The Opt-out Revolt: Why People Are Leaving Companies to Create Kaleidoscope Careers - Hardcover

Lisa A. Mainiero; Sherry E. Sullivan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 089106186X ISBN 13: 9780891061861

Publisher: Nicholas Brealey, 2006

Synopsis

As never before, workers are searching for a life that is richer, more balanced, authentic, and challenging. And when they find that their needs can't be met in the traditional workplace, they are taking control and walking away. "The Opt-Out Revolt" delivers the facts behind this growing phenomenon: how the universal need for authenticity, balance, and challenge drives career and life decisions for women and men alike; the critical role gender plays in the patterns of today's careerists; what choices women are making and why; how men's priorities differ from women's and how they affect their career paths; and what the best organizations are doing to stem the flow of talent heading out the door. With research data from the authors' five-year study of over 3,000 professional women and men, and co-published with WorldatWork[registered]/Alliance for Work-Life Progress, this one-of-a-kind look at today's workplace profiles hundreds of modern-day trailblazers who have created Kaleidoscope Careers - defined by personal needs, life values, and a new 21st-century definition of success - inside and out of traditional corporate boundaries. Featuring dozens of examples from leading companies that have achieved remarkable success in turning around this threatening "brain drain" trend, this timely book offers a blueprint for designing a workplace that encourages loyalty, retains talent, and, ultimately improves the health and competitiveness of the organization.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Men on the daddy track. Opt-out moms working part-time from home, or not at all. Free agents molding a patchwork of jobs into a consistent paycheck. Recyclers at midlife compeltely changing career direction.

Sure to spark heated watercooler debates, THE OPT-OUT REVOLT exposes the realities of how women and men really think about their careers, their lives, and themselves, and what organizations can do to prevent today's "brain drain" trend from threatening the health and competitiveness of their business. Profiles of courageous individuals and trailblazing companies get to the heart of the challenges and rewards awaiting those who choose to develop Kaleidoscope Careers that don't require sacrificing life balance, authenticity, or challenge in their work.

"THE OPT-OUT REVOLT illuminates what workers want in a career--and the mystery of why employers are not providing enough of it. The authors' kaleidoscope model is a convincing solution that should be embraced by people and companies alike: to let people rearrange the pattern to help them be both productive and fulfilled." --Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor and best-selling author of "Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End"

From the Inside Flap:

A stunning exodus is quietly sweeping across corporate America. Thousands of the country's best and brightest--including growing numbers of stay-at-home dads and women entrepreneurs--are opting out of the high-powered, high-stress rat race. No longer willing to live to work, these trailblazers are developing Kaleidoscope Careers and lifestyles defined by personal needs, life values, and a new definition of success. They are working to live.

THE OPT-OUT REVOLT goes behind the headlines hearlding this remarkable movement to capture the realities of our contemporary workplace. Copublished with WorldatWork(R)/Alliance for Work-Life Progress, it is packed full of personal stories and life lessons garnered from studies of more than 3,000 women and men who have created unique careers within and outside of traditional corporate boundaries.

Authors Mainiero and Sullivan deliver the facts: how the universal need for authenticity, balance, and challenge are driving career and life decisions; what choices women are making and why; how men's priorities differ from those of women and how they affect their career paths; and what the best organizations are doing to stem the flow of talent heading out the door.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 089106186X
• ISBN 13: 9780891061861
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400