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The hard work of making a living
The unifying theme for this month's column is work, but the term is broadly defined. A lot of choice, opportunity, conflict, change, and just plain worry can fit under the heading of making a living. We'll feature a book on the role of office romances in the 1990s; one on business successes on the Internet; and another on perhaps the biggest workplace pressure-cooker in the capitalist system: the rooms, floors, pits, and exchanges where stocks, bonds, and every imaginable financial instrument are traded. |
REVIEWS BY NEAL LIPSCHUTZ
If nothing else, the re-release of this book proves the value of books that gaze into the future. People in business (or those just looking out for their own careers) have a big stake in anticipating economic and social trends. Those who get in early on seismic changes in technology and social attitudes can often reap huge rewards. Of course, not all predictive tomes are as on-target as this one (which is probably why they aren't being re-released). But predicting the future is a preoccupation of many writers, and even if all else fails, such books are usually fun to read. Warren Bennis, an author and a professor of business administration at the University of Southern California, and Philip Slater, an author and former professor of sociology at Brandeis University, were on the money about two megatrends that have convulsed American business and society. They are the growing impermanence of employment relationships and the democratization of the business and political world. They even wrote this 30 years ago: ". . . there is considerable evidence that autocracy is beginning to decay in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe." It took a while, but how's that for spotting a trend? Why is democracy breaking out in the world and in the workplace? The authors posit that in a world where change becomes the only constant, bureaucracy and autocracy break down. In 1968 they wrote: " . . . democracy in industry is not an idealistic conception but a hard necessity in those areas in which change is ever-present and in which creative scientific enterprise must be nourished. For democracy is the only system of organization that is compatible with perpetual change." Slater makes the interesting case that the American family is uniquely suited for adapting to change. Where parents might find in their growing children a simple lack of respect for their elders, Slater sees a silver lining. He says young people's general lack of commitment to the status quo and their own long-standing heritage help them in a world of technological and social change. Fewer people get tied to the past and rendered unable to go with the flow. Meanwhile, Bennis readily concedes in a foreword to the final chapter that the authors didn't get everything right 30 years ago. He says they came up short on discussing "the shadowy side of change," including the human cost in sense of security and sense of worth. Nor did they foresee the problems of the "underclass" or predict the huge role women now play in the economy and the workplace.
What Is Happening to Business and Family Life in America Under the Impact of Accelerating Change By Warren Bennis and Philip Slater Jossey-Bass, $20 ISBN 0787943312
Powers, a lawyer who also holds an MBA from Harvard University, cites some stunning statistics on the prevalence of workplace romance. He says studies show 25% to 33% of respondents say they at one time or another were in an office romance. Half those romances wind up in marriage or a long-term relationship. Besides the fact of male-female attraction, Powers says office romances so frequently flourish because working side by side lets people with often similar interests get to know each other over a long period of time. Compare working in the same division as someone for a year to a blind date. Also, more people are putting in a tremendous number of hours on the job, leaving them little time to socialize anywhere but the office. Powers tackles the office romance from every conceivable angle. Indeed, he sometimes gets repetitive. He discusses the legal definitions of sexual harassment, the impact of office romances on co-workers, what happens when such romances break up, instances of adultery, and much more in clear, nonjudgmental language. He peppers the book with short, specific vignettes to bring life to the text.
Playing with Fire Without Getting Burned By Dennis M. Powers Amacom, $22.95 ISBN 0814404642
Davis, a former fund manager at Barings Brothers in London, provides an upbeat look at traders, their history, and codes of conduct. She's talked to and profiles a lot of the big names in the trading world and explains how technology has (and will) radically change the workings of markets and, with it, the role of traders.
Inside the Megamoney, High-Tech World of Traders By Hillary Davis HarperBusiness, $27 ISBN 0887319410
(One of the things I learned from the book is this: "hits" are not people. The nomenclature of Web sites is filled with references to how many "hits" a site receives in a month. You'd think that means individuals going to the site. But "hits" relate to the number of files needed to connect you to a site, with text and graphics making up individual "hits." So calling up one home page one time might register any number of "hits" for that site.)
Profiles of 23 Incredibly Successful Websites You've Probably Never Heard Of By Jaclyn Easton McGraw-Hill, $24.95 ISBN 007018724X
New Arrivals: New business books tackle a wide range of topics, from personal finance to a host of management issues. Among the new arrivals on bookstore shelves are The Millionaire Kit: Surprisingly Simple Strategies for Building Real Wealth by Stephen L. Nelson; The Membership Organization: Achieving Top Performance Through the New Workplace Community by Jane Galloway Seiling; When Mothers Work: Loving Our Children Without Sacrificing Ourselves by Joan K. Peters; Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Networking Economy by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian; and The New Management: Bringing Democracy and Markets Inside Organizations by William E. Halal.
Surprisingly Simple Strategies for Building Real Wealth By Stephen L. Nelson Times Books, $29.95 ISBN 0812930045
Achieving Top Performance Through the New Workplace Community By Jane Galloway Seiling Davies-Black Publishing, $27.95 ISBN 089106110X
Loving Our Children Without Sacrificing Ourselves By Joan K. Peters Perseus Books, $12 ISBN 073820028X
A Strategic Guide to the Networking Economy By Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian Harvard Business School Press, $29.95 ISBN 087584863X
Bringing Democracy and Markets Inside Organizations By William E. Halal Berrett-Koehler, $19.95 ISBN 1576750329
Neal Lipschutz is managing editor of Dow Jones News Service.
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A fourth book is about how we work, but it covers much broader ground than that. It's about how we live and the impact of the lack of permanence on our lives. It's really not a new book at all, but it is a new and interesting publishing idea. Here it is in a nutshell: take a book published 30 years ago that was forward-looking and amazingly prescient. Have the authors write a new foreword and new chapter introductions. The title explains the subject matter, and like much else in this intriguing book it reads like it could have been published yesterday, rather than in 1968, when it was actually written. It's called The Temporary Society: What Is Happening to Business and Family Life in America Under the Impact of Accelerating Change by Warren Bennis and Philip Slater.
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All right, back to present tense. Men and women do now work together in every conceivable setting, from office to factory floor to cops walking the beat. One deplorable result of this increased coexistence has been the rise in sexual harassment, which women have suffered in all sorts of occupations and workplace settings. Most companies now have policies in place to combat harassment, and they investigate specific allegations. You might think that all the attention paid to this problem would put a damper on even consensual romantic involvements that start at work. Not so says Dennis M. Powers, author of The Office Romance: Playing with Fire Without Getting Burned. In this thorough and commonsense look at office romance, Powers writes: "It is basic that opposite sexes attract naturally and they've been doing this since history was recorded. The office romance is here to stay, and businesses must accept this fact in a positive way."
Securities markets have been volatile lately (to say the least), worrying people in all walks of life. But that volatility has had the most day-to-day impact on the working lives of the people who populate A Million a Minute: Inside the Megamoney, High-Tech World of Traders by Hillary Davis. Traders are the people in the trenches of our financial markets (including those people in funny-looking jackets screaming at each other in futures trading pits). They may trade for themselves, for the firm they work for, or execute trades for clients. Even in calmer times than these, it's not an occupation for the faint of heart.
Working via the Internet is also work. Some would argue it's the work of the future. Jaclyn Easton, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, offers intriguing insight into the emerging world of online commerce in Striking It Rich.com: Profiles of 23 Incredibly Successful Websites You've Probably Never Heard Of. While it's been claimed that there's not yet a clear business model for the Internet, Easton's subjects simply rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Their e-commerce ventures are not household names and their level of financial disclosure varies, but all are showing significant growth. Their offerings (power tools, perfume, printing services) and sources of revenues (sales, advertising) are all over the map. Easton knows the territory, and these short case studies are highly recommended for anyone contemplating making the plunge to the Web. These early arrivals are doing quite well.