Employment Books

TO SUMMARIZE CHAPTERS 1 - 6

Why all these negative impacts from lay-offs? Simple, no one took any steps to prepare the personnel for the changes of work and values. The managers who initiated the lay-offs are still stuck in denial themselves - their method of denial is sometimes "When the going gets tough, the tough get mean!" Denial is the main reason that the problems go untreated. Symptoms of denial are Gallows humor, death paradigms or figures of speech, "We have to be strong", "We are only doing what is necessary", "Chainsaw AL", etc.. - anything except a direct reference or description of what is being done. No one should be laughing at actions taken or at the resulting pain.

Basic economic and social changes have resulted in a paradigm shift for the employer - employee relationship. The changes are summarized as:

(OLD PARADIGM) vs *NEW PARADIGM* = (People as assets to be developed) vs * as costs to be reduced* & (Nurturing) vs *Violent* & (Develop) vs *Take out* & (Help) vs *Shoot* & (Grow) vs *Terminate* & (Long term) vs *Short term* & (a carrrer) vs *a job* & (make an employee) vs *buy an employee* & (Synergistic) vs *Reductionist* & (build up) vs *make smaller* & (develop) vs *cut*

[My own comment - It is interesting to note that corporations developed a system of codependency in order to reduce costs and to maintain valuable employees. This has resulted, over a long period of time, in too many employees. We are experiencing a violent "weeding of the garden". This situation may turn around shortly due to the increasing decline in available employees (zero unemployment). The last time society underwent such an upheaval was in Pre WWII Germany. The German economy exploded, but the resulting unmanaged social pressures caused a World War.]

CURES AND FIXES BEGIN WITH CHAPTER 7 Level One: Manage the Layoff Process (Chapter 7) Practice "Clean Kills" / Redundant Communication is Essential / "Managers should think of how they would behave when they are the authority figure at a funeral or during a time of crisis, confusion, or emotional tension in a small group or family" / Avoid Control Traps (Managing Communication (limiting information)) & (Managing Emotion (find a way to release emotions is best)) & (Managing an Unproductive Image (don't fake it)) / Lead from the Heart and Follow with the Head / Tell the truth and never say never / Avoid Denial Traps (deal with the problem directly) / Insure that you use Fairness, Equity, Participation, Caretaking, and Prior Notification (the more the better).

Level Two: Facilitate the Necessary Grieving (Chapter 8) Read all of chapter 8 - This chapter is loaded with information. Help the organization through the process of Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Outsiders are often necessary to facilitate this process as all of the insiders are too involved.

Level Three: Break the Codependency Chain and Empower People (Chapter 9) We will all have to take on the characteristics of Davy Crocket. He lived in a wild environment and depended on his own skills and resources. This resulted in a greater sense of freedom and higher self esteem. Change your mindset from Codependency to Independence

"A primary symptom of codependency is that the codependent's sense of value and identity is based on pleasing, and often controlling, not himself or herself but someone or something else. Codependents make themselves into permanent victims."

"Codependents are all collectively conspiring to be something that they do not want to be individually."

"Again and again in my practice, I see employees at all levels desperately trying to regain control of a decaying and nonproductive work environment."

"The paradox of codependency is that the controllers are always controlled; that is what makes them codependent." -- "they need to let go, to admit the folly of their attempts to control an uncontrollable situation."

[The truth shall set you free.]

Level Four: Build a New Employment Relationship (Chapter 10)

[You must read this chapter in full - I can't compress it.]

THE GREAT WAKE-UP CALL Please read chapters 11 and on for an understanding of the new relationship.

This is a book for researchers and specialists in the field. It is a summary of the information gathered by the research team that worked on the topic. It also points out the need for much more research on the topic.

Mr. Hawley really knows his stuff.

Naquin and Holton have an effective straight forward approach to managing and training new employees. The book was quite educational and I recommend it to any business or institution that are faced with the challenge of hiring and maintaining new college graduates.

This was the book that first seriously challenged the accuracy of U.S. Government unemployment figures in the modern era. The authors demonstrated that there are a large number of "uncounted" unemployed workers in American society. Indeed, the true unemployment figures may easily be double the official figures- or higher. The main difficulty lies in the fact that the government simply doesn't count anyone as "unemployed" who has either run out his allotted unemployment benefits, or did not officially qualify in the first place due to gaping loopholes in the system.

The authors also examined the huge number of underemployed people who qualify as "employed" but who are barely earning a subsistence living (usually after losing much higher paying manufacturing jobs.) The actual standard of living of those forced off of the welfare roles and into marginal, low paying employment (often short lived) was similarly covered. The related phenomenon of the "feminization" of unemployment is identified and examined. Moreover, the idea that older workers were voluntarily leaving the workforce (instead of being forced out due to age discrimination) was also debunked.

Anyone interested in, or outraged by, the massive redistribution of wealth in U.S. society over the last two decades, along with political efforts to cover up the fact, will find this study an excellent starting point. It would seem that neither major party really wants the peonization of American society to be closely and objectively examined or addressed.

Table of Contents
-- Background
-- The Discouraged Worker Problem
-- The Existing Knowledge Base
-- Toward a New Perspective
-- Paths to Discouragement
-- Profiles in Discouragement
-- Coping Without Work
-- Viewing Life and Work
-- Seeking Work
-- Public Policy
-- What Are Their Needs?
-- How Should They Be Helped?
-- Bibliography
-- Index

After reading this book, and thinking about my future career plans, I have one phrase for anyone of college graduate age: Without this knowledge, your future may be in jeopardy. This book gives you an insight into the hiring process that many of us students and graduates probably are unaware. Thank you so much for letting this information out

Hiring is never as simple as it seems. There is a lot involved in the process. It starts with the development of the job description and continues through the job offer being made and accepted or declined. The process is explained in a flow chart in this book, accompanied by text that details each step.

The hiring process need to be managed. That management task is accomplished through the use of a series of forms to be completed by participants in the process. With all laws governing employment, using the right forms (avoiding the wrong forms!) is essential.

The forms you need are all included in this book. They're ready for you to photocopy and put them to use. While the author recommends you clear use of the forms with your company's legal counsel, just to be extra safe and secure, the originals are all ready to copy from the CD -ROM that accompanies the book.

Fyock, a nationally-respected authority on hiring, has developed a very valuable tool in the Hiring Source Book. She starts by examining the hiring process (chapter 1). This information is helpful for the experienced human resources professional, as well as for management people (read: small companies without an HR department) who engage in hiring new employees. Her next chapter addresses the actual design of employment applications and how these tools fit into the process. The next chapters on interviewing and evaluating applications provide a broad range of advice and instruction that will build the confidence of even the most experienced hiring authority.

Hiring involves more than just looking at applications that may come in. Chapter 8 is filled with techniques that will strengthen the process...and your results. Stay out of trouble by following the legal rules around hiring. They're explained in a way we can actually understand! And, since the composition of our workforce is changing in the United States, the chapter on hiring Hispanic employees makes this book particularly timely.

Highly Recommended. If you hire well, employee retention becomes a lot easier! As author of "Keeping Good People," I've seen that many retention problems arise just because the hiring wasn't done correctly. Read and use this book and save yourself a lot of grief...and money.

This text provides understandable and detailed information through out every chapter that is practical and informative. As a HR major, this is one book I will not be selling back at the end of the term, but keeping on my shelf for my future career.

The reality of the abuse of the ADA by our Federal Circuit Courts as it pertains to persons with documented grave mental conditions is finally brought to light in this well-written book by Susan Stefan. To think that a mentally ill worker has to prove that he is disabled (severely) but can do the job with little or no accommodations and is totally mitigated by medications to the point of being non-disabled is absolute foolishness by the current Federal Circuits. They claim to be under the responsibility of judging litigation on a case by case basis, yet have continued to make qualified mentally ill workers dance on prongs so small that Tinkerbell would surely fall! Ms Stefan SHOWS the disparity demonstrated by the Circuit Courts when dealing with mental disabilities and highlights the absolute redundancies in case law when dealing with bipolar illness or any other mental disability. The 5TH Circuit will soon get a case that they will be FORCED to be just...fair and equal under our laws...as my personal situation exceeds their favorite word "egregious". Let's all hope that the spirit of the ADA does not get trashed in political correctness and absurd logic...and the 5TH Circuit shows guts in recognizing the obvious fact that mental illness is equal to physical illness in disabling an individual in the work place. That the mentally ill need not be forced to endure harassment and disparate treatment at the workplace and employers are given a clear mandate to treat the mentally ill fairly and equally at the workplace. Jeffrey S. Philo, Brownsville, TX

Good book for people who are unhappy in current job and or wanting change to make things better at work for themselves.