A husband-and-wife team shares tips on having a satisfying career but still finding time for life beyond the office in this debut business guide.
Today’s workplace remains seriously stressful, but the “karmic corporate employee” will “smile inwardly”—yet still effectively deal with the often “cartoon antics.” That’s the mantra put forth by William, the pen name for a husband and wife with a total of more than 40 years of government and corporate experience, including posts in Brussels. In this guide, the couple offer a narrative that includes some 50-plus tips to “apply the karmic brakes slightly earlier than we did.” They particularly focus on handling the “Scrappy-Doo syndrome” that runs rampant in organizations to “work hard all of the time, battle for everything” in an insatiable pursuit of the next “cookie” of praise from superiors. While the authors acknowledge the need to become “scrappy” during the early days on a new job, they provide many suggestions on how an employee can strive for balance and calm thereafter. These tidbits include sending release-valve rants to a private email, perhaps even during meetings, “a vortex from which few manage to escape.” The authors also supply hints on influencing bosses (try pinging these busy types on Sunday mornings; never surprise them with ideas at meetings), dealing with party receptions (stay near the door and leave early), and more. The couple underscore that there is workplace value in a “karmic jazz” slowdown, as it leads to carefully thought-out “landing zone” solutions to problems rather than the fast-moving progress often demanded by “scrappies.” These hilarious authors, who note they are “pretty sure that we are not the only household on the planet that is trying to juggle family responsibilities, corporate realities and the wish not to forget how to have fun,” present inspiring tactical advice to attain better Zen mastery over a career. Their humorous narrative is hugely enjoyable, with their clever commentary including pokes at a certain wealthy businessman-turned-politician, which may not please all readers (“Now it’s just possible that you could try to model your own ego on that of Donald Trump, but why on earth would you want to?”). But overall, this duo delivers an engaging and transformative perspective on achieving a job and life balance.
Amusing—and motivating—advice on managing workplace stress.Pub Date: April 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5309-5954-9
Page Count: 138
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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