Recovery at Work: Using Twelve Step Principles for Professional Success

The tools I learned in recovery from addiction can help anyone find peace and develop resilience at work.

The principles behind Twelve Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous are simple but profoundly useful for restoring balance and building confidence. Recovery at Work provides practical examples for applying tools to overcome the stress and burnout of daily work life and to build a better career. Twelve Step principles have helped millions of people in recovery, and they can work for anyone.

Dozens of real, personal stories illustrate ways to handle work challenges and conflicts with honesty, humility, hope, compassion, and courage. Examples show how to find your footing—as though you’re walking along a narrow ridge—without overreacting or numbing out.

With practice, you’ll get better at discerning what you can and can’t control at work. You’ll learn to accept what you can’t control and become more skillful at changing what you can control.

Amy Newman retired with emeritus status from teaching management communication at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Before Cornell, Amy had a successful but unfulfilling career in corporate human resources. She is the author of Business Communication and Character (11th ed.) and Building Leadership Character. When not writing, Amy is hiking, kayaking, playing the drums, or at a recovery meeting.