Jobshift: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs [Hardcover]

William Bridges (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994

Many companies are currently engaged in downsizing--which translates into many employees being "de-jobbed". The author of Transitions shows readers how to prosper and even thrive in this environment, as businesses continue this trend.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Business consultant Bridges (Managing Transitions, Addison-Wesley, 1991) has written an engaging and challenging book outlining how the changing nature of work will dramatically alter how we do our jobs. He persuasively argues that the present information-based economy demands more flexible employment models than a manufacturing-based economy. Bridges states that the emerging economy will not require a set pattern of work from individuals (i.e., a job) but sets of complex tasks, requiring different sets of skills at different times. He uses highly detailed statistics to buttress his arguments. His book is especially strong on the psychological implications of the changing economy, though it might have benefited from charts and graphs illustrating employment trends, such as those used in William Johnston's Workforce 2000 (Hudson Institute, 1987). Recommended for general and business collections.
M. Uri Toch, P.L. of Cincinnati & Hamilton Cty.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Forget Bolles' What Color Is Your Parachute? Ignore terms like r{‚}esum{‚}es and jobs. Because if consultant Bridges is right--and we more than suspect that he is--there's a brave new world of work waiting. About one-third of his book is spent persuading readers that jobs are disappearing for good; weekly statistics in the Wall Street Journal alone underscore that. The rest of his advice makes such good sense that every librarian, every career counselor, and every human resources executive needs to seriously consider promoting his teachings in some form. Will Americans listen? Maybe when the toll of downsizing and reengineering business doesn't stop. Practical and philosophical words of wisdom. Barbara Jacobs

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 257 pages
• Publisher: Perseus Books (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201626675
• ISBN-13: 978-0201626674
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,339,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Bridges is an internationally known speaker, author, and consultant who advises individuals and organizations in how to deal productively with change. His ten books include an expanded third edition of his best-seller, Managing Transitions (2009), and the updated second edition of Transitions (2004), which together have sold over one million copies. Before that he published The Way of Transition (2000), a partly autobiographical study of coming to terms with profound changes in his own life and transforming them into times of self-renewal. He published Creating You & Co., a handbook for creating a work-life that capitalizes on today's frequent and disruptive changes, and the ground-breaking Jobshift.

For three decades, he has guided thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations through the maze of the transitions that accompany change. He focuses on the Transition, or psychological reorientation, people must go through to come to terms with changes in their lives. His three-phase model of Endings, Neutral Zone and New Beginnings is widely known. The professional seminars that he launched in 1988 have now certified more than 5,000 managers, trainers and consultants worldwide to conduct Transition Management programs. His later work has focused on bringing the principles of Transition Management into the non-profit world. He has been a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and corporate meetings in the United States and abroad.

Educated originally in the humanities at Harvard, Columbia, and Brown Universities, he was (until his own career change in 1974) a professor of American Literature at Mills College, Oakland, CA. He is a past president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. The Wall Street Journal listed him as one of the top ten independent executive development presenters in America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A management guru's formula for success in the job market., October 2, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Jobshift: How To Prosper In A Workplace Without Jobs (Paperback)

I strongly recommend this book for those feeling overwhelmed by the current challenges in the job market. Bridges wrote the best-sellers "Transitions" and "Managing Transitions," and when not authoring has been a management guru for a couple decades. "Job Shift" serves as a primer for managing your own career in what he views as a fundamentally new career marketplace.

The main thesis of his latest book is that our country, and indeed our
world, is currently in the midst of the Second Great Job Shift. The first
was caused by the Industrial Revolution, when people transitioned from
village life to urbania. Along with this shift came a redefinition of the
very meaning of the word, "job." In the village, it meant a task or
project, generally of finite duration and paid fee-for-service if paid at
all. (The etymology of the word "job" apparently goes back to "hauling
dung.") In the Industrial Age, a "job" was actually a position in the hierarchy of a company, with a clearly-defined set of responsibilities and paid a salary. As long as one stayed properly within the confines of the job description, one could count on advancement up the organizational ladder.

The current Second Great Job Shift, according to Bridges, is the Death of the Job, at least as it has been defined for the past two hundred years.
The Information Age is forcing companies to move and respond more quickly to shifts in markets while at the same time allowing increased automation of information processing. Companies are replacing the traditional corporate structure with project-oriented organization. People are assigned to projects, and performance is evaluated based on the project's outcome, not on how well one fits into some job description.

Bridges has recommendations for individuals, companies, and even
governments for addressing and dealing with this Job Shift. While I'm not entirely convinced that I agree with all of Bridges' vision, his argument is extremely powerful and thought-provoking. It is certainly a different approach than I've encountered in other job
search books, and has a certain appeal just on that basis. I highly recommend
it as a well-written source of ideas for anyone in the job market, even those who are happily employed. Instead of telling you how to write a resume or shine in an interview, Bridges looks at the overall job environment, and offers general advice on the mentality and approach needed to advance yourself. Reading this book in close conjunction with Bolles' classic "What Color is Your Parachute?" is a frightening, exciting, and empowering experience. Whether you end up agreeing and taking Bridges' advice or not, I think it is always helpful to get exposed to another way of viewing a problem.

[Longer versions of this review have been previously submitted by the author to the Young Scientists' Network and Network for Emerging Scientists' online discussion forums.]

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stimulating glimpse of the future, May 6, 1998

By 

P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jobshift: How To Prosper In A Workplace Without Jobs (Paperback)

In the era of downsizing and mergers, one hears far too many people bewailing what we've "lost": job security, well-defined career paths, companies that feel responsible for the people who work for them, employee loyalty. Bridges offers a more positive perspective: "work" as we conceive of it was an artifact of the Industrial Revolution, with its view of workers as cogs in a machine; and, as that rigid structure gradually disappears, so will our present concept of "jobs" and "careers."
This was one of the first ripples in what has become a massive wave of books on the changing business world, including recent examples like "Blur" -- but it's refreshing, easy to read, and can change your whole view of what "work" entails. I think it's especially important for young people still in school to read it: don't waste your efforts preparing for a traditional "career" that may not be there five years after you graduate; focus on developing your talents, your skills, and your entrepreneurial spirit instead, because those are what will be worth the most to you in the future.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yesterday never really mattered tomorrow never really came, January 18, 2003

By 

Junglies (Morrisville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Jobshift: How To Prosper In A Workplace Without Jobs (Paperback)

I first read this book some seven years ago as a text for a class intended to help graduating students prepare themselves for the world of work. Interestingly one of those graduates was intending to work in a start up business with digital cameras which he believed would emerge as the dominant force in the picture business. Probably telling the future is not a good business to be in.

Here in Northern New Jersey everyone knew, and still knows, all about downsizing and organizational flattening and outsourcing. Since the collapse of the tech-bubble, many of those independent contractors are now looking for work and escaping the computer field alltogether in the face of falling wage rates, excess supply and new entrants from college who expect a lot less!

Revisiting this book gives one the opportunity to rexamine it's claims and, not surprisingly, finds them lacking. To be fair, much of what the originator describes has come to pass but not in the way that he suggests.

The main lesson that I come away with from this book is that markets are so powerful that the competitive environment determines the shape of the organization. Obviously, some would say but this is only half of the story. Combine the power of markets which is, after all, only the result of individuals exercising choices, with a proactive government and you get a pretty unstoppable force. If the dollar is high then imports are [inexpensive] as compared to domestic goods which puts intense competitive pressure on companies who then must cut costs. Add to the mix a policy of a free trade area as NAFTA and a competitive labor market and there is even more pressure on costs. Finally have a boyant stock market and increased wealth and you have lots of venture capital looking for profit. The result, falling unemployment with little inflation and downward intense pressure on costs leading to more business. The picture is muddied somewhat by rising benefits costs but they become a force against rising costs too,

What I am describing is the pressure on business to focus on their core activities and float off internal activities which can be done by service companies contracted for the purpose. Wage bill too high - make workers contractors who then have to pay for their own benefits or better still get the states to introduce basic minimum health care schemes.

This nirvana of the dejobbed economy never really existed. Sure there are more small businesses and self-employed, sure there is more flexibility among the workforce but there is also compulsion, workfare, for the unemployed as well as the requirement for many families to work two, three or more jobs to make ends meet.

Hayek the Nobel prizewinner foresaw the person described in this book many years ago as did his mentor Mises. To be successful they argued the individual must market themselves as a self-entrepreneur. Very true.

This book is an excellent description of a possible future in the light of developments in business at the time. The author is to be commended for the clarity of his thought and exposition. However, he ignores the bigger picture and the implications of a global economy and powerful, interventionist governments. Perhaps he would like to write an update to this book in the light of the events of the last seven years.