Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out On Top at Work - Hardcover

Viscusi, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061713600 ISBN 13: 9780061713606

Publisher: Harper Business, 2008

Synopsis

There's no doubt about it, today's workplace is an uncertain and treacherous territory. Newspaper headlines are proclaiming near record-high levels of unemployment, and, in these tough times, companies are making swift judgments about human capital.

The bottom line: No job is safe.

But there are tried and true ways to fight off sudden unemployment successfully, and the number one weapon in your arsenal is workplace expert and television and radio personality Stephen Viscusi's career manifesto, Bulletproof Your Job. Based on four simple strategies for dodging the layoff bullet and a long list of ways to implement these strategies, Bulletproof Your Job may save you from your worst enemy at work—which just so happens to be you.

Quite simply, observe these imperative rules:

Be visible. Be easy. Be useful. Be ready.

With plenty of distinct action items, dozens of anecdotal illustrations and examples, and lists and tips for adapting bulletproof strategies to your own situation, Bulletproof Your Job will show you how to leverage the black-and-white stuff—your title, salary, and tenure—with the gray stuff—your relationship with coworkers, visibility in the workplace, and ability to make your boss look good—to ward off the pink stuff—the dreaded layoff notice. While you're at it, you'll be creating a long-term strategy for job security and career advancement that ensures you'll never feel this vulnerable again.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen Viscusi is an author, columnist and radio talk show host in the workplace genre. Viscusi is the author of two books in the workplace genre; his new HarperCollins' book is Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out On Top at Work. Charles Gibson of ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" calls Viscusi "America's Workplace Guru." Viscusi is a frequent contributor on the morning show circuit and NPR's "Talk of the Nation." Viscusi began his own career as a headhunter and is still involved as a consultant in executive search.

From the Back Cover

There's no doubt about it, today's workplace is an uncertain and treacherous territory. Newspaper headlines are proclaiming near record-high levels of unemployment, and, in these tough times, companies are making swift judgments about human capital.

The bottom line: No job is safe.

But there are tried and true ways to fight off sudden unemployment successfully, and the number one weapon in your arsenal is workplace expert and television and radio personality Stephen Viscusi's career manifesto, Bulletproof Your Job. Based on four simple strategies for dodging the layoff bullet and a long list of ways to implement these strategies, Bulletproof Your Job may save you from your worst enemy at work—which just so happens to be you.

Quite simply, observe these imperative rules:

Be visible. Be easy. Be useful. Be ready.

With plenty of distinct action items, dozens of anecdotal illustrations and examples, and lists and tips for adapting bulletproof strategies to your own situation, Bulletproof Your Job will show you how to leverage the black-and-white stuff—your title, salary, and tenure—with the gray stuff—your relationship with coworkers, visibility in the workplace, and ability to make your boss look good—to ward off the pink stuff—the dreaded layoff notice. While you're at it, you'll be creating a long-term strategy for job security and career advancement that ensures you'll never feel this vulnerable again.

Reviews

For office workers fearful of the next headcount reduction, Viscusi offers a sound strategy for surviving to work another day. A workplace and career specialist and executive headhunter, Viscusi explains with authority how executives facing staff reductions make their decisions. The 50 tactics he offers are intended to bulletproof a job, but they are also the same tactics that make one a valuable employee and enhance one's attractiveness to prospective headhunters and new employers-keeping resumes current, stashing away cash and knowing how to interview well. Viscusi groups his strategies into four categories: being more visible, being easy to work with, being useful and being ready, and his tips stick close to the tried-and-true (dress for success, spell-check emails, keep friends close and enemies closer). While those new to the working world will benefit the most from the advice, office veterans will receive a useful reminder that the little things-like body language and elevator pleasantries-go a long way to generating well-regard from higher ups intent on cutting staff.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

There’s a tendency to scoff at all the work advice being offered, whether to recent college grads or to seasoned executives, including “look the part,” “details are important,” and “don’t make waves.” In this age of economic turbulence, headhunter-author (On the Job: How to Make It in the Real World of Work, 2001) Viscusi puts truth behind those clichés—and turns his four bulletproof strategies into a memorable mantra: be visible, be easy, be useful, be ready. Of course, in back of each of the four are a series of 50 tactics in total, all with proof-positive facts delivered via sidebars, such as “just so you know” and “true story” examples. Eat at your desk? Not a chance—move to the dining area. Unclear about the how-to’s of a new task or position? Pick a mentor. Common sense infuses every chapter, as does the author’s extraordinary attention to readability, including short paragraphs, millennial language, headlines that grab you, bullets, and final summaries. Your job is your most valuable asset, he says. So, too, might be this book. --Barbara Jacobs

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061713600
• ISBN 13: 9780061713606
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192