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42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The way careers really work -- for many people, May 25, 2004
Fire Your Boss isn't really about getting rid of your boss. It's about taking proactive steps to avoid being in a one-down position. You'll like Fire Your Boss if you buy into the authors' value system Pollan and Levine don't mince words. Work, they say, is about money. Given a choice of two job offers, choose whichever gives you the most money, time or both. Don't expect satisfaction and fulfillment from work. For many people, this advice will make sense. However, some people work in truly toxic environments and they'll become ill -- mentally and/or physically -- if they stay. Some companies (such as SAS in North Carolina) offer quality of life that makes sense for many employees. And some people manage to have truly wonderful jobs. Once on the job, say the authors, success comes from pleasing your boss. Never mind the company: it's all about keeping your boss on your side because she's the only person who can help you. In general, this advice is excellent; however, company culture can influence your boss's power, your ability to transfer within the firm and/or your ability to avoid being fired. I stay away from absolutes -- so "Nobody hires a stranger" should be translated, "People like to hire their friends." The best section of the book covers networking: these days, you make friends, not contacts. So your long-term strategy will involve joining groups and socializing with people who can help you. And, as with all career books, you have to do some reality checks. When you get a competing offer from an outside firm, say the authors, pay attention to a counter-offer from your own firm. However, some experts say that sixty to eighty percent of employees who accept those counteroffers are gone in six months. If you do accept a counteroffer, get a contract or the type of termination agreement these authors recommend. The very best advice from these authors: Always keep "fishing," as they say. Never stop watching the job market. Prepare to move for the right conditions. I don't agree with their checklists of "factors" -- I've developed my own decision processes -- and I think you have to be careful before jumping ship too fast. Some people are hired to be scapegoats, some bosses have hidden agendas, and some employees do get stranded in tiny towns in the middle of nowhere. I suspect the authors fill in the blanks when they're coaching one-to-one and/or they choose their clients very, very carefully. And I definitely recommend this book as a perspective that, while incomplete, offers a helpful corrective to the airy promises of "Dream and do it." For career change, I'd supplement with Herminia Ibarra's Working Identity and Martha Beck's Finding Your Own North Star.
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for every working man and woman!, May 13, 2004
Have you lost a job because your employer was tightening it's belt? Are you one of the survivors of layoffs doing the work of five people for one person's salary? Welcome to the 21st century in the American workforce. What is the working man or woman to do? READ THIS BOOK! The bookshelves are chock full of career and self-help guides , but this one is different. It is eye-opening and doesn't echo the same "work smarter, organize better, network more efficiently" platitudes that so many of those other books proclaim. Instead, it contains step-by-step instructions on how to best deal with the new employment reality by improving one's own situation. Experienced author Stephen Pollan is a career consultant with many years of experience advising those who want to "get ahead." He ably chronicles the changes that have rapidly occurred in the American economy and their effect on the mindset of American employers. Then, with gusto, he delves into his step-by-step instructions for taking control of one's worklife. His recommendations are somewhat counterintuitive but ring with truth. Pollan strips the reader's conceptions of career success to the bones and then builds a new, healthier framework. The end result will be a happier, more successful worker. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. It is well-written with a straight-forward conversational style. Few words are wasted and neither is the reader's time. To illustrate his points, Pollan incorporates plentiful examples of how his strategy has helped clients to achieve personal success in today's rugged world of work. This book will change the way the working man and woman approach their careers.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A different take on occupational fulfillment, August 20, 2005
This review is from: Fire Your Boss (Paperback)
There are many self-help career guides that extol us to find a job within our passion. Their logic is that if we love our work, then the money will follow. However, "Fire Your Boss" takes a different tack. Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine instead recommend that we work for the money, and then the love will follow. From that foundation, they craft a career plan that they contend will lead to occupational success and personal well being. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but the authors make a compelling case.
The "Fire Your Boss" philosophy is based on the assumption that employees are disposable. In the era of downsizing and outsourcing, the scenario of a lifetime job with a single company is history. Therefore, becoming attached to one position, firm, or career path is futile. With this in mind, the authors suggest that we "fire our boss" and give up a set career plan. Once we do that, then we are free of occupational anxiety. We can remain in our job if it provides the salary and benefits we desire, or leave it for one that does. Indeed, they exhort that we must always be "fishing" for a better job elsewhere. To that end, "Fire Your Boss" pushes us to continually network outside of the job, because in the authors' words, "no one hires a stranger." We should also be fine-tuning our own personal work plan, which is based on what we can offer to a boss. Meeting the boss' needs is key to workplace success, the authors argue. If you make the boss happy and ensure he or she looks good, then your position is almost bulletproof.
On the one hand, "Fire Your Boss" crystallized my approach to work. Most of the time I like my job as a IT technician. Computers appeal to the cognitive side of my nature, but I wouldn't consider them my passion. After all, work by definition is, well, work. It's tough to be passionate about any scenario where I have to show up at a set time and provide a service or good, under penalty of dismissal for whatever reason. In that context, even a passion can become a burden. Self-employment carries the same consequences, because you still have to produce or starve. In contrast, the authors indicate that a job's purpose is to provide money for needs and wants. Personal fulfillment should be obtained outside of the workplace. As the authors would advocate, I've used my salary to try out a number of interesting activities, such as foreign travel, motorcycling, education, and martial arts. Without my income, none of these options would have been available to me. Should I try to find a job in one of those areas, like the "love your work" pundits advocate? Perhaps. But would they still be passions when I have to do them to obtain basic needs? I certainly don't disparage anyone who has found fulfillment and profit by doing his or her passion. That's an appealing life circumstance. But it doesn't work for everyone, and I appreciated the authors' alternative.
However, I struggled with them on one major point. Their exhortation to be constantly "fishing" for a better job strikes me as somewhat mercenary. Yes, most jobs these days aren't secure, and it would be foolish to pass up a good opportunity. But giving up a good job because another one looks better doesn't always pan out. For example, a number of folks have left my company for what they saw as dream jobs. However, they wound up coming back for their old slot (if it was available, that is). The grass is not always greener, and it seems like they expended a lot of time and energy for little benefit. In addition, constant job jumping would make it difficult to become vested for retirement purposes. A detailed retirement strategy based on the "fishing" methodology would have been appreciated. Plus, I find it hard to believe that one can "have a job offer always in hand." Perhaps that's possible in the clubby executive ranks, but I'm not so sure that's feasible for the rest of us drones. Sometimes old-fashioned persistence and loyalty does pay off, even when things look better elsewhere.
At any rate, "Fire Your Boss" provides a good counterpoint to the plethora of "love your work" books on the market. It provides an alternative occupational strategy for folks who are suspicious of that ideology, and whose passion is anything outside of the workplace. Even those who would like to work in their passion but are unable to do so can benefit from this book. For those reasons, I recommend it.
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