Work's a Bitch and Then You Make It Work , livre ebook

ABRAMS BOOKS - Kay Andrea

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189 pages

English

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Are you frustrated by the indignities of life in todays workplace? More work, longer hours, fewer benefits, incompetent bossescareer consultant and expert Andrea Kay has heard it all. In her new book, Kay connects with the 85 percent of the workforce who feel unsatisfied with their careers. Readers will immediately recognize themselves in the stories she tells, gleaned from the thousands of unhappy workers who have responded to Kays nationally syndicated column and appearances.But Kay doesnt just explore whats wrong with the workplace today; she empowers workers to think about their careers in a new way, to get past disillusionment and feelings of powerlessness to see the possibilities and control they do have. She counsels readers on how to aim high and be fearless in presenting new ideas; how to cope with the unpredictable; how to determine whether a company is a good match for you; how to define the kind of work arrangement you want, and get up the nerve to ask for it. Throughout the text and the thought-provoking exercises that accompany it, she offers ways to take concrete and positive steps that will improve both your career and your life. Work may indeed be a bitch sometimes, but with Andrea Kays help, readers will work it out.

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Employabilité, métiers et formations

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Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	09 janvier 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781613122679
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	16 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0664€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Published in 2008 by Stewart, Tabori Chang An imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Copyright 2008 Andrea Kay
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Career Rage is a trademark of Andrea Kay.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kay, Andrea, 1954- Work s a bitch and then you make it work : 6 steps to go from pissed off to powerful / by Andrea Kay. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-58479-708-1 1. Career changes-United States. 2. Vocational guidance-United States. 3. Job hunting-United States. I. Title. HF5384.K395 2009 650.14-dc22 2008027905
Edited by Rahel Lerner Designed by Susi Oberhelman
115 West 18th Street New York, NY 10011 www.hnabooks.com
Visit Andrea Kay at www.andreakay.com
I N MEMORY AND CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF
Judy Hand, whom I met standing in line at the post office in 1986. She was a talented artist who was generous with her time and helped me pursue my other career, in art. At our last conversation, we reminisced over lunch about that first chance meeting and talked about what matters most-relationships, work, art, and our hair.
Contents
Introduction: We Begin Right Where You Are
PART I : A Day in the Life of You (And How You Got Here)
PART II : A New Day in the Life of You (And How You Get There)
Step 1 Take Your Pick: Disillusionment or Naked Truth
Step 2 Enough Already: Lay Down Your Cell Phones and BlackBerries
Step 3 Have a Brush with Greatness (Even If No One Notices)
Step 4 Prepare for Hurricanes, Sinkholes, and Ma ana
Step 5 Develop a Sixth Sense
Step 6 Go Twist and Shout and Shake Things Up
Summary: All s Well That Intends Well
Acknowledgments
Index of Search Terms
We Begin Right Where You Are
The words work and enjoy are rarely used in the same sentence these days. You re more likely to hear work sucks. Or work s a bitch.
It s no wonder. If you ve been at it a while, you ve worked your butt off to help create the most productive economy in the world. You ve been asked to do more with less, yet may receive less in return-including shouldering more of the cost of health care. All the while you see companies stock values soar-some showing record earnings-and CEOs salaries skyrocket. (I hate to add salt to the wound, but did you know that many CEOs earn more in one day than the average worker earns in a year?)
Add to all that the fact that your company may ask you-nicely, you d hope, but not necessarily--to plug into company business 24/7 by way of beeper, BlackBerry, or e-mail. What kind of life is that? With your work life being such a drag, your overall life may not be so hot, either. They tend to bleed over into each other.
And while we re at it, let s not forget that you may be one of those people whose job doesn t exist anymore or is filled in some faraway land. And what about all the talk about quality, quality, quality, while it seems nearly every corporate decision is based on profits, profits, and more profits? How can you feel good about your work?
I haven t even touched on one of the top reasons people grimace in pain at the thought of work (or claim to in some surveys): bosses. Inept managers and leaders who lack integrity seem to overpopulate the workplace. Then add in the fact that you feel helpless to do anything about it. And if you re looking for a job, you have undoubtedly run into one annoying scenario after another-the most notorious being silence on the other end-no phone call, no letter saying thanks, but no thanks, no nothing.
If any of this sounds familiar, you ve got what I call a bad case of Career Rage. You re pissed off, and it s understandable. With all that I ve listed here, and more that I haven t even touched on, you may feel that you can never get ahead. What s the point of trying to find work you d enjoy, developing the skills to get along with others, and working toward a career dream, when so much of the workplace is broken?
In the short run, no one can turn around the crumbling of trust in the workplace and, in some cases, in corporate leaders. Nor will anyone quickly alleviate the daily stress of life compounded by a workplace that seems to treat people like inventory. But you can take steps to get out of the self-defeating cycle that has eliminated the phrase enjoy work from your vocabulary. Yes, work can be a bitch. But there is hope-and there s even more. You don t have to suffer, feel helpless and betrayed, and wake up feeling crappy about your career and your future. There s a way to go from being pissed off to powerful. And you owe it to yourself to discover it.
Just so you know, I am not going to try to fill your head with a bunch of rah-rah happy talk and here s-how-you-deal-with-stress-and-stay-positive-and-turn-these-difficult-times-into-an-opportunity-for-growth jazz. That stuff is well meaning. But we re way past that.
I m not giving up, though. And neither should you. This is your career-where you spend half or more of your life. How you feel about your work and career affects your relationships at home. Your future. Your potential income. Children you might have and the attitudes they develop as they observe and mimic you. The way you operate in the world and treat everyone who crosses your path. And someday, how you ll look back at your life. Please don t waste it being pissed off.
If it s any consolation, I m ticked, too. I m ticked that workers and job hunters feel so helpless, and I m ticked that injustices and some situations in the work world have deflated the spirit of workers. I m upset that the odds seem so stacked against you that you wonder, Why bother? I m disturbed when I get e-mails like this one from a worker somewhere in America saying, In this country it s not possible anymore to do what you want or what you re good at. I m shocked by the number of discouraged twenty-somethings who have already lost faith in their ability to make a difference through their work.
I don t blame you for feeling frustrated. But to feel powerful about your career, you have to feel powerful about yourself. So let s begin with where you are right now.
The first section of this book starts there. It s your chance to vent. Then we ll move on to the meat of the book-the steps you can take at work and in life to help you go from being pissed off to powerful. From time to time we ll touch upon laws, education, policies, and business practices that affect you. But this isn t a book about social and economic-policy analysis and who s right or wrong. It s a book about what you can do despite what s wrong and broken. It s also a workbook that makes you think, so get ready to do some work.
You might be a wee bit skeptical at this point. The work world and all those forces you don t control loom large. But the workplace is not like the weather, which everyone complains about but figures there s nothing they can do about. In the case of your career, there s plenty you can do. Let s begin.
It all started on a sizzling hot day in July 1988. The mail carrier walked into my office, looking burdened by the heavy gray sack on his shoulder and the promise of the U.S. Postal Service letter carrier patch on his sleeve: his pledge to deliver in rain, sleet, snow, and eighty-five-degree temperatures. In this case, he was also delivering my first Career Rage letter.
Addressed to Ask Andrea, as my column was called back then, my first piece of mail thrilled me. Someone had actually read what I had to say! They re probably writing to thank me, I thought. How nice to be appreciated. I gently slit open the top of the number-ten envelope and unfolded the two-page typed letter inside.
Dear Andrea, What planet do you live on? it began. It went on: What kind of moron would advise people to negotiate their salary? You have to take what you can get if you want to get anywhere. As you sit there in your ivory-tower office making the big bucks, perhaps it would help if you got a dose of the real world. The writer then told me about his real world. I d go on, but you get the picture.
In my world, I was collecting zero dollars per column for the privilege-which it was-of writing approximately 650 words in the newspaper. The editor had told me, Let s try it and see how it goes.
The letter really bothered me at the time, but that was 20 years ago. Compared to the mail I get today, that was a love letter. Many of the issues people write about now are similar; some are brand-new. But I must say you do seem madder in the last ten years. Today, it s more like foaming-at-the-mouth, seething outrage.
This outrage rears its head in the most unlikely of places. In 1998, my second book, which was about resumes, had just come out, and I was giving a talk at a bookstore. A man in the back of the standing-room-only audience began heckling me. People started shifting uncomfortably in their seats as he went on his verbal rampage. A few people stood up and began circling the man. I scouted the audience for some brawny security-guard-looking types, but there were none. After all, who heckles the author of a harmless resume book? One really upset worker, that s who.
It s not that the relationship between you and your company or boss has ever been a bed of roses. In fact, people were not only throwing fits about working conditions back in post-Civil War days, but they were killing each other over them. Let s take a quick look at what came before you, to better understand how you and other workers got to such an angry place today. Even if you don t like history much, stick with me here. This will help you get to the next part-the part where you can turn your wrath into something more productive.
Quick History Lesson
Back in the late 1800s, when mass production was developing, work became more dangerous, was often monotonous, and was often carri