How to Tell When You're Tired: A Brief Examination of Work

Customer Reviews:

A worker-philosopher's reflections.......2002-03-10

Reg Theriault's book is simply superb--just the right combination of personal anecdote, philosophical reflection, sociological commentary, old-timer's wisdom, and humor. In reading him, one comes to like Theriault. He's the sort of guy you wish you could work with on your own job or at least meet after work at the local pub for a couple of beers.

Theriault's primary job before retirement was working as a longshoreman in San Francisco. But he was also a "fruit tramp" (a migrant picker) and an occasional factory worker. His credentials as a "blue collar worker," then, are impeccable, and he distills thirty-odd years of experience in heavy physical labor into his book. His two primary conclusions are these: (1) salary is important, but freedom is too. Workers caught in an assembly line kind of job where they're nothing more than anonymous cogs in a Taylorite efficiency machine are more likely to rebel than workers dissatisfied with money. (2) the relationship between labor and management always reduces to the following dynamic: "Management is going to get more out of you than it gives in return. This is a fact of life, and one might as well accept it. If management does not get more--for instance, if it gets less--then why in the hell should it stick around? Your goal is to see that management does not get too much more." (pp. 96-97) Both of these conclusions, although they may appear obvious when pointed out, ought to be kept in mind when thinking about working conditions in this country, not to mention the foreign sweatshops that make so many commodities we North Americans buy.

Along the way, Theriault reflects on the disappearing blue collar working class; differences between blue and white collar workers; worries that for too many people, work is "a hole in their lives"; tells the hilarious but also poignant story of Billy's lost finger; and reminds us of the good/bad old days of labor by telling old-timer stories told to him when he was a boy.

All in all, a remarkable book. And the photograph on the cover is as gripping an image as I've ever seen.

If you liked this!.......2002-03-03

This book is a sleeper; an old clunker that sags in the middle, wheezes and farts at the stop-light and then lays two-hundred feet of rubber as it takes off!

If you like this as much as I, try "RIVETHEAD" by Ben Hamper.

Couldn't put it down.......2001-07-22

This book offered an insight into the psychology and complex existence of hard physical labor that should throw fear into the hearts of management. I was so sad when this book was over and I find myself referring to it frequently as a student of labor management relations. Well worth owning! Great anecdotes and harsh realities that most college kids will never face makes it all the more valuable.

Blue and white collars fit the same.......2000-08-07

While reading through this work I found that although the author was lifting 154 pound bags of coffee beans on a daily basis isn't all that dissimilar that being a cube dweller. The fact is that sitting in front of a computer in your cube messing with spreadsheets all day long contains many of the same mental drudges but doesn't affor some of the opportunities for the "on and off" time that the author descirbes in his manual labor work.

Though I am unable to verify his statistics I was still astonished at the number of so called "white collar" workers that applied for jobs in San Francisco when the Stevedores Union opened up their hiring a few years ago.

Interesting thoughts and concepts abound, but I found remarkably similar parallels between "cube Jockeys" and the manual labor workers the author is so familiar with. Certainly worth the read.

Steve in Austin, Tx.

lots of belly aching.......1999-07-11

The writer begins with a great premise concerning work, which few members of the work force consider. He proceeds to spend the last half of the book bitching. So, ...just read the first half !

Average customer rating:

Great Intro to M&A concepts

Very Straightforward Intro to Small and Mid-Market M&A

M&A : A to Z

Mergers and Acquisitions from A to Z: Strategic and Practical Guidance for Small- And Middle-Market Buyers and Sellers
Andrew J. Sherman
Manufacturer: American Management Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Consolidation & Merger | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Finance | Accounting & Finance | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook

M & A: A Practical Guide to Doing the Deal

The Art of M&A: A Merger Acquisition Buyout Guide

ASIN: 081440376X

Customer Reviews:

Great Intro to M&A concepts.......2007-06-27

The A to Z of M&A is a great book if you want to know about the M&A process and the various elements involved in it. It is a good starting place to get your bearings right. This book explains in detail what the motivations could be behind a merger and an acquisition. With that key understanding, the book walks us through the next steps, such as developing an Acquisition Plan and the contents therein, Letter of Intent (LOI) and the binding and non-binding terms, preparation of the Work Schedule, etc.

Due Diligence is explained in terms of financial/strategic and legal due diligence. Due diligence is a process where confirmation of the initial valuations and assumptions happens but it is also the time to jump ship if the risks or potential liabilities exceed anticipation or comfort level of the buyer. Another critical point is that due diligence happens in phases and is iterative in nature.

I liked the emphasis on Fairness Opinions and how the debate around it is growing to keep it `fair'. Regulatory considerations could be general or industry specific. The passage of SOX adds a whole new level to the M&A due diligence and advisory services. Environmental and Federal Securities Laws have become another area for a deep dive.

The book distinguishes between horizontal (think competitors) and vertical (think supply chain) acquisitions. It also captures technical details such as the waiting period after the notification has been filed with the FTC and DOJ and that request for an `early termination' will make the transaction public.

An acquirer can pay the seller by using any of methods available namely cash, stock, promissory notes, convertible securities, contingent payments or a combination thereof. These are plain vanilla compared to the nontraditional structures and strategies, which are Spin Offs, Leveraged Buy-Outs (LBOs), Consolidation/Roll Ups, and the much emphasized ESOPs. For a spin off to be viewed favorably by IRS, it has to be a deal that will help with access to capital markets, debt-financing prospects, competitive position, management direction, or retention of key employees.
The book also introduces the three basic methods of valuation: Comparable Company and Comparable Transaction Analysis, Asset Valuation, and DCF. Within Asset Valuation, the subtle distinction between `Cost of Reproduction' and `Cost of Replacement' is referenced.

After the negotiation of purchase price, the team starts to focus on the financing options for the deal. There are three primary issues related to acquisition financing: arriving at the ideal amount of debt to be raised, determining a capital structure with the future success of the company in mind, and the cost of the funds. The sources of financing are the seller and the various types of debt, with collateralized financing not being as popular as it was in earlier years. The importance of communicating the risk mitigation strategies to the loan officer is also emphasized. The variables of an Acquisition Plan and the various documents that are required for venture capital financing negotiations are explained. The different types of securities and why one is preferred over the other, is also covered.

The book takes my understanding of double dipping to a whole new level. This concept is covered in the context of indemnification clauses in the Asset Purchase Agreement. A breach of the same can trigger both a purchase price adjustment and a claim for indemnification.

The way I view an M&A transaction is that it is a well orchestrated dance. There is a wonderful energy about M&A transactions, which touches every aspect of a business, which I find most enticing and challenging.

Very Straightforward Intro to Small and Mid-Market M&A.......2006-05-28

This book offers a fairly comprehensive overview of many of the practical details (esp. the legal ones) of M&A in the small to mid-market. The author is a lawyer who obviously has extensive experience in this field and more importantly has the ability to convey his knowledge in clean and concise prose. Of course, this book is not going to be an exciting read, but it is highly recommended for anyone going into this field who wants to develop a framework for understanding how M&A is done.

The book focuses like a laser beam on giving the reader a broad introduction. There are few (if any) case studies, but that's actually a good thing because it allows the reader to quickly understand how everything fits together in a M&A transaction.

One nice additional feature is a chapter on alternatives to M&A.

This book definitely belongs in the business library of any professional involved in M&A transactions.

M&A : A to Z.......2000-06-17

Serves as an excellent introduction into the valuation of small to middle market companies. Basic valuation techniques along with strategic possibilities and guidance through the M&A process, including synergistic possibilities and affects on purchase price. Could be more involved on the psychological effects and pressures/demands on the seller/buyer?

Book Description

This new book, published for the European Weed Research Society, provides a detailed overview of the management of aquatic weeds, which cause serious problems in bodies of water throughout the world. This state-of-the-art review includes worldwide coverage of these undesirable organisms. It
provides readers with information on the ecology and management of aquatic weeds, as well as in-depth discussion of environmental consequences of weed control methods. Valuable appendix materials give useful listings of the weeds, biological control agents used against aquatic weeds, and herbicides
used in fresh waters.

Book Description

The papers collected in this book show the results of investigations performed by Russian scientists in the field of low dose irradiation action. It is confirmed that low doses do have effects on the human organism and the environment and that the most serious consequences are observed in the far post-irradiation period. This branch of radiobiology, which developed after the Chernobyl accident and studied its consequences, is discussed in detail.

The main part of reviews and articles is devoted to the aspects of low dose effects on the human and animal genome and far post-irradiation consequences. New details of mechanisms of low dose action are shown and methods of their determination are discussed. Furthermore, the adaptive response of organisms and the low dose effects on the immune system are demonstrated. Also, the difference between protection mechanisms against low dose irradiation and against high dose irradiation is shown and proved.

Readership: This volume will be of value and interest to researchers and doctors in the fields of radiation biology, radioecology, radiology, radiation genetics, radiation immunology and radiation safety.

Book Description

This test preparation book reviews all physics questions covered on standardized tests such as the AP Physics, ASVAB, CLEP, GRE Physics, MCAT, NTE Specialty Area Tests, and SAT II: Physics. The book is comprised of chapter reviews and drills in vectors and scalars, mechanics, electricity and magnetism, waves and optics, heat, kinetic theory, thermodynamics, modern physics, classical mechanics, and electricity and magnetism.

Customer Reviews:

On Physics Builder ..........2006-12-02

The book is full of mistakes and typographical errors. Obviously the manuscript was typed by someone without adequate knowledge of mathematics, so he added a lot of errors. Ok, the exercizes are helpful, but you would better study something else in addition. Honestly, I believe the book should have been corrected all these years ...

The most effective way to study for the GRE using this book.......2001-11-11

. . . is take a match to it and use the light to read some other book.

The introduction to REA's Physics Builder (paperback 1995 ed) is intriguing, and the book it describes would probably make an excellent study guide. The remaining 530 pages, however, make up a very different, and immeasurably inferior book. It contains more typos and errors than any published work I've encountered. Every third page includes a sentence which is incoherent and or an equation which is simply wrong. Even if it were not for the factual errors and the occasional corrupt questions, the book would still fail dismally, at least as GRE preparation.

The sixty question diagnostic tests which precede each section contain variations on only a dozen or so unique questions, slightly rephrased and given new numbers each time they are presented. The reviews which follow are comically eccentric, covering only a hand full of relevant equations and presenting them in absurd detail, while skipping equally basic and important material. (I imagine the authors realized how unbalanced the coverage was somewhere toward the end and decided to include the word "comprehensive" three times in the introduction in order to compensate.) The mid-review "drill" questions and the glossaries are either entirely qualitative, or require material which isn't covered in the review sections. Finally, a large percentage of the questions require a calculator and a unit conversion table. This is probably unavoidable when attempting to cover material from six different tests, but if you are looking for a quick GRE review book, having to look up conversions for slugs and kilocalories can be frustrating.

Several people I respect have recommended this book as an alternative to the infamous purple nightmare. (REA's GRE specific book.) It is conceivable that this book is better, but my advice is to steer clear of both. Get the ETS book and look through your textbooks. For a review of everything except mechanics and E&M, its hard to beat _Modern Physics from Alpha to Z-0_ by James William Rohlf. (Wiley and Sons, 1994) It's a textbook, not a review, but it is amazingly complete and presented at an appropriate level.

Book Description

The Milan Papyrus ( P. Mil. Volg. VIII. 309), containing a collection of epigrams apparently all by Posidippus of Pella, provides one of the most exciting new additions to the corpus of Greek literature in decades. It not only contains over 100 previously unknown epigrams by one of the most prominent poets of the third century BC, but as an artefact it constitutes our earliest example of a Greek poetry book. In addition to a poetic translation of the entire corpus of Posidippus' poetry, this volume contains essays about Posidippus by experts in the fields of papyrology, Hellenistic and Augustan literature, Ptolemaic history, and Graeco-Roman visual culture.

Average customer rating:
Army Life on the Pacific: A Journal
Lawrence Kip
Manufacturer: Ye Galleon Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0877700168

Average customer rating:
ARMY LIFE ON THE PACIFIC: A JOURNAL OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE NORTHERN INDIANS, THE TRIBES OF THE COEUR D'ALENES, SPOKANS, AND PELOUZES, IN THE SUMMER OF 1858.
Lawrence. Kip
Manufacturer: Redfield,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N71UKE

Average customer rating:
Commandant of Solitude: The Journals of Captain Collet Barker 1828-1831
John Mulvaney , and Neville Green
Manufacturer: Melbourne University Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Australian | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Australia | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books
New Zealand | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books
General | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0522844723

Average customer rating:
ARMY LIFE ON THE PACIFIC; A JOURNAL OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE NORTHERN INDIANS, THE TRIBES OF THE COEUR D'ALENES, SPOKANS...

Manufacturer: Redfield
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GTDXLI

Average customer rating:
Army life on the Pacific;: A journal of the expedition against the northern Indians, the tribes of the Coeur d'Alenes, Spokans and Pelouzes, in the summer ... with notes and queries. Extra number)
Lawrence Kip
Manufacturer: Reprinted, W. Abbatt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00089FABM

Average customer rating:
The Magazine of History with notes and Queries, Extra Numbers 29-32: John Wilkes Booth or the National Tragedy; Army Life on the Pacific; Journal of Hardships, Battles...Kentucky Volunteers..; Narrative of Timothy Mallary; John Davenport; Rare Lincolniana
William A.; Kip, Lawrence; Darnell, Elias; Mallary, Timothy; Davenport, John... Luby
Manufacturer: William Abbatt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TZ3OQI

Book Description

The deprivations and cruelty of slavery have overshadowed our understanding of the institution's most human dimension: birth. We often don't realize that after the United States stopped importing slaves in 1808, births were more important than ever; slavery and the southern way of life could continue only through babies born in bondage.

In the antebellum South, slaveholders' interest in slave women was matched by physicians struggling to assert their own professional authority over childbirth, and the two began to work together to increase the number of infants born in the slave quarter. In unprecedented ways, doctors tried to manage the health of enslaved women from puberty through the reproductive years, attempting to foster pregnancy, cure infertility, and resolve gynecological problems, including cancer.

Black women, however, proved an unruly force, distrustful of both the slaveholders and their doctors. With their own healing traditions, emphasizing the power of roots and herbs and the critical roles of family and community, enslaved women struggled to take charge of their own health in a system that did not respect their social circumstances, customs, or values. Birthing a Slave depicts the competing approaches to reproductive health that evolved on plantations, as both black women and white men sought to enhance the health of enslaved mothers--in very different ways and for entirely different reasons.

Birthing a Slave is the first book to focus exclusively on the health care of enslaved women, and it argues convincingly for the critical role of reproductive medicine in the slave system of antebellum America.

Book Description

Bioenergy Options for a Cleaner Environment describes the biomass resource and its delivery. A panel of international experts describe the range of conversion technologies both commercially available and under development, and explore the technical, environmental and socio-economic barriers and benefits of using biomass in both developed and developing countries.

*Covers a number of perspectives, taking the reader through the whole process from the bioenergy resource through conversion to fuel, to policy issues.
*World class Editor and contributors
*Accessible and useful to those working in agriculture, forestry and planning, as well as energy researchers.

Customer Reviews:

One woman's compelling story of environmental activism........1998-06-24

This inspiring book relates the story of Betty Shiver Krawczyk from her humble beginnings in Southern Louisiana to her 'retirement' to the picturesque coastal region of British Columbia. Ms Krawczyk, with eloquence and humour, honesty and insight speaks of her three marriages (and eight children), her emerging political and philosophical awareness and her willingness to stand strong in support of her convictions.

Her sense of justice prevented her from slipping into oblivion when she retired to ten acres of quiet forest in the Clayoquot Sound. When logging companies threatened the majestic old growth forests of her backyard, Betty joined protesters on the front lines. Her actions led to an arrest, trial and eventual conviction. Before her ordeal was over, she had spent four and a half months in BC prisons.

Despite the subject matter which, at times, is grim, humour and a fine flair for story keep the reader fully engaged and entertained. This is an inspiring book for all of us who have ever wondered in the face of systemic evils, 'but, what can I do?" Here is one woman, who on the strength of her convictions, has done an awful lot to make this world a better place. Her story deserves to be read widely and is a testament to the power of individual strength and determination in the face of tremendous odds.

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