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(1989). Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.
"Genius may not always be associated with messiness, but the following words are very much to the point:
Picture to yourself the darkest, most disorderly place imaginable...blotches of moisture covered the ceiling; an oldish grand piano, on which the dust disputed the place with various pieces of engraved and manuscript music; under the piano (I do not exaggerate) an unemptied chamber pot; beside it a small walnut table accustomed to the frequent overturning of the secretary placed on it; a quantity of pens encrusted with ink, compared with which the proverbial tavern pens would shine; then more music. The chairs, mostly cane—seated, were covered with plates bearing the remains of last night's supper, and with wearing apparel, etc.That passage is found in The Lives of the Great Composers, by Harold C. Schonberg. It is Baron de Tremont's description of Beethoven's 'Office." (p. 141)
(1990). Self Directed Work Teams: The New American Challenge.
"The most potentially damaging kind of performance feedback at this stage is one-on-one feedback from manager to team member. Because that relationship carries so much emotional baggage...it's important to find alternatives to manager-to-employee feedback wherever possible." (p. 135)
(1990). Shame & Guilt: Masters of Disguise.
"Children who grow up in shaming environments quickly learn that one must blame or be blamed. There are very few compromises in shaming environments. It often feels like we are playing 'emotional hot potato' in our adult relationships...Passing the blame to someone else is our attempt to protect an already injured self from more wounds." (p. 82)
(1990). Staying Employed: What You Must Do Today to Ensure You Have a Job Tomorrow.
"Working at home has become acceptable—in fact, fashionable—just in the last few years. Many people dream of not having to fight traffic or play office politics but instead staying home and doing their work on a computer." (p. 179)
(1990). Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration.
"As William James wrote in Great Men and Their Environment, 'The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual; the impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.'" (p. xxiii)
(1991). Statistics for Business & Economics.
(1992). Selling the Dream: How to promote your product, company, or ideas, and make a difference using everyday evangelism.
"At great companies, management leaves the engineers alone. At good companies, management interferes but engineers ignore them. At lousy companies, management thinks it is the engineers. 'Engineers' is too specific a term here; I mean anyone who creates products, services, and projects." (p. 148)
(1992). Small Decencies : Reflections and Meditations on Being Human at Work.
"Our accomplishments are not too simple, mundane, and ordinary to merit a moment of glory. We deserve to have our fellow workers sing our song. We owe them a poem in their honor." (p. 160)
(1993). Sharkproof: Get the Job You Want, Keep the Job You Love...in Today's Frenzied Job Market.
"So you got fired.
You can take the hurt and anger you feel and use it constructively. To prove they made a mistake when they let you go. Think. And do. Prove those critics wrong, wrong, wrong. Keep the vision of their pinched little faces handy, where you can get at them when you need them. Make them eat their words. Show them your stuff. Get mad. Get going. Get even.
Payback time is coming." (p. 248)
You can take the hurt and anger you feel and use it constructively. To prove they made a mistake when they let you go. Think. And do. Prove those critics wrong, wrong, wrong. Keep the vision of their pinched little faces handy, where you can get at them when you need them. Make them eat their words. Show them your stuff. Get mad. Get going. Get even.
Payback time is coming." (p. 248)
(1993). Snow Crash.
Stephenson's dark social satire illustrates what an anti-ROWE future might look like:
"You could try to favor a particular station, try to sit there every day, but it would be noticed. Generally you pick the unoccupied workstation that's closest to the door. That way, whoever comes in earliest sits closest, whoever came in latest is way in the back, for the rest of the day it's obvious at a glance who's on the ball in this office and who is—as they whisper to each other in the bathrooms—having problems.
Not that it's any big secret, who comes in first. When you sign on to a workstation in the morning, it's not like the central computer doesn't notice that fact. The central computer notices just about everything....You're only required to be at your workstation from eight to five, with a half-hour lunch break and two ten-minute coffee breaks, but if you stuck to that schedule it would definitely be noticed..." (p. 282)
"You could try to favor a particular station, try to sit there every day, but it would be noticed. Generally you pick the unoccupied workstation that's closest to the door. That way, whoever comes in earliest sits closest, whoever came in latest is way in the back, for the rest of the day it's obvious at a glance who's on the ball in this office and who is—as they whisper to each other in the bathrooms—having problems.
Not that it's any big secret, who comes in first. When you sign on to a workstation in the morning, it's not like the central computer doesn't notice that fact. The central computer notices just about everything....You're only required to be at your workstation from eight to five, with a half-hour lunch break and two ten-minute coffee breaks, but if you stuck to that schedule it would definitely be noticed..." (p. 282)
(1994). Self-Esteem : A Proven Program of Cognitive Techniques for Assessing and Improving.
"Within a given profession or social level, our culture next awards worth based on accomplishments. Getting a raise, a degree, a promotion, or winning in a competition are worth a lot. Acquiring the right house, car, furnishings, boat, or college education for your kids—all those accomplishments are worth a lot, too. If you get fired or laid off, lose your home, or in any other way slip down the accomplishment ladder, you are in deep trouble. You lose all your counters and become socially worthless.
Buying into these cultural concepts of worth can be deadly. For example, John was a bank examiner who equated his worth with his accomplishments at work. When he was late in meeting an important deadline, he felt worthless. When he felt worthless, he got depressed. When he got depressed, he worked slower and missed more deadlines. He felt more worthless, got more depressed, worked less diligently, and so on in a deadly downward spiral." (p. 88)
Buying into these cultural concepts of worth can be deadly. For example, John was a bank examiner who equated his worth with his accomplishments at work. When he was late in meeting an important deadline, he felt worthless. When he felt worthless, he got depressed. When he got depressed, he worked slower and missed more deadlines. He felt more worthless, got more depressed, worked less diligently, and so on in a deadly downward spiral." (p. 88)
(1994). Spirit Of Community.
"If businesses would cooperate with parents to make it easier for them to earn a living and attend to their children, the corporate payoffs would be much more than social approbation: they would gain a labor force that is much better able to perform." (p. 67)
(1994). Success through teamwork: a practical guide to interpersonal team dynamics.
"Not all team members are equally motivated to participate and be productive. In addition to motivating productive members, you must motivate average or nonparticipating members to increase their commitment to the team.
The following strategies can help you turn nonparticipating team members into active participants:
* Seek their advice
* Make them teachers
* Involve them in presentations
* Delegate 'star projects' " (p. 85)
The following strategies can help you turn nonparticipating team members into active participants:
* Seek their advice
* Make them teachers
* Involve them in presentations
* Delegate 'star projects' " (p. 85)
(1995). Silent Sabotage: Rescuing Our Careers, Our Companies, and Our Lives from the Creeping Paralysis of Anger and Bitterness.
"At the organizational level, we must begin removing the hierarchical walls that we've built around us....We must move away from the concept that the boss is omnipotent and all powerful [sic] and move toward a more fluid organizational structure that favors a shared approach toward conducting business." (p. 57)
(1995). Social Organization of Work.
"Alienation occurs when work provides inadequately for human needs for identity and meaning. Work is alienating to the extent that one does it only from economic necessity, not from its intrinsic pleasures." (p. 56)
"A common response to alienating work is passive resistance through making work into a game (Burawoy, 2000), restricting one`s output (Roy, 1952), or focusing on aspects of work tangential to the main productive activity (Collinson, 2003). For instance, workers often adjust to alienating situations by focusing on interactions with their peers. Managers label such behavioral responses 'poor performance.' However, such behaviors do not necessarily result from incompetence or laziness: rather, they may be straightforward responses to having a job that is tedious, repetitive, or alienating. These responses are difficult to predict from workers' levels of job satisfaction or commitment. Workers who are very committed to their work may be the ones most likely to resist alienating conditions. Those who are less committed may simply exit or grudgingly suffer in silence." (p. 68)
"A common response to alienating work is passive resistance through making work into a game (Burawoy, 2000), restricting one`s output (Roy, 1952), or focusing on aspects of work tangential to the main productive activity (Collinson, 2003). For instance, workers often adjust to alienating situations by focusing on interactions with their peers. Managers label such behavioral responses 'poor performance.' However, such behaviors do not necessarily result from incompetence or laziness: rather, they may be straightforward responses to having a job that is tedious, repetitive, or alienating. These responses are difficult to predict from workers' levels of job satisfaction or commitment. Workers who are very committed to their work may be the ones most likely to resist alienating conditions. Those who are less committed may simply exit or grudgingly suffer in silence." (p. 68)
(1995). Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat: Business Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks.
"Visionaries have to come to work willing to be fired. That's the price you must pay. You've got to be willing to take chances, to speak up, to rattle cages, to challenge the basic premises, to suggest a better way of doing things." p. 222
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