For centuries we've believed that work was where you learned discipline, initiative, honesty, self-reliance--in a word, character. A job was also, and not incidentally, the source of your income: if you didn't work, you didn't eat, or else you were stealing from someone. If only you worked hard, you could earn your way and maybe even make something of yourself. In recent decades, through everyday experience, these beliefs have proven spectacularly false. In this book, James Livingston explains how and why Americans still cling to work as a solution rather than a problem--why it is that both liberals and conservatives announce that "full employment" is their goal when job creation is no longer a feasible solution for any problem, moral or economic. The result is a witty, stirring denunciation of the ways we think about why we labor, exhorting us to imagine a new way of finding meaning, character, and sustenance beyond our workaday world--and showing us that we can afford to leave that world behind.

"Utilizing examples from Carol's decades of work, learn the flaws in the feedback trap and build conditions for employees to flourish for long-term success."--Back cover.

Feeling stuck, victimized, or unhappy at work? Whether you are employed or unemployed, contemplating a job change, or loyally committed to where you are right now, in this book Robin Sheerer shows you how to apply four powerful life principles to rediscover the satisfaction and fulfillment that can be derived from work.

The definitive careers guide for starting out in today's working world It's tougher than ever to get the fundamental skills you need to get started and thrive in your career. Whether you are on your first Saturday shift, about to start an apprenticeship or climbing the leadership ladder, this is your indispensable guide to surviving and thriving at work. Find out what really matters in getting hired for your first job and how to make the best start in your new role. Drawing on the collective wisdom of CEOs, creatives, scientists, activists and professionals in every industry, this is all you need to know about how to go to work. From dealing with your mistakes to celebrating your successes, from making an impression on day one to building your resilience and protecting your values, How to Go to Work is packed full of all the vital advice you need to jump-start your fledgling career. This vital practical guide will show you how to: - Find the right work experience and internships to get you through the door - Present your best self online and in person - Gain confidence, authority and resilience and thrive in your role - Navigate the ups and downs of starting your first or second job and help you make progress in your career From office etiquette and how to make the most of any placement, to employment rights, how to deal with toxic workplaces, pensions and negotiating pay rises, How To Go To Work is the essential guide for anyone embarking upon or consolidating their career.

Based on hands-on, real-world research and concepts used by CEOs, managers and employees in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 to nonprofit, There Is No Place Like Work shows how organizations have accomplished and can accomplish the ultimate goal of managing their CORE Culture. Successful management will help companies build a staff of motivated employees who feel, individually, that they are doing meaningful tasks in the right place-a workplace that offers a sense of belonging and opportunity for the individual and profits for the organization. A company's culture is not an amorphous and accidental phenomenon. This crucial element in long-range organizational success is definable, measurable and moldable. That process is called CORE Culture Management, and authors Margolis and Wilensky reveal how to master it by understanding CORE Culture and the Five P's. This guide will help you: Learn how to harness the Five P's, a set of key parameters delineating critical elements of your organization: Purpose, Philosophy, Priorities, Practices and Projections. Walk through developing your company's CORE Culture Map, which gives you a visual emblem of your organization's identity and core principles. Learn how to align your organization to the CORE Culture. This invaluable book employs a Wizard of Oz metaphor-making it easy to see how every worker can find the intrinsic intelligence, courage and heart within themselves to create a successful, high-performance workplace.

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the authors of the New York Times bestseller Rework, are back with a manifesto to combat all your modern workplace worries and fears.

You work hard. You put in the hours. Yet you feel like you are constantly treading water with "Good Work" that keeps you going but never quite moves you ahead. Or worse, you are mired in "Bad Work"—endless meetings and energy-draining bureaucratic traps. Do More Great Work gets to the heart of the problem: Even the best performers are spending less than a fraction of their time doing "Great Work"—the kind of innovative work that pushes us forward, stretches our creativity, and truly satisfies us. Michael Bungay Stanier, Canadian Coach of the Year in 2006, is a business consultant who’s found a way to move us away from bad work (and even good work), and toward more time spent doing great work. When you’re up to your eyeballs answering e-mail, returning phone calls, attending meetings and scrambling to get that project done, you can turn to this inspirational, motivating, and at times playful book for invaluable guidance. In fifteen exercises, Do More Great Work shows how you can finally do more of the work that engages and challenges you, that has a real impact, that plays to your strengths—and that matters. The exercises are "maps"—brilliantly simple visual tools that help you find, start and sustain Great Work, revealing how to: Find clues to your own Great Work—they’re all around you Locate the sweet spot between what you want to do and what your organization wants you to do Generate new ideas and possibilities quickly Best manage your overwhelming workload Double the likelihood that you’ll do what you want to do All it takes is ten minutes a day, a pencil and a willingness to change. Do More Great Work will not only help you identify what the Great Work of your life is, it will tell you how to do it.

Land Killer Internships—and Make the Most of Them! These days, a college resume without internship experience is considered “naked.” Indeed, statistics show that internship experience leads to more job offers with highersalaries—and in this tough economy, college grads need all the help they can get. Enter Lauren Berger, internships expert and CEO of Intern Queen, Inc., whose comprehensive guide reveals insider secrets to scoring the perfect internship, building invaluable connections, boosting transferable skills, and ultimately moving toward your dream career. She’ll show you how to: Discover the best internship opportunities, from big companies to virtual internships Write effective resumes and cover letters Nail phone, Skype, and in-person interviews Know your rights as an intern Use social networking to your advantage Network like a pro Impress your boss Get solid letters of recommendation Turn internships into job opportunities With exercises, examples, and a go-getter attitude, this next-generation internship manual provides all the cutting-edge information students and recent grads will need to get a competitive edge in the job market. So what are you waiting for?

New York Times bestseller! From New York Times bestselling author Cal Newport comes a bold vision for liberating workers from the tyranny of the inbox--and unleashing a new era of productivity. Modern knowledge workers communicate constantly. Their days are defined by a relentless barrage of incoming messages and back-and-forth digital conversations--a state of constant, anxious chatter in which nobody can disconnect, and so nobody has the cognitive bandwidth to perform substantive work. There was a time when tools like email felt cutting edge, but a thorough review of current evidence reveals that the "hyperactive hive mind" workflow they helped create has become a productivity disaster, reducing profitability and perhaps even slowing overall economic growth. Equally worrisome, it makes us miserable. Humans are simply not wired for constant digital communication. We have become so used to an inbox-driven workday that it's hard to imagine alternatives. But they do exist. Drawing on years of investigative reporting, author and computer science professor Cal Newport makes the case that our current approach to work is broken, then lays out a series of principles and concrete instructions for fixing it. In A World without Email, he argues for a workplace in which clear processes--not haphazard messaging--define how tasks are identified, assigned and reviewed. Each person works on fewer things (but does them better), and aggressive investment in support reduces the ever-increasing burden of administrative tasks. Above all else, important communication is streamlined, and inboxes and chat channels are no longer central to how work unfolds. The knowledge sector's evolution beyond the hyperactive hive mind is inevitable. The question is not whether a world without email is coming (it is), but whether you'll be ahead of this trend. If you're a CEO seeking a competitive edge, an entrepreneur convinced your productivity could be higher, or an employee exhausted by your inbox, A World Without Email will convince you that the time has come for bold changes, and will walk you through exactly how to make them happen.

In this “long overdue manifesto on gender equality in the workplace, a practical playbook with tips you can put into action immediately…simply priceless” (Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit), The No Club offers a timely solution to achieving equity at work: unburden women’s careers from work that goes unrewarded. The No Club started when four women, crushed by endless to-do lists, banded together to get their work lives under control. Running faster than ever, they still trailed behind male colleagues. And so, they vowed to say no to requests that pulled them away from the work that mattered most to their careers. This book reveals how their over-a-decade-long journey and subsequent groundbreaking research showing that women everywhere are unfairly burdened with “non-promotable work,” a tremendous problem we can—and must—solve. All organizations have work that no one wants to do: planning the office party, screening interns, attending to that time-consuming client, or simply helping others with their work. A woman, most often, takes on these tasks. In study after study, professors Linda Babcock (bestselling author of Women Don’t Ask), Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart—the original “No Club”—document that women are disproportionately asked and expected to do this work. The imbalance leaves women overcommitted and underutilized as companies forfeit revenue, productivity, and top talent. The No Club walks you through how to change your workload, empowering women to make savvy decisions about the work they take on. The authors also illuminate how organizations can reassess how they assign and reward work to level the playing field. With hard data, personal anecdotes from women of all stripes, self- and workplace-assessments for immediate use, and innovative advice from the authors’ consulting Fortune 500 companies, this book will forever change the conversation about how we advance women’s careers and achieve equity in the 21st century.