Corporate Abuse: How "Lean and Mean" Robs People and Profits

by Lesley Wright, Marti Syme, Marti Smye

Corporate Abuse is the first book to define this phenomenon and show how and why employees at all levels of the work force are in danger of being mistreated (whether intentionally or unintentionally) by their employers. The book details the ways in which abuse is often built into the policies, structures, and operations of many businesses; how the transition from a manufacturing to an information-based economy has fostered a culture of fear; how abuse acts as a barrier to productivity and innovation; and how corporations are endangering their profit margins and potential for future success by stifling their most important assets in the information age - creative minds.
Corporate Abuse is more than a collection of the sins perpetrated on the working wounded, however. It uses case histories and actual situations to illustrate techniques on how to cope with corporate abuse, how to reintroduce civility into the workplace, how to return integrity to both corporations and their employees - and how both will profit from these changes.

262 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Bryon Brandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too often abuse has gone on for so long, seemingly with everyone tolerating it, that it is not even seen as abuse anymore. It is just seen as work is hard.

This book will help you recognize abuse.
Learn options to handle it.
How to stand up for yourself.
And then hopefully stand up for others too.

I'm still angry at one company that talked an abuse debilitated employee into taking early retirement, rather than giving him the Long Term Disability he deserved.

[Rosemary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little slow starting, this book gets engrossing when the authors get into case studies. The content was a bit disjointed for me, talking about case studies, reasons for corporate abuse, then moving into the high-tech culture of independent contractors as compared to life-long employment and finally trying to define creativity in the workplace.
As a reader not involved with the high-tech industry or "creative" industries such as advertising, I am still wondering how abusive supervisors and corporate leaders in "traditional" companies can ever learn how not to be abusive. The reader can understand how employees are abused, but not how to make abusers stop.
The Veterans Administration example is interesting in these days of government cost and government downsizing because the structure of government fights changes and does not reward creativity, as an example: spend the entire departmental budget on everything and anything lest the same amount is not granted the next year. There is no incentive for cost-saving. The quote, "if you put fences around people, you get sheep" is very apt.

[Jerome · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have ever worked in an abusive environment, you will find this book interesting. It is all too common to find work environments that are filled with bullies. I've given this book to some leaders who I thought might care enough to make a difference!

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone working in a corporation or considering working in a corporation.