Time, September 22, 2008, Monday
All Rights Reserved
Time
September 22, 2008, Monday
U.S. Edition
SECTION: Pg. C2 Vol. 172 No. 12
HEADLINE: Business Books
BYLINE: Andrea Sachs
BODY:
Afraid that the ax is about to fall? How to clean up your act and avoid the chop in a slumping economy. Understanding urgency--or stopping the 24/7 clock
Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies To Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work
By Stephen Viscusi
Collins Business; 171 pages
So you're sitting at your desk, waves of anxiety running through you. Your industry is going through rocky times, or worse, there are rumors of a layoff at your company. Corporate loyalty is history. Outsourcing is moving up the food chain. Is there anything you can do to protect your job? Not always, but this book offers a good road map for surviving an economic downturn. Don't sit there smugly and assume that your sterling credentials will save you, says the author bluntly: "Got a swanky Ivy League degree? How nice. Here's the cold hard truth: if you don't click with your boss, all that merit and pedigree won't get you anywhere when your job is on the line."
Viscusi is a believer that a last-minute conversion to better business behavior can improve your chances for continued employment. The author's manifesto on how to be a winning employee is neatly divided into four major pieces of advice:
Be Visible "If your superiors don't see you or know who you are, you're very easy to let go," he says. That means showing up early and leaving late. (This is the Sneaky Pete School of Management, though. It's fine to arrive five minutes earlier than your boss and leave 10 minutes later.) Skip the two-hour lunches, and go to all those boring meetings.
Be Easy This is a toxic time to kvetch. There are easy babies and cranky babies, and you know which one you are. "Does your commute suck? Too bad," says Viscusi with a big dollop of tough love. "Is your cubicle too small? Don't want to hear it."
Be Useful Going that extra mile will label you as an asset: "It's time to become Mr. or Ms. Above and Beyond." Be a utility player who is capable of filling in anywhere, or be a specialist and razzle-dazzle your superiors.
Be Ready Just in case your last-minute maneuvers don't pan out, the author strenuously advocates fortifying your position with a solid bank account, a fresh resume and a network of contacts.
Even though these tactics can work, it's still better not to wait till late to recast your image, say Viscusi and other job experts. "Don't be the employee that the clock is already ticking on," warns John J. Haggerty of the Cornell University ILR School. "The best thing to do is rely on the record that came before. We're looking in the rearview mirror." In other words, shape up or get shipped out.
A Sense of Urgency
By John P. Kotter
Harvard Business; 196 pages
Complacency is the enemy of corporate success, says management guru Kotter. So he tries to light a fire under America's managers. But be careful, he warns: There's constructive, true urgency, and there's destructive, false urgency. "With an attitude of true urgency, you try to accomplish something important each day, never leaving yourself with a heart-attack-producing task of running one thousand miles in the last week of the race," he says. False urgency is marked by frenetic activity, meeting upon meeting, task force after task force and an anxious, angry and frustrated workforce. Guess which urgency is more common?
OverSuccess: Healing The American Obsession With Wealth, Fame, Power, and Perfection
By Jim Rubens
Greenleaf; 451 pages
The author's own brush with American urgency has soured him on the 24/7 work life: "The intention of this book is to free me and tens of millions like me from the hamster's treadmill," he says. Rubens ties mindless ambition in the U.S. to major depression, addiction, personal and public debt and even the popularity of American Idol. "Unless we change our nation's culture," he cautions, "we will die alone and unhappy with our basalt countertops, Sub-Zero wine storage and massive credit-card debt." Wait--is that bad?
GRAPHIC: ILLUSTRATION: ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY TERRY ALLEN
LOAD-DATE: September 11, 2008
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