and Law is an excellent contemporary and very readable book. Included are supplementary materials and even important Web sites of the companies and labor organizations featured in the text. Relevant and up-to-date case studies and exercises follow each chapter, enhancing opportunies for group work and practical application. Chapters 10, 11 and 12, which cover implementing the collective bargaining agreement, grievance procedures, and arbitration process are particularly comprehensive and well presented. Included in these chapters are excellent examples of items in a negotiated contract, forms used in the grievance process, and recent arbitration decisions. Each chapter also ends with a list of important terms and concepts and review questions. This book has wide application and use for either an introductory course at the lower division or upper division courses at the Colledge or University level. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Unhappy with your job? Before you vote with your feet, consider the advice of career specialists Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans and learn to love your job. In this practical sequel to their bestseller Love 'Em or Lose 'Em, the authors focus on employee satisfaction as a responsibility you must share with your employer. Although the format of Love It, Don't Leave It: 26 Ways to Get What You Want at Work is gimmicky--the suggestions follow the 26 letters of the alphabet--the advice is smart and specific.

Based on research with 15,000 people who have job longevity, Kaye and Jordan-Evans identified five top "stay factors" such as opportunity for growth and pay equity. Using these factors, they map several dozen CPR ("Career Path Resuscitation") including taming the boss from hell,finding multiple mentors, protecting family time, bringing fun to work, breaking out of your cubicle and solving your Rodney "no respect" Dangerfield problem.

One standout chapter enriches our understanding of the out of the box metaphor by comparing the properties of glass, concrete, and vapor boxes. Rich in examples and underlined with strategies, this book will attract a wide audience. Follow your heart careerists may question the very idea of lobbying against changing jobs. Still, when the authors urge each reader to become the author of his or her job satisfaction, the book becomes a valuable companion in an uncertain economy. --Barbara Mackoff ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Love It - Practical and really useful
This is the book that truly gives employees a path to their own satisfaction and job enrichment. It made me understand that I can and should take responsibility for my own worklife and that there are things I can do myself that will improve my satisfaction, happiness and outlook at work. Instead of waiting for my manager to make things happen, there is much I can do for myself. Thank you for Love It. I wish I'd had it before I left my last job.

Finally ... an employee's toolkit for job satisfaction
I was lucky ... I was gifted with an intuitiveness on how to navigate corporate America to grow, learn and stay satisfied, for years on end, in an organization. But as a manager of literally hundreds of people over the years, I got tired of them saying "fix it" -- "where's my promotion" -- and so on. Yes, as a manager I did have responsibility to grow, develop and keep my people engaged. I also felt that they too had to take some steps, take the initiative, and drive their own careers. This book is perfect for all of those people -- those that didn't know how to find out what they want and go for it. I plan to send a copy to many of those favorites ... those who wanted to grow, but needed some guidance. This will definitely make their worklife easier, and more satisfying. Finally, a guidebook with great how-to's for employees everywhere to take some very positive steps towards a better worklife. An excellent read, it should be on the lunch tables across corporate America.

Left It, Didn't Love It
Given the rave reviews for this book, I was surprised by the lack of content and value. The book's message is a truism: only you are responsible for your own happiness. It goes on to encourage you to ask for what you want. These aren't bad assertions but they're more complicated to implement than this book would have you believe. The content is structured like an article in a woman's magazine: it uses a bulletized format with basic questions to ask yourself like "What do you enjoy" followed by inane suggestions like "Decorate your office". Cloying and without substance, this book fails to answer many core questions. What if your boss declines your request? What motivates an organization? How do you make lateral moves? Where are the examples of individuals who reengineered their work situation and how exactly they did it ? Granted, too many employees don't understand the work relationship or how to work an organization. But this is not the book that will address those issues. If you're still determined to read this book, my copy is up for sale on Amazon's used site.

Leaving or staying, read this book!
This eminently practical book reaches out to you in a real way. Clearly the authors understand the frustrations of employees and offer not one but several layers of approaches to help you get the most from your job. How to think about leaving or staying, what to ask, what to say, conversations to have, and checklists to get clear on your views all help you to make the best decisions. The authors pack so much practical assistance into one short book it is just amazing. This book is designed for fast easy reading. Don't miss out on this great treasure!!

Taking charge
What an excellent guidebook to show each employee how to take charge, have fun, be more productive, and enjoy time at work. Even the best managers and leaders can't provide all those results for their people. The employees have to do it themselves. Thanks, Bev and Sharon, for providing the guideposts along the way. ... Read more

Book Description

Looming crisis ahead! There’s a dangerously growing shortage of skilled workers to fill jobs. Projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast a shortage of skilled 10,033,000 workers by 2010. And this shortage is simply raw numbers; it doesn’t fully address the growing skills gap. The numbers also don’t take into account the changing attitudes in the workforce.

This crisis is just around the corner. Trends are converging to create an unprecedented dilemma for employers throughout the free world. Because so few corporate leaders are fully aware of their predicament, executives who do prepare for the new operating environment will lead their organizations to a bright future; those who ignore the threat risk dangerous vulnerability.

Employers have been lulled into complacency by the demands of economic, stock market, and competitive issues. Even with all these problems, there’s a bigger challenge on the way: Cyclical economic growth will create more jobs, providing abundant opportunities for workers who will make their own choices. Will they choose you?

Many healthy employers today risk extinction. If they don’t begin serious repositioning right away. the risk is great. Unfortunately, few, if any, employers have addressed the issues.

This book is a wake-up call. Filled with evidence and advice, for corporate leaders in for-profit, not-for-profit, governmental, and education organizations, this book cites chapter and verse about how to evaluate your vulnerability and take action.

No one is immune. The concepts presented in these pages are vital for board members, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Human Resource Officers, and others responsible for present and future sustainable success. Chances are, they have not evaluated their vulnerability or made viable plans to manage the impact of this crisis on their organizations. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

On the mark, ahead of the curve...
I've been a fan of Roger Herman and his books for many years and once again he shows us the insight of looking to the future, but acting now to make the best of that future when it arrives. During a time when many managers and business owners may be focused solely on survival, Roger and his co-authors, Tom Olivo and Joyce Gioia, show the importance of focusing on current business and management practices that can enhance employee engagement, communication, and recognition and thus improve employee relationships, tenure and recruiting as it becomes an even more significant competitive advantage in years to come. Clearly and persuasively written, I also like that this book includes useful action steps for improving any company's circumstances on its way to becoming an "employer of choice."

Impending Solution for the Impending Crisis
Herman, Olivo, and Gioia combine facts and figures with real-world examples to describe the next wave of workforce issues facing America. They go beyond the impending crisis and provide solutions. This team of workforce trend watchers and consultants has truly found the problem and offered practical solutions to address it.

Impending Crisis is written for business leaders and managers seeking solutions to look beyond the present and prepare for the future. This book is filled with research to backup the assertions and recommendations. More than 50 figures are used to support critical points. And, an extensive bibliography of valuable references is provided.

Reading Impending Crisis is not like reading many other business books. It is drawn from the research and experience of the authors who obviously know the subject and who care deeply about the issues facing the workforce and business.

I recommend this book to human resource professionals, business leaders, and students seeking to understand the workforce of tomorrow. Read it; discuss it; use it! The crisis is impending. So is the solution. Read the book; discover solutions!

Reviewed December 22, 2002 by John L. Bennett
...

Disappointing
This book is written for the employers, so if you don't own a business or are not in a high level management, your benefit of reading this book will not be substantial.

My dissatisfaction of this book has to do with high level of alarm this book raises based on speculation. The subtitle of this book is "Too many jobs too few people". Due to the demographics (which is impossible to alter in a short period), it is certain we will have too few people in the work force by 2010. The question is will there be too many jobs by 2010? Even the author concedes it is impossible to forecast the economy in the next 5 years, let alone the next 10. Hence, the author's conclusion of pending doom of massive skilled worker shortage by 2010 is speculative.

In fact, many prominent economists will argue that the economy will falter BADLY after 2010 because the consumer spending will drop like a rock due to the aging population (people over 55 spend considerably less). The actual scenario might be "too few jobs too many people".

Finally, the reliability of author's statistics are somewhat questionable (they are from the government after all). For example, according to the author, there are more than 3 million jobs right now than the number of people to fill them. In reality, however, the job market has been the toughest it has been in years, and many people are being laid off without work for over 6 months or more. When statistics conflict with reality, then ALWAYS trust the reality.

Lots of practical advice
Heard IMPENDING CRISIS by Roger E. Herman, Thomas G. Olivo
and Joyce L. Gioia, a book whose subtitle says it all: TOO MANY
JOBS, TOO FEW PEOPLE . . . though there's a fair amount of
theory relating to strategic planning, I liked it because of its practical
approach to things that can be done on a daily basis . . . this is
extremely useful for any individual or firm interested in ideas on how
to improve recruitment and retention, as well as about how to deal
with productivity problems.

Some of what the authors write may sound too obvious; e.g., employees
should be able to say:
1. I am proud to work for my company.
2. Our company has a stated set of values or guiding principles.
3. Our company has clearly articulated its values and beliefs.
4. Our hiring practices evaluate if new hires will work well in our
culture.
5. Our company places a high priority on training and development.

Yet because these recommendations are backed up with actual
research findings, I tend to believe that they make sense in almost
any work situation.

Work Force Meltdown
Impending Crisis is a vital book for America. It correctly points out that the current focus of the U.S. labor market is seriously out of step with reality. Technology and globalization are destroying many jobs across America, while creating many others in new occupations or expanding opportunities in career areas that require more education and specialized skills. The huge baby boomer generation will soon be replaced in the work force by a much smaller generation "Y". These unseen socioeconomic and educational issues are an important part of the economic meltdown so many Americans are experiencing but don't really understand.

Impending Crisis is an eloquent review of these issues. The authors alert all Americans to gear up to the demands of the 21st century global economy before it is too late for themselves or this society. ... Read more

Book Description

Departing from the traditional emphasis on institutions, this text emphasizes the use of economic theory and empirical analysis to understand regulatory and antitrust policies. Questions addressed include: What are the market failure rationales for, and appropriate form of, government intervention? What does theory show about competition in the presence of a market failure and the implications of government intervention to correct that failure? What do empirical analyses indicate about our regulatory experience and the direction of future intervention?

The third edition addresses many issues that have recently dominated the economic and political landscape. New material reviews the government's case against Microsoft, charges of anticompetitive pricing in NASDAQ and airlines, the blocked Staples-Office Depot merger, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This edition also covers the deregulation of the California electric power industry as well as recent deregulatory efforts in bank branching and natural gas transmission. On the social regulatory scene, it covers in detail recent cigarette litigation and the contentious issue of the contingent valuation of natural resource damages, as exemplified in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. New empirical evidence appears throughout the book.

Each part of the text can be used separately for a variety of courses including regulation and antitrust in undergraduate institutions, business schools, and schools of public policy, as well as background for doctoral courses. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This Book Stinks
If you are looking for a nonconsistant book that jumps around and does not follow through on its explanation of certain topics than this is the book for you!

Review of Economics of regulation and antitrust
This work provides an excellent overview of the field of regulation from an economic point of view. The primary focus is economic rather than institutional -- as a result it is more appropriate for economists than for legal scholars. Although the book does not require extensive training in economics, it does assume some formal knowledge of basic economic concepts. Since its focus is economic, little time is spent discussing legal cases surrounding many of the regulations compared with, for example, Law, Business, and Society, by McAdams, et. al. ... Read more

Book Description

During the past decade, American businesses have shifted their focus in human resource management and labor relations to employment issues such as wrongful discharge, sexual discrimination, and other employee rights. This employment law emphasis is reflected in the new title of Cihon and Castagnera: EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR LAW, 3e. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Worth it or Bust it!
This book is very well written, with solid legal definitions, along with additional case examples to show recent court rulings. I however feel the price paid for this book is a tad bit to steep! I have paid less for other labor books that are equal to the quality shown forth in this book. There is nothign so profound or so unique to justify such a expensive price. ... Read more

Book Description

This Second Edition discusses the key issues in labor relations, blending historical viewpoints with empirical research;addressing collective bargaining and labor relations at all levels of government and making comparisons to private sector labor relations. This edition also contains many pedagogical aids, such as a glossary that identifies and defines important terms and concepts, a list of research resources in public sector labor relations, case studies, and more. ... Read more