Customer Reviews

Losing Your Job-Reclaiming Your Soul : Stories of Resilience, Renewal, and Hope (Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series)

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Ms. Pulley has written a very useful treatise on resilience in the context of the workplace. She very succintly brings out the feelings and emotions that a person who has lost his/her job involuntarily feels and experiences. Her ideas and thoughts based on her interviews with people who have gone through the "trough" would make an invaluable contribution to those who are on their path to recovery and more importantly success on their terms. Though the book is written based on the American experience, I am of the opinion that it is applicable anywhere in the world. For those who live under the threat of likely loss of their job involuntarily, this book would be useful in understanding the feelings that you may be encountering.This book could even be a road-map to move-on and re-define yourself, discover a new dimension of success and of course, get on with re-building and living a more meaningful life in which you will find satisfaction and happiness in.

If you have lost your job involuntarily, think you may be on the bubble or are just questioning your whole approach and understanding of the work-a-day world, you should read this book! I lost my job in August of 2002 after returning from a very successful 3-year assignment in London. I was devastated, how could I be treated this way. I thought if you showed up and did a great job, you were in for life. Boy was I wrong! I came across this book recommended by an author of a paperback called The Lay-Off Survival Guide.

I won't say this book changed my life (I am not sure a book can really do that) but it certainly changed the way I think about work and my own skills - forever! I realized that there are lots of people out there struggling with the same issues and lots of people going through their daily routines and feeling unfulfilled. I also realized that I had the power to change that about my life.

I find Mrs. Pulley's balance of personal interviews and research as well as reference work of other authors, psychologists, and philosophers to lend credibility, believability and inspiration to this book.

When someone asks you, "so, who are you?" and your answer starts with "I'm a manager of... or I work for..." then YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!

I have now left big corporate America and am working in a 3-person start-up software company. I don't think I could ever go back to the other life. Thank you Mary Lynn Pulley for helping me transform!

I picked up this book with some skepticism after losing a job, but found that I could not put it down! And after finishing it, I went out and got a temp job in ONE DAY which I still have -- and have been asked to stay on. It is excellent as practical as well as philosophical support for anyone seeking to improve his or her resilience in a crisis. Instead of despair Pulley and Deal offer hope.

In the past few years I've had a series of what I considered negative career experiences. I started out many years ago to be a teacher, but (due to an impossible job market) made a lateral move into a business career in which I'm using the same skills. But I kept on teaching part-time because I felt that was what I "should" be doing. Then I had a series of Classes From Hell that left me psychologically bruised and burned out, and finally, feeling utterly defeated, I quit teaching. A short time later, after years of working as an independent contractor, I took a "permanent" job that turned out to be a serious mistake: it was demanding but narrow in scope, so I was exhausted and bored at the same time; I did a mediocre job and eventually was laid off. I picked up Pulley's book just when I was in my worst "I'm a failure at everything" depressed state. It helped me realize that, on some level, I knew better all along: I went into teaching because of family expectations, and although I'm moderately good at it I was always uncomfortable as a teacher. Likewise, I felt I shouldn't turn down a permanent job because it was "secure" (the Depression-era mentality of my parents!), and, although it was patently wrong for me, I was afraid to quit for the same reason. The collapse of both jobs caused me to question all these assumptions. And Pulley's book helped me to realize that this FREED me to consider what I really wanted to do and what was most important to me in life. A very helpful book for anyone who has been laid off, or who feels he/she might be.

There are not many books that I stay up until 2:00am reading, but this is one of them. I was laid of, from a merger/aquisition, after working for the "company" for 10 years. I felt betrayed, I had no loyalty, and I was depressed ! Finding my resilance and takeing the "lessons" from each of the chapters got me through a tough time in my life. The bibliography was accurate and easy to follow. I even learned that "Pandora's Box did not release "HOPE"" from all the evils in the in famous Pandoras' box. One last not I also bought audio cassette of Sara Hickman's "Necessary Angels" when I had no income... not a wise decision you might say ?....wrong Ed Mc Mann....This was one of the best purchases I made when I needed a lift in my sprirts....what am I doing today.... I have started a new home based business, from my skills and past experiences. I may go back to "work" if the right "offer" come to me. I have also gotten involved in a small business group at my church....(sprituality).... I would rate this book right up there with WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE for people who have had an "involuntary job loss". I have also read William Bridges books on transitions which is also referenced in this book !

Although technically this book is now fourteen (14) years old (copyrighted in 1997), it presents universal truths that are applicable now as they were years ago. I think of Chapter 1 where the author describes the historic concept of loyalty to organizations which "was rewarded with watches, medallions and company dinners. Out of this grew the ...understanding between workers and organizations that is now coming apart at the seams--the belief that hard work and loyalty will be exchanged for promotions and job security." The author goes on to write in Chapter 2 Broken Dreams that "many of us grew up believing that if we worked hard and were loyal to a company, then we would be rewarded with job security and advancement. Many of us are now realizing that this belief no longer holds true...For many of us, our companies have become the organizing feature of our life. When this connection disappears it becomes a profound loss ....when we leave ... we no longer know who we are." In this same chapter the author uses the example of Stan, a man she interviewed who lost his job after twenty years with the same company who realized: "...the company that I was working for and I thought I would work for until I retired had totally changed. And I wasn't going to be there to end my career with them, The biggest thing that I had to get accusomed to was being a commodity. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that labor is a commodity. They'll use you as long as they need you and then they'll let you go." The author, however, warns us AGAINST this very way of thinking. She claims that the biggest danger IS when we begin "to calculate our own sense of value based on what we are worth in the marketplace".

Fast forward to Chapter 15 Transplanting Security where the author educates us by telling us "we can no longer think in terms of job security. Placing our sense of security in having a job with a particular organization is like building a house on sand....In the future few of us will have a career that follows a linear path within a single organization...work will increasingly be organized by assignments that last a year or two, rather than as long-term jobs with titles. This shifts the burden of responsibility for defining a career path back to the individual." In this chapter the author then moves onto the concept of resilience or the "acquiring skills and strengths so can that we can move through periods of chaos and reintegration throughout our lives. The INABILITY to do this is what leave us as crippled." So this is what life coaches mean when they talk about "reinventing" yourself? The author ends the chapter by defining transplanting security as meaning to "stop thinking of a particular job as our source of security and cultivate various sources of security, both material and nonmaterial. We weave all of these into a network that provides us with some sense of safety and support. Relationships with others is the factor people mentioned most often when asked what helped through through their job loss and transition. Yet security also lies within the self. It is rooted in confidence and faith."

I have read a number of books on job loss which is often followed by long term unemployment. "Much of the literature on job loss" the author admits "emphasizes the loss." I agree with her, however, that the grieving that comes with job loss is only one part of a cycle that involves the symbolic death of one identity, role or set of expectations but then with transformation rebirth can take place in another form. However painful this kind of death is, after allowing ourselves to experience it, we CAN indeed move on. This is what this book is about to me. It provides the person who has lost their job and may be having trouble redefining themselves in a new one with the hope that all is not lost--it is simply going on to a changed, new and improved state of reality. This book has to be the best book I have read thus far on making sense of job loss and long term uenmployment. I would strongly recommend it.