Book Description

Hardbound. ... Read more

Book Description

On television, Wal-Mart employees are smiling women delighted with their jobs. But reality is another story. In 2000, Betty Dukes, a 52-year-old black woman in Pittsburg, California, became the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, a class action representing 1.4 million women. In an explosive investigation of this historic lawsuit, journalist Liza Featherstone reveals how Wal-Mart, a self-styled "family-oriented," Christian company:

á Deprives women (but not men) of the training they need to advance

á Relegates women to lower-paying jobs, like selling baby clothes, reserving the more lucrative positions for men

á Inflicts punitive demotions on employees who object to discrimination

á Exploits Asian women in its sweatshops in Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth

Featherstone reveals the creative solutions Wal-Mart workers around the country have found-like fighting for unions, living-wage ordinances, and childcare options. Selling Women Short combines the personal stories of these employees with superb investigative journalism to show why women who work low-wage jobs are getting a raw deal, and what they are doing about it. ... Read more

Book Description

Written for those who want to break away from rigid schedules, unappreciative bosses, and soul-sapping commutes, this book will put prospective Internet entrepreneurs on the road to success. The basics of Internet mechanics and commerce are analyzed and followed by examinations of successful Internet businesses. Providing more than just technical information, this manual is also a guide to prioritizing what the entrepreneur wants to get out of the business and determining what level of risk is comfortable. This method ensures that the business chosen will match the goals and aspirations of the entrepreneur. Each of the 101 business profiles includes promotion techniques to help these start-ups get on the road to success. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

More comprehensive than similar titles.
If you've ever dreamed of owning your own business but don't want to be tied down to a brick and mortar building, then this is the book for you. Starting an Internet business could not be easier with the help of the information provided. The book starts with interview information from three successful Internet businesses and then follows that with how to get your point across, the various formats for a storefront, required features of the successful storefront, payment options, and levels of e-business. From there it moves to helping determine what is important to you and how to use that to find the right business for you. From there it moves to the profiles of successful businesses. These profiles are complete with how to market the business, startup costs, skills needed, online examples, etc. It finally concludes with information on how to build your site, get it submitted to search engines, e-mail marketing, using links and pretty much just about everything that you need to know in order to get the business up and running.

Susan Sweeney, the owner of an international Internet firm, has produced a very thorough and easy to understand book. Probably the best book available today on starting an Internet business from scratch, it is a highly recommended read. ... Read more

Book Description

We are on the verge of the nation’s worst nursing shortage in history. Dedicated nurses are leaving hospitals in droves, and there are not enough new recruits to the profession to meet demand. Even hospitals that were once very highly regarded for the quality of their nursing care, such as Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, now struggle to fill vacant positions. What happened? Dana Beth Weinberg argues that hospital restructuring in the 1990s is to blame.

In their attempts to retain profit margins or even just to stay afloat, hospitals adopted a common set of practices to cut costs and increase revenues. Many strategies squeezed greater productivity out of nurses and other hospital workers. Nurses’ workloads increased to the point that even the most skilled nurses questioned whether they could provide minimal, safe care to patients. As hospitals hemorrhaged money, it seemed that no one—not hospital administrators, not doctors—felt they could afford to listen to nurses.

Through a careful look at the effects of the restructuring strategies chosen and implemented by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the author examines management’s efforts to balance service and survival. By showing the effects of hospital restructuring on nurses’ ability to plan, evaluate, and deliver excellent care, Weinberg provides a stinging indictment of standard industry practices that underestimate the contribution nurses make both to hospitals and to patient care. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nu
Weinberg (Brandeis Univ.) provides an incredible account of her observations of the state of nursing at the newly merged Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center. Her goal was "to find out why the nurses are crying." Each chapter thoroughly examines current issues faced by the professional nursing staff as seen through their eyes. These issues are similar to those faced by nurses nationally as financial goals take precedence to quality patient care. Issues that Weinberg examines include a shift from primary nursing to team nursing, replacement of licensed personnel with nonlicensed technicians, overwhelming workloads, increasing nursing shortage, restructuring of nursing leadership, lack of administrative support, and deterioration of the physician-nurse relationship. Dialogue from focus groups provides a revealing account of how frustrated nurses were at this institution. Hospital administration often interpreted complaints from nurses as simply an effort to resist change. Weinberg also presents data indicating how ineffective these changes were at reducing financial debt, and the detrimental impact they have had on nursing care. An excellent account of challenges faced by nurses today. ... Read more

Book Description

The backlash against outsourcing American jobs to countries like India had transformed into an anti-immigrant and anti-Indian atmosphere lately. While looking at outsourcing and high-tech visa programs from a completely different angle --and giving an enjoyable account of Indian programmers -- this book answers, in an extremely balanced way, the following complicated questions that have been raised by many American programmers, talkshow hosts, news anchors and politicians:

. If outsourcing is inevitable, what’s next for Americans?

· Did America really benefit from immigrant programmers?

· Was there never a need to bring immigrant programmers to the U.S.?

· Are Indian immigrant programmers nothing but corporate lapdogs?

· Are Indian programmers dumb as rocks and incapable of thinking outside of the box?

· Did Indian immigrant programmers support the September 11th attacks?

· Did Americans invent everything that belongs to the computer industry?

· Is the Indian education system far below world standards?

· Is there an organized Indian mafia in American universities that hires only Indian cronies? ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Wonderful Marketing and Management Guide for the SOHO Owner
Barbara has really outdone herself again in part 2 of her Homemade Money book series, Bringing in the Bucks. In this follow-up to her Starting Smart! book, Barbara has provided an encyclopedic A-Z "crash course" in home business management that's an incredible resource all by itself, and has devoted the rest of the book to the number one problem with which my clients struggle--marketing their businesses. Barbara literally takes you by the hand and walks you down the marketing path, from helping you devise your marketing strategy to providing insight on how to play the publicity game to giving you ideas on inexpensive marketing techniques. Once you've gotten through these stages, there's a whole chapter devoted to doing business online. I would be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensive resource to help my clients manage and market their businesses.

Bringing In the Bucks
As a woman who has worked from home for over eight years, the most important lesson that I have learned is to enjoy all of the expert information that is available for research about working from home. Homemade Money: Bringing In the Bucks is a perfect example of reading something that will enlighten you, help you in areas that you never imagined and give you the self-confidence to know that you are choosing your own path for your life instead of letting some employer rule your days! I never imagined how much information author Barbara Brabec was cramming into this great read! Even though I feel good about my work and my lifestyle, I learned even more about working from home and increasing my future income from Homemade Money: Bringing In the Bucks. I suggest you take the time to read this jam-packed book, filled with information, been-there-done-that advice and helpful tips. It could possibly help YOU bring in the bucks!

The Bible for Home-Based Business!
My good friend Barbara Brabec has produced what I believe to be the most comprehensive "manual" for anyone starting or thinking of starting a home-based business.

No questions are left unanswered. From start-up concerns like zoning, permits, and legal forms of your business, to running your business day-to-day, this book is the only one that you'll need to get up and running in no time.

What's more, Barbara Brabec has solicited the comments of industry professionals from many different fields. They offer tried-and-true tips and techniques to run your business smoothly and, as the title says, "Bring in the bucks"!

Highly recommended as more and more people are starting and running their own businesses today-- from home. And it contains all of the info you need.

If you buy just one book before launching out into the deep waters of home-based self-employment, make it this book! ... Read more

Book Description

Today's workforce is experiencing job burnout in epidemic proportions. Workers at all levels, both white- and blue-collar, feel stressed out, insecure, misunderstood, undervalued, and alienated at their workplace. This original and important book debunks the common myth that when workers suffer job burnout they are solely responsible for their fatigue, anger, and don't give a damn attitude. The book clearly shows where the accountability often belongs. . . .squarely on the shoulders of the organization.

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Reviews (6)

A Good Read!
Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter's groundbreaking book debunks myths about burnout and holds organizations accountable for this epidemic, which has swept the work world. The authors detail how organizations can treat and prevent burnout, and take a critical look at its deep-rooted causes, including lack of engagement and conflict between employees' values and their jobs. Conversationally and with great impact, the authors support their points and suggestions. We recommend this book to executives, managers and employees. Now go home and get some rest.

A REAL CURE FOR A MODERN DAY PYCHOLOGICAL EPEDEMIC
In the Truth About Burnout Drs. Maslach and Leiter propose the first real cure for burnout and the key to releasing peak potential in the workforce.

Much of the past advice on the topic of burnout focuses on how to help people cope with burnout. These techniques are useful and come in handy, but unfortunately they do not position or fortify people to reach higher levels of performance. Simply treating the symptoms of burnout is like giving someone a medicine that provides temporary relief from external signs that they have a cold. After the medication wears off, they still have a virus raging through their body that's slowing them down. Likewise the "virus" that causes burnout is disengagement with work and no matter what temporary relief solution we provide to ease the pain, in the form of workshops on how to cope and "employee assistance programs" at the end of the day the "virus of disengagement" is still alive and well and impairing performance.

This book is for anyone manager or individual contributor who has decided to stop coping and "sugar-coating" and instead seek a real and practical solution to burnout. I highly recommend it.

Joe Santana,
Co-author Manage IT

Best resource!
I currently teach a graduate-level course on Burnout in the Helping Professions. This book serves as the "bible" on burnout and prevention strategies from both organizational and personal perspectives. Use it fopr academic purposes as well as personal reasons. You'll be glad you did!

the truth about burnout
I read this book in my local libary and found it very interesting. It also applies to government which have become infected with consultants and "reform" fads. Another good book was "The Witch Doctors, making sense of management gurus. WE already survived TQM, and now are going throug"reinvention" which was supposed to be all done in 3 to 5 years. Now 7 1/2 years later it takes 2x the number of people to do half the work in twice the time. This is is causing burnout in a lot of people. I'll buy the book when it comes out in paperback.

A Great Organizational Perspective
THE TRUTH ABOUT BURNOUT is that it is not an imperfection of the individual employee. Burn-out is a symptom of an organization in trouble.

Christina Maslach is Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and the creator of The Maslach Burnout Inventory. Michael P. Leiter is Dean of the Faculty at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The traditional perspective about burnout is that it is an individual problem. The natural solutions to this perspective focuses on providing courses on stress management, bringing in Employee Assistance Programs, and doing a better job of selecting in people who can handle stress.

The authors argue that these interventions are positive but incomplete.

If employee burnout really is a symptom of an organization in trouble, then the interventions need to be organizational in context. They begin by analyzing job-person fit from the following dimensions: workload, control, rewards, community, fairness, a! nd values. There is a case description of a 750 bed hospital which illustrates these concepts in practice.

As it stands, the book makes its case well and provides concrete suggestions. The Maslach Burnout Inventory would appear to be an excellent tool for use in organization development interventions. The authors clearly have a solid grasp of their subject.

The limitations of this book are that I don't think the authors provide a convincing case for CEOs to take employee burnout seriously.

For CEOs to take employee burnout as seriously as Maslach and Leiter would like, we think there needs to be some recognition at the Board of Directors level that this is an important issue.

In our work with Boards of Directors, we seldom see that recognition.

Future editions of THE TRUTH ABOUT BURNOUT would benefit from more discussion about how burnout effects share holder value. Only five pages out of 178 focus on how burnout impacts the financial performance of a company.

To ! get CEOs to take burnout seriously, the Compensation Commit! tee of Boards would have to add that a percentage of each CEO's bonus pay be determined by positive or negative deviation from some desired employee turn-over statistic or some desired customer satisfaction statistic.

As it currently stands in North America, few companies even bother to collect employee turnover and customer satisfaction statistics. Few companies bother to collect the true costs of recruiting/training new employees.

If it is not important enough for the Board of Directors to measure, then why should the CEO assume that it counts?

That's a problem we would love to see Maslach and Leiter address.

Fortunately for them, a model exists. When a Board is serious enough to count diversity as a component of a CEO's variable compensation, suddenly companies seem to take diversity seriously!

And if the Board does not count it important enough to be part of the variable compensation system, then the company is apt to engage in more talk and training than! action. ... Read more

Book Description

Leading Minds and Landmark Ideas In An Easily Accessible Format

From the preeminent thinkers whose work has defined an entire field to the rising stars who will redefine the way we think about business, The Harvard Business Review Paperback Series delivers the fundamental information today's professionals need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world.

With articles ranging from an in-depth look at the "mommy-track" to perspectives on telecommuting, this book will help HR professionals and employees at all levels understand the oftentimes delicate balance between our professional and personal lives. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very good!!
Here we have a collection of several articles about balancing work and life. I liked the book because of that. You don't have to begin reading on page 1. Just see the index for an article of choice an begin reading there. The ideas the authors propose are written in an easy reading manner an are always backed on serious researches. I licked it a lot. ... Read more

Book Description

On a beautiful spring day, March 25, 1911, workers were preparing to leave the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village when a fire started. Within minutes it consumed the building's upper three stories. Firemen who arrived at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside. The final toll was 146-123 of them women. It was the worst disaster in New York City history until September 11, 2001. Harrowing yet compulsively readable, Triangle is both a chronicle of the fire and a vibrant portrait of an entire age. Waves of Jewish and Italian immigrants inundated New York in the early years of the century, filling its slums and supplying its garment factories with cheap, mostly female labor. Protesting their Dickensian work conditions, forty thousand women bravely participated in a massive shirtwaist workers' strike that brought together an unlikely coalition of socialists, socialites, and suffragettes. Von Drehle orchestrates these events into a drama rich in suspense and filled with memorable characters. Most powerfully, he puts a human face on the men and women who died, and shows how the fire dramatically transformed politics and gave rise to urban liberalism. ... Read more

Reviews (36)

Good historical analysis
One of the questions my students always ask me is, "When did the Democratic and Republican Parties switch constituencies?" "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America" is a journalistic/historical hybrid of a book that gives a good answer to this question.
"Triangle" is a gripping book for most of its pages. It tells the story of the disastrous fire in a journalistic style that occasionally gets tedious but for the most part dramatizes and humanizes the event so as to make it more meaningful and interesting. Very often books written in this style sacrifice significance for drama and substance for style. However, Von Drehle does not do this. He carefully links the background of the fire to various progressive reformers and movements within the progressive movement. He goes from tenement houses to Fifth Avenue mansions. He further goes on to suggest that the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and the resulting political turmoil, is one cause of the shift of the Democratic party from a party that served its rural constituents and used its urban constituents to a party that actively challenged big business and pushed for urban reform. He connects Tammany Hall politics to the New Deal. He suggests that the fire did more than change the laws about fire safety; he suggests it paved the way for the Democratic coalition that would finally develop in the 1930s. His logic is compelling as is his book.

A Part of History most never knew of
Just off Wahsington Square the building still stands.A building seen by millions on a daily basis but so few know the tragidy that occured in this building now owned by NYU.A disaster that never should have happened. A fire and tragic loss of life that was completely proventable...yet it happened.This is a fantastic piece of history.Caused by the owners of the shirtwaste factory, their immigrant employees, young girls and women, worked as slaves in this time when labor laws were few if any.A major part of New York and U.S history.The aftermath was the beginning of labor laws that effect us today.No longer can you be locked in your building!That is just the start.

Good History Lesson---Good Read
I enjoyed this book very much though at times it drags a bit.It seems a little disjointed in places.I found it hard to follow the actual events that transpired with the actual fire----just my opinion.The political background was very interesting to me and probably the most intellectually beneficial part of the story.Some chapters were very gripping, some a bit tedious. The author draws, of course, on known information so sometimes there is more background on characters than I wanted---the lawyers for example----and less info in victims.

In all, it's a great book and a good read but be prepared to slog through some detail.

Chris

Reached peak early, then slowed down...
This was one of those books I've had in mind for years to read, but never got around to it until now. I wanted not just to read the sensationalism surrounding this horrific tale. I have not made it a habit to read all the disaster books. I've probably read 4 or 5. I tend to stick with epidemiology and disease, such as the 1918 influenza pandemic. But I read about this disaster over 28 years ago, when I worked as a librarian and had to shelve the books dealing with this. I only got a glimpse, but as I read more history it became clear that this was a fire that changed much in theU.S., and I wanted to know why this one specifically had an impact.

The fire itself and the situation both politically and socially surrounding it, are the very things that made me shake my head when people bring up how 'good' the 'good old days' were. Yeah, right...so it was great having people working horrible jobs at outrageous risk to themselves was great, just like having measles, mumps, and rubella was great when there were no vaccines. Makes me want to smack a few heads together when I hear things like this...

Drehle does a fairly good job in hi writing. He is a journalist, and has the background and can do the research. I appreciate his putting a face on the people who would otherwise remain unreal to the readers. But it makes it more excruciating when those people actually die in what you know must have been an awful way to go.

The books slows down after the fire and the initial outrage. The part about the changes made in politics, in the urban planning, and in society should have been more important than they came across as being. There was no extension as to what impact the Triangle had nationally...just a hint really. We know it changed NY law; did it change fire laws for other cities? We know some politicians made a lot of political hay from this, and went on to impact national politics. But I would have liked to have known more about the national implications of this fire. Was it reported nationally? How was it reported? Did it make any of the other textile people sit up and take notice? How? What happened to the many involved in the fire (not just the bosses)? Were there any others who returned to work for these same men, or did they just leave?

I had a lot of questions left for which there were no answers...an interesting book, more than a great one.

Karen Sadler

Excellent work of labor history
This is one of the best history books I've read in quite a while. To understand the importance of the Triangle Waist Company fire in labor history, it is also important to understand the context in which it occurred. I hadn't realized how the rise and fall of Tammany Hall was so intimately tied in with a business and political climate that would permit a situation in which such a deadly fire could occur, and also with the reformist aftermath, which was instrumental in leading to New Deal policies. The story of the trial, and the political maneuvering leading up to it, was fascinating.

Von Drehle is a fine writer. The most moving chapter must be the one he calls, "Three Minutes", referring to the fact that had the alarm been sounded three minutes sooner, many lives might have been saved. His descriptions of how many of the workers died had me in tears. While it is very easy to pile horror on horror, von Drehle shows you the people, both the survivors and the lost. There is one extraordinary section of this chapter in which, after telling of the people standing in the windows "cry[ing] 'fire!' because what else was there to say?", and the fire ladders not tall enough, and the watchers below "their tiny hands . . . up, as if a gesture could hold the doomed workers forever in the mouth of a furnace" he then describes the view from the windows. "[T]he cool, clear air beyond the furnace; the gray-brown tracery of bare trees quilting Washington Square (faintly washed with the first whisper of new green) . . .the birds starting from nearby eaves and wheeling through the sky; the elegant campanile of the church on the square, and the pleasing aesthetic echoes of it in the two orange brick loft building that faced the Asch Building . . .one of the least decorated in the neighborhood, [it] featured miniature terra-cotta columns, fluted in the classical style, as dividers between the upper-floor windows. Workers were clinging to these decorations now."

In 1913, two years after the fire, the New York State legislature passed a series of fire safety laws, including requiring automatic sprinklers in high-rises, and unlocked doors. Last fall (2003), 6 people died in a high-rise office building in Chicago. There were no automatic sprinklers, and the victims were trapped in a stairwell because the fire doors were locked.
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Reviews (7)

Not Very Informative.
Has some good topics discussed. Would not recommend this book as a starter in labor law.

Great not just for stewards!
This manual (perhaps we should call it a union bible) is presented in a very easy to read and enjoyable layout.

The producers and editors of this manual did a great job. It's fun to read even the most boring things that a steward has to do!

However, I don't even belong to a union. We're in the process of organizing and this book provided great ideas. A section that deals with bringing the co-workers together is great! It's a fresh reminder that Unions are only as good as the workers and workers need to fight every bit as hard as the local/international does to protect them and fight for them.

Get this manual, well worth the price!

If You are in a unionas a steward it is a must read book
It is very explanatory about every step of stewardship and also explains every law that the employer will try to finnagle their way out of.

One of the most informative books I have read
As a newly elected Shop Steward, I took it upon myself to buy this book. I was tremendously impressed with the format of the book and found it extremely informative. It is a step-by-step trip through the minefield of being a Shop Steward. Including Handling the Most Common Types of Grievances, Your Rights at the Grievance Meeting (i.e., information management MUST provide to you) and a whole bunch more. Fortunately, it doesn't get bogged down with legalese and is very easy to read. Rather than focusing on the law (though it does when necessary) it focuses on practical, everyday issues of a Steward. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who either is a Steward, wants to be a Steward, or is simply interested in what a Steward goes through almost daily and why they exist.

STEWARD UPDATE
This book is a great source of information. I couldn't find any where else until now. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Couch Potato 101
I was hard pressed to find a page that didn't include an analogy to some sport. Football to speed skating, the book was extremely difficult to follow for someone that doesn't sit in front of a television all weekend. The stories were shallow and certainly not from the authors own experience. This book is prime Dilbert fodder and in fact I will send my copy to Scott and anxiously await his cartoons derived from it.

This book answered the question of what grabs you.
I have watched people, including myself, get deaply involved with some of the most insignificant or profound things. This book explained to me WHY this happens.

best business book i've read in the last 15 years.
Totally a fun read, so logical & practical I wonder where this has been all my business life. Work should be more fun, and the author unlocks the secrets that everyone needs to really enjoy their jobs. Great stories, examples strike home with any sports lover. Would love to see a followup helping to implement these concepts into a company. I've read it twice and plan to read it again. Very exciting stuff!!

This book should be REQUIRED reading for business schools!!
This book contains information more valuable than that taught in business schools. Chuck's experiences and approach is very different, and IT WORKS!! The concepts are simple, practical, and effective. If only my boss from my previous company would have listened! ... Read more

Book Description

In Limbo, award-winning journalist Alfred Lubrano identifies and describes an overlooked cultural phenomenon: the internal conflict within individuals raised in blue-collar homes, now living white-collar lives. These people often find that the values of the working class are not sufficient guidance to navigate the white-collar world, where unspoken rules reflect primarily upper-class values. Torn between the world they were raised in and the life they aspire too, they hover between worlds, not quite accepted in either. Himself the son of a Brooklyn bricklayer, Lubrano informs his account with personal experience and interviews with other professionals living in limbo. For millions of Americans, these stories will serve as familiar reminders of the struggles of achieving the American Dream. ... Read more

Reviews (32)

Striking a Cord
This book struck a cord with me and obviously strikes a cord with many readers. It is not a page turner in the sense ofa suspense novel, however, I did find myself looking forward to each reading. It is mostly a compilation of anecdotes and conclusions from anecdotes. There's little statisical or "scientific" data. Nevertheless, the individual stories are quite compelling.

The book focuses almost exclusively on first generation college/professional whites from working class/skilled laborbackgrounds. Most of these folks would be at least one economic class removed (higher income) than most working class minority families in that thier jobs appear to be in the heart of "blue-collardom", that is union jobs and similar skilled factory or labor wage work with relative employment stability.The success of the subjects is still remarkably laudable and certainly in thier eyes and in the eyes of the author, exceptional.

Particularly interesting were the discussions of familiy reluctance to "let go" of the subjects and family resistance to the subjects refusal to buy into their cultural/socio-economic inheritance. A little more insight into the conflicting feelings (if any) experienced by the parents (who might say something like "I want my kids to do better than me without thinking that they are better than me") would have added a nice balance. Unfortunatley, given the age of many of the subjects (approaching middle age) maybe many of the parents were no longer available to be interviewed.

Interesting also was the abscence, on the whole, of any larger social "make the world a better place" motivation on the part of the subjects. My thought is that this factor would play a much larger part in the motivation for similar class jumping minoritites. For these folks though it seemed to be all about "self actualization." Also missing was any discussion about them sharing financial burdens with thier "left behind" family members.This too would play a much larger part ina description of class changeover among minorities. More discussion of so-called racial minorities as subjects would have been an added strength but, maybe there's another book to be written in this regard.

This book would have benefitted from more statistical data in the manner of "Nickeled and Dimed" but it is more of a "voice" piece than an advocacy piece.Overall, it is well worth reading as an enlightening look at the ramifications of class jumping and the subtle and not so subtle subtexts to life in the class change over lane.

Deserves credit for raising the issue
First of all, what a great idea for a book. Reading it is a validating experience for someone who has moved up a social notch or two. It helps you identify and explore your own psychological dissonance from being stretched between two worlds. And I finished the book feeling better about it.

Now a couple of critiques: I agree with another reviewer that Lubrano paints the social classes in swaths that are way too broad. Families with yachts who have been wealthy for generations are not middle class or upper middle class or just "white collar." They are rich elites. And there are lots more of them in the Northeast, where Lubrano has lived, than there are elsewhere in the U.S.

And I think there is a tendency among bright people to rebel against the circumstances into which they were born regardless of class. That is, some white-collar born sons won't take over the family business or accept their share of the money, any more than Lubrano would have started laying concrete block. They probably experience the same kinds of feelings of displacement as blue-collars who ascend to the middle class. And this feeling is probably similar to that of second-generation children of immigrants -- it's about moving into a new culture.

Also, I think Lubrano over-universalizes his own experience. His family culture in Brooklyn as a working-class Italian-American kid was probably more different than a black kid's from South Georgia, for instance (or mine in suburban Atlanta) than he thinks. And for having interviewed 100 people, he keeps coming back to the same dozen or two over and over during the book.

But I sense that Lubrano wouldn't mind my critiques, since he accomplished what he sought to -- he made me think about what strong a role class schizophrenia has played in my life. You can quibble with the details, but the premise rings true.

Blue Collar Values Ring True
For those of you who saw John Turturro's semi-autobiographical movie "MAC," the scene where Mac stops his car to watch a bricklayer build a wall is a nutshell version of what the movie was about. Namely, the work ethic of the blue collar worker and taking pride in that work in a world where how one talks about work becomes more important than the work product. In Limbo, a virtual son of MAC winds his way through the maze of white collar upper class norms, performing a balancing act between improving his lot in life without betraying the values instilled in him by his family. Surely, the upper class "bobos" as some people call them don't spend any time considering things like "honoring" their family or the old neighborhood. Instead, these "chosen" ones lead a self centered life devoid of such self examination. Having never known despair, how could they? The author clearly demonstrates something that my family stressed to us, that its better to have a good life than an easy life. In my own life, I get angry with the people who give me the blank stares when I tell them I went through college on the G.I. bill. Not only do they and their family find this unimaginable, they don't know anyone in their family who ever has served in the military. That was for "other" people.Recently, there has been two bills introduced in the House that would bring back the draft. Only this time, there will be no student deferrments or marital deferrments. Ah, the panic amongst the middle and upper class begins. "Send my child to fight a war?" no way. Soon, the soccer moms will be crowding the highways on their way to war protests. The irony will escape them. Bobos in Paradise indeed.Limbo is a great book that should be a staple in every sociology 101 class in every college. Some self examination by college students will be good for them. A few years in the military wouldn't hurt either.

Uncovering the real causes of Social ills
Brilliant! A wonderful, skillfully written and insightful work that I'd recommend to anyone with two firing neurons.

It spoke eloquently and forcefully to my own semi-blue collar with white collar aspirations upbringing. More importantly, it described in excruiating detail with pinpoint accuracy what my own parents experienced as young adults in the 1950's through the 1970's. They were respectively, the 1st gen child of Northern Europeon immigrants [dad] and 2nd gen but raised by immigrants from Poland child [mom]. Both my parents worked strictly white collar jobs [note I did not write "careers"] until their early 40's then finally experienced financial success. They were viewed as "climbers" by their respective families, much to their dismay.

My dad was a senior salesman for a technical products manufacturer and mom a licensed interior designer. Neither had a college degree, which was not unusual back then. This meant they had not only glimpses of but meaningful interaction with the upper classes, always as the tolerated but not accepted "poorer couple". ha! My father drove a Lincoln most of his adult life, and they both scorned anything foreign in the auto category. We ate good "American" food, nothing "fancy" as they put it. Both had a genuine love of reading and passed that along to myself.

Despite knowing early on about class distinctions in this allegedly democratic meritocracy, I thank my parents for having the good common sense [in the 1960's-70's] to openly discuss class distinctions. While we lived in nice neighborhoods in Chicago, we didn't live above strictly middle-class. Vacations were always drive-aways to Wisconsin. If that. Later both moved up to become technically upper-middle income, but both retained all the values and views of having grown up in working class homes.

They passed that on to myself as their daughter. I've passed it on to my own son, now 25 years old. Who decided to drop out of college though he's a brilliant young guy with incredible artistic and technical skills [mostly self taught]. The best my husband and I could provide, as neither of us has completed a college degree, was a middle class lifestyle. We've had what I'd deem modest success given the lack of degrees, primarily because we're voracious readers, self educators and activists. It's true that we're often assumed to be well educated due to manner of speech, demeanor, interests, life-style, knowledge base and etiquette.

But I know what I am [pretender to the lifestyle!], who I came from and why. As does my glorified blue-collar spouse [general construction manager w/some college and industry training].

This book ably and meaningfully explores and exposes the outsider feelings and difficulties we Straddlers and our families experience not having grown up well-off and connnected. We both share many of the same experiences in work and private life that those interviewed in the book did. The vast class divide, outlined by other reviewers here.

I'm going to make sure my son reads this tome, as he's been faced with exactly the same form of invisible discrimination and classism though he's of a different generation and we've never been blue collar, though we are "just" working people with better vocabularies and tastes.

A Must Read for Teachers
Alfred Lubrano's book is a must read for teachers at all levels.He articulates the reasons why higher education can be challenging even for an intelligent student if they come from the working class.In a couple of his case studies, Lubrano describes Straddlers who had teachers confirm their low self esteem by suggesting they were not college material.Others were undoubtedly inspired and motivated by excellent teachers.It seems to me that a good teacher who is sensitive to the predicament of Straddlers can help their students bridge the enormous gap between their working class roots and the education and white collar careers to which they aspire.
Another point I took away from this book is one the author didn't overtly state but came out in some of the anecdotes: don't pretend class differences don't exist, but do have a sense of humor about it. ... Read more

Book Description

The New Encyclopedia of Group Activities -- the sequel to the best-selling encyclopedia that was first published more than a decade ago -- is an expansive collection of hands-on activities and games that will help you explore the many elements of group process skills. This thoroughly revised and updated resource covers a multitude of content topics that you can use in a variety of group settings. The 150 new activities offer creative exercises that will give you the tools you need to provide appropriate interventions for any group purpose. Whether searching for a serious foundational process activity or for a light transitional learning game, you will find something here to meet your needs.  ... Read more

Book Description

Dramatic trends are already in motion that will force organizations to do some major rethinking about their relationships with their employees. The New Workforce outlines five of these crucial developments, and describes how they will affect critical HR policies and programs in the very near future. The book considers the implications of ever-increasing life (and work-life) expectancy, new household types including same-sex partners and "Mr. Moms," the Baby Boom "Echo," widening diversity, and employee demands for greater emphasis on spirituality and social responsibility in the workplace. The New Workforce addresses such concerns as: How can we deal with the conflicting needs of four generations of employees? What changes must we make in our benefits coverage? Our pay policies? Our management training efforts? Do we need new recruiting and retention strategies? Why should the company care about employees' personal values and beliefs? ... Read more

Book Description

This book brings together two very disparate areas, economics and culture, considering both the economic aspects of cultural activity, and the cultural context of economics and economic behavior. The author discusses how cultural goods are valued in both economic and cultural terms, and introduces the concepts of cultural capital and sustainability. The book goes on to discuss the economics of creativity in the production of cultural goods and services; culture in economic development; the cultural industries; and cultural policy. An important topic analyzed in a stimulating and nontechnical style. ... Read more

Book Description

Whether you work with Americans face-to-face, communicate with them by telephone or e-mail, or interact together in a virtual team, Americans at Work reveals the subtle and the not-so-subtle aspects of American culture in the workplace. Learn about straight talk, American style, and how Americans aren’t always as direct as they say they are. Find out why Americans are deeply conflicted about power: they crave it but hate to be caught craving it. See how Americans view outsiders. Gain tips for succeeding in the American work environment. Finally, get the basics of work-related etiquette: conducting meetings, giving feedback, nonverbal communication, e-mail rules, gifts, taboo topics and so on. ... Read more

Book Description

At a time when the American labor movement is mobilizing for a major resurgence through new organizing, here, at last, is a book about research on union organizing strategies. Previous studies have focused on factors contributing to union decline, devoting little attention to the organizing process itself. The twenty chapters in this volume dramatically increase understanding of the range and effectiveness of new organizing strategies and their potential contribution to the revitalization of the labor movement.

The introduction defines the context of the current organizing climate. Major sections of the book cover strategic initiatives in union organizing, overcoming barriers to worker support for unions, community-based organizing, building membership and public support for organizing, and organizing initiatives by industry or by sector. Individual chapters focus on topics such as organizing outside the NLRB process, the role of clergy, local labor councils, and rank-and-file volunteer organizers.

Contributors: Adrienne Birecree. Kate Bronfenbrenner. Larry Cohen. Brian Condit. Daniel Cornfield. Tom Davis.Dean Eatman. Christopher Erickson. Jack Fiorito. Bill Fletcher. Fernando Gapasin. Jeffrey Grabelsky. Richard W. Hurd. Tom Juravich. Fred Kotler. Janet Lewis. Holly McCammon. John McClendon. Darren McDaniel. Theresa Merrill. Ruth Milkman. Bill Mirand. Daniel J. B. Mitchell. Gregor Murray. Ruth Needleman. Immanuel Ness.Bruce Nissen. Ronald Peters. Jim Rundle. Katherine Sciacchitano. Lowell Turner. Abel Valenzuela. Roger Waldinger. Roger Weikle. Hoyt Wheeler. Howard Wial. Kent Wong. Angela Young. Maurice Zeitlin. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Interesting for both union insiders and non-unionists
This is another labor community insider book directed toward labor union leaders and their strategists and written by the same. The motivation is the reversal of the sagging fortunes of labor unions. Many of the articles focus on the need for grassroots activity by existing union members and community supporters. Several union campaigns utilizing members are examined in detail. Union support organizations such as the Garment Women Justice Center are described. Serveral articles examine subtleties of the motivations of non-unionists to vote for a union. An interesting observation is that white collar and technical workers are turned off by the potential for conflict when joining a union, which is interesting in light of the fact that unions have always relied on confrontation as their tool of last resort. The main point of the editors is that union tactics and actions make a large difference in organizing success. The second point is that unions must remake themselves into organizing bodies and avail themselves of the wisdom contained in these articles. But for non-union insiders reading this book, many chinks appear when looking at the articles in totality. For example, one article shows that belonging to two community organiztions lowers the desire to join a union, yet many articles tout labor-community coalitions. In one case where community connections were leveraged to the fullest to win a union contract, it is admitted that may have been a one-time occurrence. A large and confusing point that leaps out from these articles is, just what is a union. Is it a centralized business that collects fees from subsidiaries, demands adherence to policies from the CEO, and provides services? Or is a union a legally recognized association of workers at a locale that affiliates with a national body but retains sovereignty? Statements that workers "are" the union hide more than they reveal. If workers are the union, can they insist that national unions remain committed to a servicing model? If workers are the union, how can some national unions literally require local unions to focus on recruitment? Claiming that workers are the union can be a demotivator for joining a union. After all, it is workers who have unsuccessfully dealt with employers on their own that want to join unions; now they want support, not abandonment. The editors and authors may complain that this book is not about "what is a union," but is only about subtle strategy. If so, they need to put a "Nonunionists need not read" label on the cover. Actually the book is worth reading by all interested in the situation of labor not only on its educational merits but also for the questions that it can engender for non-insiders. Who knows, maybe their next book can be "What is a Union." ... Read more