Review: O, brave new TempWorld

Moses describes how the sphere of work has become the environment she calls TempWorld. It's a place where job security has gone the route of typewriters and carbon paper; where change is constant and workers are -- or will be -- free agents, changing jobs like pro athletes switch teams.

"In TempWorld there is no tolerance for error, no protection for a job less well done," Moses writes. "Social Darwinism is at work, and competition for resources is fierce."

Yikes. Sounds like a scary place. But Moses argues that this also is an exciting time for workers. Because of this fluidity in the workplace, individuals are on a more equal footing within an organization and less apt to feel "owned," she writes.

She sees more opportunities now for people to wear a number of different hats within an organization rather than following a rigid career path as was the case in the old days.

Idiosyncrasy and uncertainty

The office culture should lose some rigidity, too, Moses writes. The way workers dress and the design of their offices is more likely to reflect the nature of their work and their own personalities.

Still, there's the matter of job security, or lack of it. To cope with this uncertainty, Moses asserts that workers must learn to become "career activists."

Life in time of work

It's not just rank-and-file workers who must cope with a rapidly changing workplace. The challenges can be just as daunting for managers. Moses suggests they incorporate 10 strategies aimed at keeping the troops happy and productive.

Among her recommendations: Provide skill-building opportunities, sabbaticals, career planning, mentoring and flexible benefits. She also proposes that managers try to give employees a sense of ownership of the projects on which they work.

Barbara Moses

"If you allow staff to own a project, you must trust in their capacity and avoid micromanagement," Moses writes. "Be there to provide support when needed, but don't force yourself into the picture."

Smart employers also will create "life-friendly" environments that enable workers to do their jobs without sacrificing their personal lives, Moses says.

And they'll provide coaching and mentoring to employees looking for guidance with career paths and other work-related issues.

Some managers find the idea of being a coach as distasteful as an employee work stoppage, but anticipating this, Moses anticipates and shoots down every argument they may raise. And she poses typical questions workers may ask and gives guidance to managers on how to respond.

Generation gaffe

"The Good News About Careers" also addresses complaints that Generation-X and baby boomer workers have about each other. Moses has chapters of imaginary but believable diatribes that might be issued by people from each demographic group.

She follows with a chapter from a fictional worker, age 35, who's fed up with the whining of both the boomers and the X-ers: "We're the real Generation X -- the anonymous generation nobody notices or cares about, with no identity of our own."

She even offers advice on how to make working life better for children. She urges parents not to pressure kids prematurely into deciding what they want to be when they grow up, or steering them into programs aimed at getting a head start on a particular occupation.

Instead, she suggests that parents encourage their children to know themselves and what they do well, and promote their self-esteem and emotional resilience -- traits that will serve them well later in a volatile work force.

Moses also cautions against ranting in front of your kids about the raise or promotion you didn't get, or about the buffoons with whom you work. "Parents who are frustrated ... who never share their joys or satisfactions but only their day-to-day irritations, have a profound impact on their children's long-term beliefs and feelings about work," Moses writes.

In "The Good News About Careers," Moses provides tools to help people minimize those irritations in the first place.