World Famous Comics: Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person
Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person
By: Barrie S. Jaeger Publisher: McGraw-Hill Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: McGraw-Hill Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 256 Publication Date: April 14, 2005
This book builds on Elaine Aron's groundbreaking bestseller The Highly Sensitive Person to offer you proven strategies that help you make your extreme sensitivity an asset in the workplace. You will get guidance on stress management, boundary setting, dealing with abusive coworkers, and more. And you will learn how to experience work in a way that is emotionally gratifying as well as financially rewarding.
Valuable book with some great insights I have read this book through twice in the past year, and I came away from it with some valuable insights both about work and myself. That said, this book is by no means a "how-to". Jaeger presumes that the reader knows her/himself well and will use that self-knowledge to work toward creating employment that is an extension of that self. And yes, it is a process.
I liked Jaeger's divisions of work as falling into either drudgery, craft, or calling (although even she admits that it can sometimes be a combination of all three, depending on what the work entails). Reading her definitions for each term, I realized that the job I had stayed at for way too long had started out as craft and devolved into drudgery as management changed and I eventually became bored with what had once been new. So these terms, while maybe a little simplistic and general, are helpful guides in looking at one's work.
I loved her discussion of HSP intensity and how this intensity in and of itself is a stressor, so we need to take this into account in our lives. She suggests strategies for allowing this intensity enhance your life rather than letting it take you into a downward spiral (i.e., this job sucks and I'll be here forever, I'm totally trapped!!).
I also liked her suggestions on "Being Visible as an HSP." She points out that we do need to make ourselves visible, but we can do that in a way that feels comfortable to us, by giving others "quality information" about ourselves as we choose to reveal it.
What's not great about the book is the way Jaeger can come off as a bit elitist when it comes to people doing "drudgery" jobs (sample heading -- "The Maid with an MSW Degree"). She makes an important point that it's not the best idea for HSPS to take "menial" part-time work in order to keep from being overstimulated -- that such jobs usually come with a large downside -- but I would have to counter that there are times in people's lives where such a job may be not only necessary but helpful, for a while. The key is to remove yourself from it when it starts getting bad, something that can be difficult for HSPs (and everyone at times).
The book also seems a little bit scattered in the way it's written -- some sections don't seem very cohesive or even coherent -- and there are numerous grammatical and copyediting errors throughout which shouldn't have been hard to catch!
All in all this is a valuable, worthwhile read and I particularly like her idea that as we develop in who we are, we "grow our Calling toward us." (We may not be ready for Calling work right now.) But this is definitely not a book to tell you step-by-step how to get that "dream job." And that's certainly not a fault of the book.
My context on this book: I'd like to add a bit of context to the reviews of this book.
This book will not "get" you into a great job; that's magical thinking. Nor will it "offer personalised steps", which is personalising what is, frankly, an impersonal workplace mainly located at the level of Craft.
Now, to what this book DOES do: it proposes three containers for working energies: Drudgery, Craft, and Calling. These are powerful insights into the modes of nature; for me they reflect the deep dynamic qualities of nature (in Indian Ayurveda they are called Tamas, Rajas, and Sattva). But she goes a step further by unfolding the essence of these work energies as not something you do or say or work as, but as something you ARE.
So the shift she is teaching about is inner, through reflection. There are no practical steps except the willingness to be open and ready to grow within, and to admit to being where you are at present.
For instance, a highly sensitive soul who is stuck in the Island of Drudgery is first and foremost stuck in desires and fears that reflect Drudgery. Introspection, inspiration, and surrendering one's preconcieved perceptions seem to be the way out. There are no steps.
Calling and Craft are presented for me in a powerful, moving and inspirational way. I really recommend this book for its liberating conversation on the truth of Calling, the prevailing wind of inspiration in human history.
However, when it comes to Craft, I would have preferred to have more examples of both and images of both. I didn't get the sense of closure that comes from complete comprehension from multiple examples.
I liked the heightened emotive diction of the interviews with highly sensitive souls, especially Tom the economics professor who spoke about the role of spiritual values in Calling. They encouraged thoughtful moral reflection on how one uses life energy and fulfillment. But without a questioning heart in the reader, I doubt they would strike a chord frankly!
This book should be taken as a challenge to one's preconceptions about stress and sensitivity. Within the context of being a HSP it is an important, inspirational, and subtle contribution. I would enjoy seeing a Workbook, perhaps developed from actual field work, using this material.
Decent discussion of HSP, but not for all HSPs I actually am impressed with Barrie's book. For those obsessed with the MBTI she looks like an INFJ to me (and it comes across in her writing as well). The book is very reassuring for highly sensitive people. The reason the book earns four stars and not five is because Barrie essentially wrote it for herself and highly sensitive people (hereafter HSP) like her, which I think is a fair criticism. I like the book and might give it four and a half stars, but it deserves four stars rather than five.
Barrie really hits the mark with the way the book is organized. I like the way she divides work for HSPs into three categories: drudgery, craft, and calling. She also reveals the problems that most HSPs face in life and the workplace and gives helpful advice for dealing with stress, being visible in the workplace, and finding a way to make a contribution to the world via fulfilling work. It's definitely idealistic (again, see Keirsey et al), which is fine with me. If all the book gives is hope it's a lot more than many people started with.
Whether all HSPs can effectively use the book is another matter. I was unenthused about Barrie's model of drudgery/craft/calling (she uses a container with the three levels aforementioned and "balls" representing people, job tasks, and work conditions). The issue is not whether the model effectively represents reality - it does. The reader may or may not be able to effectively translate it to their own reality to improve his or her situation. At least it can be used to help identify bad working conditions or bad situations at work. I also found many other ideas in the book to be quite useful in theory but perhaps difficult to translate into reality effectively. Then again, it's not Barrie's responsibility to do so, it's the reader's. You may also find some of the ideas and suggestions more relevant than I did (which again alludes to the fact that I think Barrie wrote it for a segment of the HSP population).
All in all, the book is worthwhile since Barrie is able to effectively communicate problems and innate conditions that prevent some HSPs from enjoying life fully. Her personal, thoughtful approach and keen insights make the book a worthwhile read. econ
Affirming but does not work I so looked forward to getting this book - it's title set an expectation that it may reveal some action(s) to be taken on the path to career fulfillment. It was scattered and a bit shallow, leaving it hard to believe the author "owned" the knowledge claiming to be shared. There were quite a few affirming lines, little new information about being highly sensitive, and no solutions to follow up the conclusions drawn. I found the writing ruminating at times and missing the self discipline and focus that is touted as necessary to make work work. I'm sorely disappointed and would not recommend it to anyone who's in a poor work state or in transition - this book simply observes what it is like to be there and doesn't offer much to help you out.
Another naive book kills the hopes of work abused... I'm an HSP who can [at least currently] not work due to having been a former physical/psychological torture victim at my work-setting at the hands of a boss [for about 2 yrs; almost being killed, even] who finally was arrested & who is now certifiably labeled an "anti-social personality."
As a result of of the torture I endured, I'm physically [in a wheelchair & have an implanted morphine pump] and emotionally severe PTSD] disabled [8 years now].
I read through this book, hoping to find a glimmer of hope for someone in my situation to be able to work, again.
I found nothing encouraging. [I agree with "Karen's review" from June 29, 2004]. Sure it would be great if we could all work together or magically switch to those almost non-existent positive for the worker companies. They don't even exist, except of course if you work for yourself--usually in a job involved in creativity.
The book suddenly started to remind me of the extreme naiivete of an author I used to know--Chauncey Hare. Hare, the self-proclaimed expert on and champion of the work abuse victim & co-author of "Work Abuse: How to Recognize and Survive It."
Then, I realized that when author Barrie S. Jaeger quoted Hare and his wife Judy Wyatt as the essentially the first pioneers in work abuse knowledge & expertise, I wondered if this book wasn't spawned by either reading Hare's book "Work Abuse: How to Recognize it..." or if Jaeger knew or perhaps interviewed Hare & Wyatt--the dynamic duo of alleged work abuse heros.
Ironically, a quote on "Making Work Work...", pp. 83-4 mentions how Hare [& Wyatt] consider "abusive bullying and 'mobbing'" -- H&W's definition of "work abuse -- that such changes can basically change a good/"effective" worker into a "difficult" person [worker] -- the end results of what is work abuse.
As for the only essential solution being: getting a job as a self-employed worker; this is not a viable solution to most. Sure, if you are allegedly creative and maybe can write--that might be an option.
[Note: As an aside, in an interview-story I did with Hare that had appeared on Tim Field's "bully on site [of the UK] pages," [my story "ironically" was "killed" after Hare & I had a falling out]. In short, one of my piece's themes dealt with how Hare claimed he was disablingly work abused. Thus he, also, became self-employed as a therapist/author for the work abused. The problem is, though, in our communications Hare revealed to me some discouraging deliberately published falsehoods in his own work-abuse book a case study altered so "readers would believe it."
My point is: After reading through Jaeger's book I couldn't trust the book's info at all, since it quoted as a source a propagator of lies.
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