Employment Books

As a Human Resource professional, I found Mr. Gregory's book very helpful.All employers should be aware of the rights of their employees. This book makes us totally informed.

This is the best book explaining the rights of employees. Unions should use this book as a manuel directing their members to totally understand their positions and how to defend against unfair discriminations.

I read an advance copy of this book I was able to get a hold of and I thought it was, on the one hand, as enjoyable as a novel with a compelling story line, and, on the other, as informative and up to date as it could possibly be. Its like receiving real world practical advice about your workplace woes from a trusted down-to-earth yet very wise best friend. I loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone including employees and managers alike. I think it would be great in the college classroom and for seminars and conferences as well. This is one of the best on the subject! Buy it - you need it! I sincerely hope the author updates with a second and third edition.

As a human resources manager, I read this book to gain insight into why employees file EEOC claims, and how to maintain a fair, equal-treatment working environment to prevent disparate treatment of employees. It gave me excellent insight into the EEOC process and educated me about employment law in easy to read language. I plan to share this book with my staff to provide a better working environment for our employees.

This book is very well organized and focus' well on the topics it covers without getting too in depth. I feel it prepared me well for my interview and gave me confidence on the big day.

Very helpful review of the basic technical and mental math type questions found in most interviews. A very quick read and a MUST for anyone preparing for an airline interview.

Great book for some on-going and last minute brushing up.
Well organized and very well written.

This is an outstanding book that should be read by policy makers, academics, activists and elected leaders. Great effort and job. This is the best book on the subject.

In a book that is essential to our appreciation of social inequality and class stratification in America, Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum write Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry. Basically, Behind the Label is an in depth study of the phenomenon of the proliferation of garment industry sweatshops in the Los Angeles area in. These sweatshops, Bonacich and Appelbaum et al argue, needs to be examined in relation to other factors: 1) the demise of American welfare, 2) the weakening of union involvement, and 3) juxtapose that to the globalization and caustic effect of "flexible production" (Bonacich 258).
In contrast to the bullish Thomas L. Friedman of The World is Flat fame, Bonacich and Appelbaum use the apparel industry in LA as a stark counterpoint to a neo-conservative economic framework and come up with an example of a Marxist inspired social scientific examination of the political economy (Bonacich 62). In this book, the manufacturers now have economic justifications to, at will, move production to wherever low-wage labor can be facilitated (Bonacich 56 - 57). Power, in this scenario, sits squarely in the hands of a cabal of powerful manufacturers and their comprador contractors. Unlike the high tech examples of Friedman - things are not getting better for these low tech workers, on the contrary, things are getting worse (Bonacich 180 - 181, and 196 - 199).
Manufacturers can substantially distance themselves from the sweatshops as they neither own them nor invest in them. The word is "plausible deniability" and manufacturers can deny working with sweatshops as they are buffered through contractual agreements only. Contractors serve as modern day middle man compradors (Bonacich 150 - 151). This distance protects the manufacturers and makes it difficult to call them account for the less than humane treatment of the lowest factory worker. In reality, the connection is direct and real. Manufacturers often, and Bonacich and Appelbaum posit, that manufacturer send a quality control representative - who comes almost on a daily basis - and can, and often do dictate delivery schedules.
With so much of the industry already moving south of the border, we are starting to see a sharp increase in imports of product into the United States and a decline in employment in local sites. Having said that how is it that there is still so much done in the LA area? Los Angeles is an enigma in that the industry continues to grow, is very resilient, and is, in effect, has become garment capital of America (Bonacich 36). One explanation is the ready supply of low-income immigrant (a mix of documented and undocumented) work force (Bonacich 189 - 190).
Behind the Label looks at the key group of actors in the L.A. apparel industry: manufacturers, contractors, retailers, and labor. Taken along each of these areas, Bonacich and Appelbaum evaluate and hope to ameliorate what they see as a disparity vis-à-vis wealth (Bonacich 115 - 126). Moreover, Bonacich and Appelbaum also take to account the role of government and the unions play in trying to get rid of sweatshops on the one hand while concurrently preventing the flight of jobs to places like Mexico and others that take the outsourcing (Bonacich 245 - 246). The book ends with a very interesting but idealistic adage of instituting more government controls and increase union involvement. Pretty much only the future knows what will happen.
Several questions come to mind, most which defy easy answers. Bonacich and Appelbaum et al are straightforward about their social agenda - that is to side with labor (Bonacich xi - xv). One has to wonder if their stated position colors or informs their analysis. Grounded on several interviews, statistical data, surveys, and ethnographic fieldwork (mostly participant observations), Bonacich and Appelbaum are careful not to seem flippant about the role of the manufacturers and contractors.
As a short backgrounder, 1965 was a watershed year for Asian immigration. Altering what began with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, continuing on with the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907, and on and on until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Asian immigration was either closed or limited. The opening up of immigration to about 20,000 per county per year regardless of area of origin had a tremendous impact on the demographic picture of the United States. Sender countries like India, Korea, and the Philippines flooded the embassies with request for visas on an occupational/skill preference grading system and later with family re-unification request that did not fall under the quota system. Mind you, this is was all facilitated not out of American altruism but rather on a "pull" basis that was needs driven and greased on a "push" system that was a "brain drain" to sender nations.
The rise in Asian immigration had a remarkable impact on the demographic picture of the United States (Bonacich 169 - 170). There were dramatic shifts in and around the mostly inner city areas - of which we see in an example like Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, we see an already evolved stratification that seems to conflate race with class in a mostly white Jewish manufacturing strata (Bonacich 31 - 44), a middle class mostly Korean and Chinese contractor segment (Bonacich 150 - 151), and mostly a poor and working class group of Mexicans and Southeast Asians (Bonacich 189 - 190). Bonacich and Appelbaum are all too ready to bring to presence the El Monte case of Thai laborers who were practically incarcerated in this prison like sweatshop scenario that is both heartbreaking but more importantly very telling of a class divide that is not just apparent, it is cultivated (Bonacich 141).
Bonacich et al pen an interesting and compelling anecdote of the authors need to purchase a dress for a dinner/fund raiser dance for Jonathan Bernstein that raised a whopping $300,000 and cost Bonacich $300.00 for a dress that she seemed ill at ease to select and wear (115). Juxtaposed to this spectacle of extravagance was a yarn that marked Bonacich's involvement in a discussion with contractors and unions of which she was later treated like a pariah (Bonacich 123). The juxtaposition, I argue, is no coincidence. On the one had, one sees extravagance. On the other hand, we see abject poverty looking for spaces of resistance and justice. What is really more telling is that at the top of end of the food chain we see millionaires who are all too willing to donate to philanthropic causes (in an effort not to be seen as exploitive) but are also all too willing to keep wages below an "acceptable living" wage as demanded by ideological capitalism - it is all about efficiencies really. The race to the bottom is on (Bonacich 159).
There were also some curious but unanswered issues: there are no African Americas in the entire gamut and there is no discussion of gay and lesbian involvement in the industry. With so many African Americas in and around the LA area - and by far some of the most prolific consumers of fashion, why are there so few or actually no African Americas in the manufacturing process (Bonacich 172)? Moreover, with such a representation of gays and lesbians in the industry, why are they not included in the discussion? I find no speculative answer in the book nor do I wish to venture a guess.
Juxtaposing this book with Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat reveals that arguably Friedman is too bullish on the trends he outlines. Both books are clearly written from an American Rashomon or point of view but Behind the Label is clearly on side of labor and The World is Flat is clearly on side of capital. While Friedman is a reporter for the New York Times and Bonacich is a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside - their respective backgrounds clearly influenced the writing of their books. Once could conceivably argue that there is no one size fits all in globalization studies and that Los Angeles (U.S.) or Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) is not Bangalore (India) and vice versa. Welcome to the new economic world order of 2008.

Miguel Llora

"Los Angeles is now the apparel manufacturing center of the United States" (page 16). 2,900 sewing companies work in LA for the 185 firms. Sadly, the apparel manufactureres use sweatshops.

According to Dr. Bonacich and Dr. Appelbaum, a "sweatshop" is a factory that fails to pay a living wage and does nto allow a worker to purchase a house and health care(page 11). Sadly, workers make less than the poverty line of $7,200 a year. Hence, concerned citizens like us wonder how sweatshops come to be and exist?

Again, according to Dr. Bonacich and Dr. Appelbaum, sweatshops are caused by 1) a high turnover in styles (14), 2) low tech tools, such as sewing machines, 3) the neglect of union representation, 4) cheap start-ups in other countries, 5) cheap labor, and 6) bossy retailers. The authors write, "Thousands of contractors can produce small lots rapidly. The city's industry is primed for the production of fashion at cheap prices" (p. 18). Thus, Los Angeles is the "sweatshop capital of the U.S" (p. 19).

A city of sweatshops is not a healthy city. ""Polarization is destructive to society." A Chinese person making $25.00 a month cannot afford $100 pair of shoes" (p. 24). Furthermore, immigrants do not have access to politicians, since wealthy people can buy lobbyists and call the govenor and threaten to move the industry. 2.9 million Angelinos make less than $20,000 yr.

The solution to sweatshops is to spread the cost-cutting activities in every area of apparel manufacturing. "Yet cost cutting is never aimed at the executives professionals or profits." As a result, "the garment industry is a throwback to the earliest phases of the industrial revolution" (p. 14).

I hope the supervisors in the valuable garment industry read this fine book.

This book is a breath of fresh air for anyone looking to succeed in life. E. LeMay offers no excuses for being born to an impoverished family. He shows how a little education and a lot of hard work can help anyone of any shape, size, disability, handicap or color succeed. E. LeMay refused to be stereotyped and shows how he succeeded because of his merits, not the color of his skin. E. LeMay is an inspiration to his peers and a positive role model for our next generation.

You may not like what Mr. Lathan says and you may not like how he says it but if you want to succeed in corporate America you should get this book and study it. Mr. Lathan tells the truth that black men and black women need to hear about working, setting goals, and making it. I've purchased several copies and gave one to every teenager in my family.

I enjoyed the ideas put forth to help his son deal with life. I took a lot of courage to put thoughts out there like these. I would like to think this book has helped me think about changing the way I look at people of all colors. It has put me on guard as to how I treat others and the attitude I portray. I will have my kids read it and then make sure they understand it. It will be a book I will pass onto my family and friends whenever possible.

This is the Baby Boomers version of Bolles What Color is my Parachutte. A must read for all career changers, those downsized and all others interested in career progression and growth. Kudos to the authors on this timely and fabulous book for the Boomers.

Jim Link

I've just finished reading Boom or Bust! and now I'm going to review it again and fill out the worksheets. I found it to be a very inspiring and informative book. It's also a realistic book. The authors make the point that there are many options out there ,but you have to put some work into it to see what would work for you. Each person needs to study and analysis what they want to do and what they're good at doing and then see how they can combine that into a new career opportunity.

"Boom or Bust!" helped me in many ways to develop and implement a job search campaign. First of all, it led me to a better understanding of the changes in the workplace that have adversely affected my career and made me think about my orientation toward work in general. The exercises to prioritze my interests and, thereby, match them with my talents, caused me to examine my own thoughts and feelings about the type of work I really want to do going forward, and also reinforced some career deliberations I've had but have hesitated acting upon.

The section on career options provides brief snapshots of alternatives to consider and gave me a starting point for my own research. The final section concentrates on marketing yourself and offers excellent tips on how to communicate your work experience to employers and referral sources. As a Baby Boomer, I appreciate the large paperback format and the legible type size. "Boom or Bust!" belongs on every mature worker's desk.

about the industry. Tom ZEN-ner is the master of the television world! This book helped me in forming my career in so many ways. From the ins and outs of a "regular" television station and the handling of office politics. My experiences have only been enhanced from page one to the end.I'm not just a reporter. I play one on television! Thanks Tom for the insight!

I'm a college student and wanted to get into broadcasting but didn't know exactally how. This book not only pointed me in the right direction, but I believe it helped me land my fist on-air job. (in a top 20 market)... I just want to thank both of the writers for all the information and knowledge!!!!

This book reads like a personal conversation from a couple guys who started at the bottom and worked their way to the top of the world in on-air television broadcasting in a short period of time. All 11 chapters are relevant, interesting, funny, and above all motivating. I did not want to put this book down. It simply laid out a sure fire plan that anyone with a fair amount of passion, drive, talent and ambition can follow to a successful on-air career in television. The book never comes across as preachy, or makes it seem like a career in television is too difficult or unrealistically easy. It was a joy to read such a current, and fresh perspective from two guys who have a message to share and do it as well as I've ever seen. It was also nice to hear it from someone who has been through all the trials and tribulations of getting an internship, putting together a resume tape, landing a first job and building their careers to the top markets in the country. It is simply a must read for anybody in high school, college, in the television industry currently or dreaming about entering it. Because of it's motivational and inspirational tone, I recommend it to anyone entering the work force in any field.

Reviewer: Gwen Richtermeyer, Ph.D.
Director, BRIDG,University of Missouri-Kansas City

If having knowledge about a situation better prepares you to be successful in that encounter, then Clearing the Hurdles is a must-read for women entrepreneurs eager to grow their businesses. Knowing what lies ahead, including the stereotypical beliefs that many in the venture capital industry hold about women, is a giant step in our knowledge base about why women continue to lag behind men in creating and sustaining high-growth businesses.

Broadly speaking, the hurdles to be faced can be clustered under the umbrella of capitals - human, social, and financial. The authors identify seven specific, major hurdles which speak to the entrepreneur's desire, education, training, management and financial knowledge and skills, strategic orientation, social and funding networks and financial resources. By reflecting upon her assets as well as understanding her areas for improvement, the woman entrepreneur will be better able to counter these hurdles as they come up in capitalizing and growing the business.

Clearing the Hurdles is not a passive book, however. In addition to mapping the terrain and identifying the hurdles, the authors provide illustrative vignettes that bring realism to the issues that are often missing from research-based academic work. And, the authors don't stop there; they provide workable strategies to help women entrepreneurs think through the issue and get over the hurdle.

As a gender scholar, I was particularly interested in whether and how the book would address gender bias. While the authors do not espouse a specific gender theory to guide their explanations of why women continue to face these specific hurdles, they suggest a number of possible gender theories, including social psychological, social construction, sociobiology, and social networks. By using these illustrative theories, the authors are able to debunk some of the myths concerning women and their associated capitals.

Clearing the Hurdles has value not only for women entrepreneurs, but for angels and venture capitalists that could benefit from seeing themselves through the eyes of their clients. By acknowledging their beliefs and understanding that they are instrumental in setting the bar heights, they will see more deals and create diversity in their portfolios that benefits all.

Founder and former owner of Office Plan, Inc.
MN SBA Small Business Person of the Year (1998)

I wish this book had been written 10 years ago! Not before I started my business; but after it was up and running and I knew it had possibilities for growth. It would have saved me a lot of time as I floundered around trying to learn about financing ventures. What seems so simple to answer now (Should I look for debt or equity financing?) took ages because my knowledge base was at Square One.

I read "Hurdles" because it addresses my current passion-helping women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses. But the book delivers so much more. It is, in fact, a compendium on both entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial financing. In order to explain their premises, the authors lay out solid information and data about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship-males and females.

Because five researchers with strong academic credentials wrote it, I prepared myself for heavy reading. I was pleasantly surprised to find an eminently readable text. This book will be accessible to every entrepreneur trying to understand the money equation and growth strategies.

But I really think this book should be required reading for everyone who teaches in business school. In my own search for knowledge and skills to grow my business, I got my MBA. I am sad to say that none of my instructors understood entrepreneurship. Some knew they didn't know; most thought new ventures are smaller versions of large corporations. While this book would not be a substitute for a deeper understanding, it certainly would introduce them to the real differences.

Here, in one book, you will find the collective wisdom of five leading academics on the subject of women entrepreneurs and high growth businesses.
This incredibly well-researched book is the culmination of years of work on the gold standard of studies of women in business called "The Diana Project".
While women entrepreneurs have forged their own path and now account for over 50% of all new business start ups, issues still remain around perceptions and misconceptions of women in business by those who control purchasing and funding decisions. This book provides a road map for navigating these issues, while at the same time it holds a mirror up to everyone by laying out facts and case studies regarding the hurdles women face in breaking some of the last barriers to acheiving full economic parity.

This book, and a traveling exhibit due at Yale this fall and The Smithsonian in early next year, captures the feelings and human aspect of what happens when a family owned furniture factory is closed due to a hostile takeover. The pictures and accompaning text document from an historical and extremely personal perspective the lives of workers in a small town in North Carolina, dependant on each other and the factory, and the devastation that occurs when big city, outside forces make an impersonal decision regarding people 1000 miles away.

a reasonably balanced view of a factory closing that doesn't make the owner out to be a devil (although some former workers clearly feel that way). Shows the human side of what happens when decisions are made based on the aseptic "bottom line". If anything, the book is not hard enough on the original family, the 1st generation that admirably built the company and the second generation that let it deteriorate (the book details how the 2 family members at the top didn't even talk to one another and used separate entrances to the building! Is it any wonder the financials deteriorated and they had to sell?)

The only thing missing is an interview with the capitalist that closed the plant. If they tried and he refused the book ought to say so, otherwise it seems that at least a few pages could have been devoted to his side of the story.

All in all, though, a great book to read, as a counterbalance for all of us that invest thru our 401Ks and retirement accounts expecting great returns and divorced from how those returns are obtained (and at what cost to some people).

This book does an excellent job of demonstrating the effects of a factory closing in a small southern town. As a former resident of the town (childhood home) and a former worker in the machine room and rubbing room of White's Furniture Factory, I was amazed at the depth of analysis and truthfulness in this book. This book demonstrated how the closing of a factory not only affects the workers, but prior workers, and the entire population of the town. I was surprised to see the pictures that were included that told a story all to themselves. This book is highly recommended for college professors wishing to pursue the effects of a factory closing and other downsizing efforts on a small town's population. A great story line supplemented by outstanding pictures as the authors take the reader through the last years of a 100+ year factory that the entire town centered their lives around. Highly recommended for those interested in the effects of a closing on the local population.

The Compensation Committee Handbook provides an excellent starting reference for concise summaries of a number of issues relating to executive compensation. Explanations are clear and succinct, and the footnotes cite relevant authority for further research and reading.

Written for compensation committee members and those who work with them, this text covers: information on the committee's responsibilities; ways to organize a committee; legal position of the committee; selection and training of members; a broad framework for accounting, tax, and securities rules; and the basics of compensation programs. It examines current issues on executive employment agreements, option repricing, reload stock options, pooling-of-interests accounting, and new accounting rules. It provides guidance, especially for small- to medium-sized companies. Includes detailed information on rules and regulations, comparison charts to monitor the progress against compensation strategies, an enormous glossary, and information and training resources geared to committee needs. This is a unique and exceptionally valuable reference for compensation subjects that require committee action. It has exceptional technical depth and clarity. As a compensation consultant myself, I highly recommend this book. James Reda has done an outstanding job!

Boards of Directors, and especially compensation committees within the board, are in a period of transition. They are required to be more independent from the company and its management than ever before, and the mega-compensation packages of CEOs is now getting more negative publicity, regulatory scrutiny, and public pushback. This valuable handbook can provide compensation committee members with helpful information on what to do and how to proceed in discharging their responsibilities.

The book has 15 chapters divided into three parts.

Part One describes what the compensation committee is and does. It also covers how the board should go about selecting and training the members of the compensation committee. CEO succession and evaluation is covered in a very helpful way as is the issue of director compensation (since they have so much more to do nowadays).

Part Two covers the legal and regulatory issues boards and committees face. It covers issues of corporate governance (from the board's point of view), disclosure of executive and director compensation, securities issues, tax rules and issues, accounting rules and issues, and ERISA and labor law, rules, and issues.

Part Three deals with the practical applications of these rules, regulations, and duties. It covers executive employment, severance, and change-in-control arrangements, incentive compensation, equity based compensation, executive pension-benefit, welfare-benefit, and perquisites. There is also a chapter dealing with option grants, the repricing of stock options, and if the company should "go dark", which is different than going private.

While not the most lively material, the authors do a great job of keeping it from becoming too dry or dusty. And if you need to know this material, you will love this book's organization and wealth of helpful information.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

This book is indispensible to an employee who is beaten down by the corporate world for reporting a violation in good faith of unethical or unlawful matter . I was cast into the stormy sea of politics without a hope of survival until I was tossed this book; my only life preserver in a corrupt world.

Regards and my respect to the author ;

This book is indispensible to an employee who is beaten down by the corporate world for reporting a violation in good faith of unethical or unlawful matter . I was cast into the stormy sea of politics without a hope of survival until I was tossed this book; my only life preserver in a corrupt world.

Regards and my respect to the author ;

If you're a whistleblower, and you are not familiar with Concepts and Procedures in Whistleblower Law by Mr. Kohn, you are at a serious disadvantage already. I had no idea what I was up against. I was getting clobbered by the system at every turn. The information in this book evens the playing field quickly.
Mr. Kohn leads you through the maze of mistakes that you're going to make, and allows you to gain control of your situation.
It's written for everyone to read. I read it overnight.
When you get done reading it, get a copy for your lawyer.
The amount of information contained in this book will assist both of you immediately. A RARE find. Thank you Mr. Kohn.