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Diary of a Company Man: Losing A Job, Finding A Life
James S. Kunen—author of The Strawberry
Statement, an account of the 1968 student
uprising at Columbia University—chronicles
his adventures on the road to finding meaning
in work and life. He traces his evolution from
a rebellious youth who sees working as a kind
of death, to a laid-off corporate executive who
experiences not working as a kind of death,
to a reinvented and reinvigorated individual
who discovers something important and
meaningful to do.
The experience of falling victim to America’s
recession-ravaged economy (and the people
who run it) leads him along a career path far
different from anything he had planned. After
years of making a living, Kunen finally learns
how to make a life. Diary of a Company Man
will be a revelation not only to baby boomers
but to young people trying to figure out what
to do with their lives.
Statement, an account of the 1968 student
uprising at Columbia University—chronicles
his adventures on the road to finding meaning
in work and life. He traces his evolution from
a rebellious youth who sees working as a kind
of death, to a laid-off corporate executive who
experiences not working as a kind of death,
to a reinvented and reinvigorated individual
who discovers something important and
meaningful to do.
The experience of falling victim to America’s
recession-ravaged economy (and the people
who run it) leads him along a career path far
different from anything he had planned. After
years of making a living, Kunen finally learns
how to make a life. Diary of a Company Man
will be a revelation not only to baby boomers
but to young people trying to figure out what
to do with their lives.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published December 23, 2011
About the author
James S. Kunen
6 books13 followersJames S. Kunen is the author of popular and critically praised books that grapple with legal and political issues in a personal way. A prize-winning journalist, he is best known for his 1968 memoir, The Strawberry Statement: Notes of a College Revolutionary—his account of the antiwar student strike at Columbia. It has been translated into four languages and widely used in college history and writing courses. MGM’s film version of the book won the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.
Graduating from Columbia in 1970, Kunen was sent to Vietnam by True magazine to write a series of articles, which led to his book Standard Operating Procedure: Notes of a Draft-Age American (1971).
After working as a freelance journalist, Kunen earned his juris doctor degree from the New York University School of Law and joined the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C., where he moved from misdemeanor cases to representing people accused of serious crimes, including murder. He recounted his experiences in ‘How Can You Defend Those People?’: The Making of a Criminal Lawyer (1983).
Returning to journalism, Kunen worked as an op-ed editor for Newsday, a contributing writer for Time magazine, and a featured writer and senior editor for news at People magazine, where he reported and wrote cover stories on Donald Trump, Tawana Brawley and Abbie Hoffman, among others. His reporting on a tragic school-bus crash led him to write a book, Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash (1994).
Kunen left People in 2000 to serve as a director of corporate communications at Time Warner Inc. in New York City, where, among other things, his job was to maintain employee morale during the company’s merger with AOL and the rounds of layoffs that followed. In 2008, after being laid off himself, he embarked on a search for meaningful work that led him to his current position teaching English as a Second Language at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, N.Y. He describes the journey from corporate PR man to teacher of immigrants in his new memoir, Diary of a Company Man: Losing a Job, Finding a Life.
Kunen’s Time magazine cover story on the resegregation of America’s schools won him a First Place in Features award from the New York Association of Black Journalists and an award for reporting in education from Unity Awards in Media. As a freelance writer, he has written for The Atlantic, Esquire, GQ, Harper’s, New York, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, and other leading publications. He was a columnist for a national magazine, New Times.
Graduating from Columbia in 1970, Kunen was sent to Vietnam by True magazine to write a series of articles, which led to his book Standard Operating Procedure: Notes of a Draft-Age American (1971).
After working as a freelance journalist, Kunen earned his juris doctor degree from the New York University School of Law and joined the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C., where he moved from misdemeanor cases to representing people accused of serious crimes, including murder. He recounted his experiences in ‘How Can You Defend Those People?’: The Making of a Criminal Lawyer (1983).
Returning to journalism, Kunen worked as an op-ed editor for Newsday, a contributing writer for Time magazine, and a featured writer and senior editor for news at People magazine, where he reported and wrote cover stories on Donald Trump, Tawana Brawley and Abbie Hoffman, among others. His reporting on a tragic school-bus crash led him to write a book, Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash (1994).
Kunen left People in 2000 to serve as a director of corporate communications at Time Warner Inc. in New York City, where, among other things, his job was to maintain employee morale during the company’s merger with AOL and the rounds of layoffs that followed. In 2008, after being laid off himself, he embarked on a search for meaningful work that led him to his current position teaching English as a Second Language at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, N.Y. He describes the journey from corporate PR man to teacher of immigrants in his new memoir, Diary of a Company Man: Losing a Job, Finding a Life.
Kunen’s Time magazine cover story on the resegregation of America’s schools won him a First Place in Features award from the New York Association of Black Journalists and an award for reporting in education from Unity Awards in Media. As a freelance writer, he has written for The Atlantic, Esquire, GQ, Harper’s, New York, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, and other leading publications. He was a columnist for a national magazine, New Times.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 12, 2012
In a true story framed on his rise and fall from Time Warner, or The Corporation, Kunen portrays a true coming-of-age story of a middle aged man. He takes us through the process of being an employee whose identity had become latched to a company that no longer, and probably never, cared about him.
He walks us through his last days at Time Warner, during which he sees and experiences the classic company discharge- after 20 years of employment, he given one day to pack up an office with years of contents, is accosted by security and discharged from his computer and email accounts at the end of the business day. He then talks us through the aftermath, as Time Warner refuses to acknowledge his two years working for Time magazine, which would give him 20 years of work at Time Warner and qualify him for retirement benefits and health insurance. But this tragic yet common tale is just the back-story to a poignant coming of age story where Kunen sees that he has a unique chance to re-evaluate his career and pursue something that has meaning.
Kunen guides us through the landscape with a combination of bitter irony, astute observations, humor and eye-opening interactions with immigrants from all walks of life. Through all of this, Kunen spends some time soul-searching and exploring just what he is looking for out of his career and his life.
People from all walks of life can relate to Diary of a Company Man, whether you're a middle-aged corporate reject, a young college graduate who has struggled in the changing job landscape, or a current employee for a corporation who is struggling to find meaning in her/his life.
He walks us through his last days at Time Warner, during which he sees and experiences the classic company discharge- after 20 years of employment, he given one day to pack up an office with years of contents, is accosted by security and discharged from his computer and email accounts at the end of the business day. He then talks us through the aftermath, as Time Warner refuses to acknowledge his two years working for Time magazine, which would give him 20 years of work at Time Warner and qualify him for retirement benefits and health insurance. But this tragic yet common tale is just the back-story to a poignant coming of age story where Kunen sees that he has a unique chance to re-evaluate his career and pursue something that has meaning.
Kunen guides us through the landscape with a combination of bitter irony, astute observations, humor and eye-opening interactions with immigrants from all walks of life. Through all of this, Kunen spends some time soul-searching and exploring just what he is looking for out of his career and his life.
People from all walks of life can relate to Diary of a Company Man, whether you're a middle-aged corporate reject, a young college graduate who has struggled in the changing job landscape, or a current employee for a corporation who is struggling to find meaning in her/his life.
August 26, 2021
I was browsing for printed journals or diaries when I came across this title. The first few pages on Amazon were enticing, so I checked it out of my library. Could NOT put it down (although, of course, there were chores and daily events), but couldn't wait to get back to it. Written as a diary of Jim Kunen's corporate jobs leading to a true, fulfilling, creative life, I inhaled details of his coworkers, New York surroundings, job details and bosses, and decisions to make the most of each life change. I am not giving the book justice. It stirred me, amused me, made me think, and see the world around me in a fresh way. His ability to bring to life his ESOL students and the life lessons he learned from them, to see the business world as it is, even in the midst of profit and ambition, to find meaning in serving others...wow, what a book. A life changer. Do yourself a favor and read it! Well done, Mr. Kunen!
July 29, 2014
It actually is in diary format and recaps his losing his AOL Time Warner writing/communications gig and finding more meaning/less pay in teaching TESOL classes for adult immigrants in NYC.
sounds straightforward in that recap, but he actually does a nice job of describing the shock and bitterness when he was downsized, possibly a victim of age discrimination, e.g.:
"what a rip-off! I made a deal with the Corporation -- 'I'll do this bullshit job in exchange for money and health insurance to keep my family safe' -- and now they're not holding up their end of the bargain: We don't want you anymore. Get lost!" (p. 74).
The company's rapid pivot to treating him as a security risk (clean out your desk by 5 pm; your email is cancelled, etc.) is depressing, and author nicely evokes the uncertainty and confusion experienced when trying to find something new he can do.
The second half dragged a bit for me in replaying in excess detail the specific TESOL lessons he was teaching. Clearly loves his students, and some of their background stories were touching, but if I were the editor I'd ask him to cut maybe 30-40% of the class/lesson descriptions.
sounds straightforward in that recap, but he actually does a nice job of describing the shock and bitterness when he was downsized, possibly a victim of age discrimination, e.g.:
"what a rip-off! I made a deal with the Corporation -- 'I'll do this bullshit job in exchange for money and health insurance to keep my family safe' -- and now they're not holding up their end of the bargain: We don't want you anymore. Get lost!" (p. 74).
The company's rapid pivot to treating him as a security risk (clean out your desk by 5 pm; your email is cancelled, etc.) is depressing, and author nicely evokes the uncertainty and confusion experienced when trying to find something new he can do.
The second half dragged a bit for me in replaying in excess detail the specific TESOL lessons he was teaching. Clearly loves his students, and some of their background stories were touching, but if I were the editor I'd ask him to cut maybe 30-40% of the class/lesson descriptions.
March 6, 2016
I thought this book held great promise... but after a while I got tired of it and gave up. I think the author was probably getting somewhere productive by the end (maybe), and there was a good message in it (serving others can help you forget about yourself), but there was also a lot of whining, navel-pondering, and pessimism. And a fondness for one profane word in particular, especially in reference to anyone who didn't think like he did. It got old.
May 9, 2012
reading the perspective of others having similar life crossroad moments, and reading their reaction in comparison to my own was helpful, inspiring and actually fun.
December 15, 2012
I heard him speak at Wordstock. He has a great story to tell.
August 4, 2016
I purchased this book because Jane Pauley mentioned it in her new book. Disappointed. The title is great though....
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews