Employment Books

I found the author to be concise in the description of her 20+ years of fighting both her cancers and the attitudes of her peers. The prevalent attitude that people with cancer, coronary, and other chronic ailments are "Damaged Goods" is common even outside the corporate environment. It's a rare strength that can overcome cancer while hiding it from those attitudes.

Whether you are facing a life threatening illness or just facing everyday life, this book helps put things in perspective.

Well written, easy to read and hard to put down.

This work illustrates a particular culture of oppression at a high-tech company. The author shows action by action how management creates an environment where workers will not be likely to organize. Management actions include faulty and frequent time studies, line supervisors who punished everyone when one geller fell asleep, supervisors who started racial rumors to pit one employee against another, telling employees they were laid off due to a business slowdown but bringing in new recruits and not telling the "laid off" employees that they would never be called back, just to name a few things.

My favorite characters were the Assyrian gellers; I can still envision them diligently working, although their grit was never fully tested. I really liked them. The Latino gellers were as close to heroes as any characters in the book.

This book is instructive and revealing in unexpected ways. It is a compelling story and an easy to read book.

High-Tech Betrayal is a book that many different audiences will find attractive. While it is founded on academic premises, it does not read like an academic book. It is easy to read, describing the author's experiences when he attempted to form a union in a high-tech factory. The experiences are richly described, allowing readers to understand specifically the circumstances and issues faced by the author.

The book lays out the scenario up-front, so that the reader has a clear understanding of the situation at the time of the experience. Additionally, the individuals referred to throughout the book are clearly described, so that their comments and actions can be readily understood.

Finally, this book does an exceptional job of portraying the workplace that the average American does not think exists in this country, but in reality is more common that most would admit. Described are the struggles facing a group of individuals, attempting to better the lives of themselves and their families. This book reminds me of the classic The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The major difference is the era of the book. The similarity is that this book demonstrates that organizations in some cases today still attempt to keep workers down, while the organization itself might be thriving.

Jack L. Howard, Ph.D.

Just as much as the Acropolis was the religious center of ancient Athens, the Agora was its commercial, governmental, and cultural heart. Camp and Renfrew's book finally gives this crucial site the attention and analysis it deserves.

The authors draw on the results of over a half-century of archaeological investigation to relate 1500 years of the city's history. From Athens' rise from obscurity in the days of Homer to its flowering as a military/cultural powerhouse in the 5th century, to the Hellenistic Age and the days of the Roman Empire, to the city's slow decline to the status of Byzantine backwater, this book reveals the evolution of the Agora in hundreds of color and black-and-white illustrations which truly breathe life into the ancient stones and the people who knew them.

The illustrations are sumptuous, and are the true centerpiece of the book. Scores of photographs illustrate the surviving walls and foundations of the Agora's buildings, and careful, clearly-rendered site plans and architectural elevations enable the reader to readily relate disparate elements of the structures and artifacts to their historical and cultural contexts. Accompanying the illustrations is a clear and lucid text which explains the history and the society that the Agora reflected and served.

I heartily recommend this book to those interested in archaeology, classical Greece, the Roman Empire, and urban planning. Echoing Peter Green's review, it's difficult to conceive that this book could have been done any better, and it is unlikely to be superseded for the foreseeable future.

I have had the pleasure of excavating in Greece (as volunteer slave labor). I spent a good deal of time in the Athenian Agora. I felt that I had come to understand a lot of the layout and history of the location. But this book greatly magnified my understanding of what I had seen. For me, it was WONDERFUL to finally get the full story on the site that I thought I knew. The history of the Agora is very rich. This book will bring it to life for you. I'd give it twenty stars if it were possible.

This book was a quick read and gave me an edge in the interview. I know this because now I am working after being laid off and out of work for 2½ weeks. I am a mechanical engineer and specialize in an area that has a lot of competition. This book gets you in the right frame of mind and answering questions properly while in front of a decision maker.

- Dan

This is a very simple step by step process showing you exactly how to write a resume, interview effectively and ask for the job. It is a MUST READ.

As a solo chiropractic practitioner with no B-school background, this book came as a revelation to me! There is actually a systematic way to evaluate potential employees! Some of the chapters about psychometric testing, etc., applied more to small-to-midsize companies instead of micro companies like mine with 10 employees. Yet, I use the interview format from this book every single time I have a job opening for the last four years. What a difference it has made in my clinic staffing!

Mercer offers practical help in how to determine exactly the kind of person you want to hire, and gives sample questions to help you get answers that will allow you to determine if that person is a match.

This is one of those books many of us wish we had had 25 years ago. Personally it would have saved me many hours of aimless work and some dreadfully poor interviews in which I did not hear what the prospect was clearly saying. This would have saved me some bad hires. They are expensive. This is one of those books I read and kept spilling my coffee from slapping my forehead and saying "DOH! Of course!"

Ms. Kelley does an excellent job of covering the theories of employment law--a real, expensive and complicated snake-pit--and then in cutting to the chase and giving the reader a step-by-step on what to do and when. I like step-by-step. I was married once, and I can do that.

When a person with her credentials says, "Do this, then this," I can do that with some precision. I don't have to deal with the theory if I don't want to. I can cut to the chase, which is what she does. One is always aware of nuances in hiring. She teaches one how to cover the basics.

I hired "creative" people and one expects a 10-15% Flake Factor. Her principles weed out the psychopaths from your average creative person.

Whether you are an entry-level hirer or an old poot like me, this is a simply great book. Using it will save you a lot of grief.

I have been to $800 seminars about hiring that did not teach me as much as this book did.

This book is packed with extremely useful information from cover to cover. As a small business owner, my experience with hiring employees is limited, but Hiring Right has definitely improved my ability to evaluate not only potential employees but also what type of worker we actually need as well as how to find them.

Pat Kelley writes in an easy-to-understand style that makes reading Hiring Right a real pleasure. She masterfully combines big-picture overviews, great examples, useful tips and detailed information to make this book a complete resource for professional human resource managers and business owners.

This book is a great tool for discovery of what it is an excellent administator is attemping to find for an employee. As a potential employee about to be interviewed, this book provides a great source of information that you can use to your advantage in the process of the interview.

Hiring Winners was not only an excellent read, it is also an excellent resource for your company.The format, questions examples, situation examples and the workshop guidelines have made hiring winners for my company much easier than I ever thought. It definately takes all of the guess work out of the hiring process and almost makes it a science, I refer to it often and have made the PIE system a must for our company.

This book made a tremendous difference in the way I hire employees. In the past, I always hired from the resume, references and, especially, my 'gut feeling'. I made a couple of spectacularly bad hires, which really held back the growth of my business. When I finally read this book, I ended up with the best crew ever...25 people who could advise me and had the experience to do it wisely. This book saved me thousands of dollars, and probably added a few years to my life! Never outdated. Sure hope he republishes.

This book made a tremendous difference in the quality of employees I've hired. Directs the small business owner away from the 'gee, she sure seems qualified' attitude and towards a more 'I'm convinced this person has the experience and maturity we need to make our company grow' situation. A must read for anyone who hires.

Hitchhiker in the corner office couldn't have come at a more opportune time. As a culture, we are finally realizing that we need to put our top-talent in the right roles. Nepomuceno's book is a terrific guide to help us stay focused on how to handle securing the types of employees we need and keeping the one's we have happy and successful.

This book couldn't be more timely. With a looming workforce crisis predicted for 2010, respected employee retention expert Orrick Nepomuceno helps you avoid the 10-critical factors contributing to employee loss. Master any of these and you'll be in better shape than your competition; master them all and you'll be crisis proof!

I searched a dozen books looking for my future business. I found this book gave me more than I expected from anyone. Help with evaluating myself, the many businesses, and how well they fit my skills and preferences was provided. The only need I found missing, I learned, was illegal for franchisers to say -what range of income is produced with these businesses. That information has to come from somewhere else.

I found this book incredibly helpful in getting me off on the right foot in my home-based business. The book clearly outlines the three major "pre-packaged" types businesses available (franchises, business opportunities and multi-level marketing). Then comes the good part. The authors provide a series of tests and checklists that can be applied to any business that you might consider buying. Tests to determine a business' chances for success, the honesty of the seller, the forthrightness of opportunity - and even a test you take yourself to find out if the business is a good match for your personality and skill level - follow each section. These tests, and the information they reveal, take much of the guesswork out making a decision as important as what kind of (and which kind of) business to buy. I highly recommend it. The Edwards', with Walter Zooi, have done it again!