From Publishers Weekly
This realistic look at dealing with getting downsized is written by an author who has "been through this crap so many times that I can rightly and truly call myself an expert." Laskoff talks readers through the process of getting angry at those who laid them off, then through the necessity of owning up to the reasons why they themselves might be accountable. With tips on rallying support from friends and family, finding meaningful activities to pursue while job hunting and keeping up good relationships with those near and dear, this book covers just about all the issues unemployed people face. The second half of the book tackles the business of finding a new, better job, and Laskoff offers solid advice for resume writing, marketing one's skills, interviewing, networking and negotiating offers. And he reminds readers not to take the first job that comes along (e.g. "What's your gut telling you? If your tummy has you seeking the nearest bar not to celebrate but to dull the prospect of impending pain, maybe you should let this one pass"). With the down-to-earth advice in this book, searching for a new job might not hurt so much after all. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Unlike most authors of job-hunting guides, Laskoff isn't a professional career consultant or empowerment guru; he is simply a guy who's gone through more than his share of firings, layoffs, and downsizings, managing to make a successful comeback each time. This guide has more humor and personal flair--and less authoritative instruction--than is typical, and is much the better for it. His descriptive nicknames for former bosses and associates (Fearless Leader, Ivy League, Peyote, and Walrus) are right on target. And the narratives alone are worthwhile reading as Laskoff discusses getting "dumped," venting his rage at the miserable creep who did it, finding support and then alienating his supporters, and finally admitting his own culpability. Though he repeats his mistakes, he eventually learns how to recast personality traits (like his big mouth) as assets instead of liabilities. Eventually, he gets down to brass tacks, sharing information about where good jobs are really found along with real-world advice on resumes and the mine-strewn interview process. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Job hunting is a different ballgame when you’re holding a pink slip instead of a brand-new college diploma. In Landing on the Right Side of Your Ass, Michael B. Laskoff—a Harvard M.B.A. who has flown high and flamed out more than once—offers essential advice for those of us who have recently been laid off, restructured, or plain ol’ fired. A tell-it-like-it-is bible of “reemployment,” it tackles both the practical and the emotional issues of job loss.

Because he’s not an academic, a recruiter, or a human resources professional, Laskoff has no ax to grind, no philosophy to peddle, and no corporate ideology to support. He’s been through the job-loss/job-search drill more than once, and since he consistently has gone on to do better in terms of compensation, responsibility, and job satisfaction, he’s the perfect ex-employee to share with you some hard-won wisdom, such as:

•How long to wait before launching yourself into the job arena
•How to channel anger, fear, and revenge fantasies into useful job-search tactics
•How to snag recommendations (and compensation) from ex-bosses
•How to determine your interviewers’ hiring problems and then present yourself as the solution

Whether you’re concerned about the emotional issues of unemployment (from denial and depression to anger and acceptance) or are looking for invaluable nuts-and-bolts advice (what to say about your ex-employer in an interview, how to handle financial issues, and what on earth you should do with all that free time between jobs), Landing on the Right Side of Your Ass is a straight-up, no-chaser survival guide for picking yourself up, getting back out there again, and winding up with a job that’s better than the one you lost.


From the Inside Flap
Job hunting is a different ballgame when you’re holding a pink slip instead of a brand-new college diploma. In Landing on the Right Side of Your Ass, Michael B. Laskoff—a Harvard M.B.A. who has flown high and flamed out more than once—offers essential advice for those of us who have recently been laid off, restructured, or plain ol’ fired. A tell-it-like-it-is bible of “reemployment,” it tackles both the practical and the emotional issues of job loss.

Because he’s not an academic, a recruiter, or a human resources professional, Laskoff has no ax to grind, no philosophy to peddle, and no corporate ideology to support. He’s been through the job-loss/job-search drill more than once, and since he consistently has gone on to do better in terms of compensation, responsibility, and job satisfaction, he’s the perfect ex-employee to share with you some hard-won wisdom, such as:

•How long to wait before launching yourself into the job arena
•How to channel anger, fear, and revenge fantasies into useful job-search tactics
•How to snag recommendations (and compensation) from ex-bosses
•How to determine your interviewers’ hiring problems and then present yourself as the solution

Whether you’re concerned about the emotional issues of unemployment (from denial and depression to anger and acceptance) or are looking for invaluable nuts-and-bolts advice (what to say about your ex-employer in an interview, how to handle financial issues, and what on earth you should do with all that free time between jobs), Landing on the Right Side of Your Ass is a straight-up, no-chaser survival guide for picking yourself up, getting back out there again, and winding up with a job that’s better than the one you lost.


About the Author
Since graduating from Harvard Business School in 1994, MICHAEL B. LASKOFF has held several high-profile jobs at major corporations, including McKinsey & Company, Bertelsmann Online, BMG Entertainment, and CompUSA. A hardened refugee from both the internet and the telecom arenas, he lives with his wife in New York, where he runs www.askyourass.com and writes an employment column for BusinessWeek Online.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It's Their Fault. . . . Admit It

Unless you are the secret offspring of Gandhi and Mother Teresa, you are probably genuinely pissed off at the people who dumped you. In fact, that may be a bit of an understatement. More likely, you've left the sane and rational world, seemingly forever, and are on the verge of exploding into some kind of biblically themed fury. That's totally normal and simply means that you're ready for a little binge and purge.

Binge and Purge

Let's be clear: Some miserable bastard has done something unspeakable to you. He, she, or it screwed, robbed, mistreated, crapped upon, abused, gave the short end of the stick to, and laid unfair blame on you. You're the fall guy, the scapegoat, the patsy, the innocent at the low end of the totem pole who couldn't protect himself from the evil miscreant who used to employ you. You got screwed, are screwed, and will be screwed until you find another job. You are, in a word, dumped.

Feeling the anger? If not, consider that the same guy who fired you probably did so to cover his own ass for some screwup and is now using your dismissal to prove that he is a good manager who is genuinely deserving of more responsibility and money: He solved a difficult management problem by disposing of you. That's right, you're unemployed, and there's a good chance that this guy who did it to you is winning accolades at work. He may actually get a raise over the fact that you've been dumped like old, rotten garbage. You've been designated, at least temporarily, as the source of all evil and thus the guy who fired you may be getting the heroic treatment. While he's drinking champagne to celebrate his career advancement, you're drinking rotgut to numb the pain.

As you might have guessed, I have an example from my own career. Once upon a time, I had a boss who showed up to work not more than 10 hours per week. He would go on and on about how many times he'd dealt with similar situations during his career and about how he could do the job with his eyes closed. And even when he was in the office, it was usually to make a few phone calls and to log a little face time with his boss, who seldom showed up either. All the while, I was begging for input, resources, a point of view, strategic direction, and permission to pursue all the sorts of things that are necessary to succeed in business--any business. Naturally, my pleas went unheard altogether until the boss's boss started showing up on a regular basis. You see, the boss's boss wasn't happy with the way that our little division was progressing. Suddenly, my boss was not only present and accounted for every day, he was actively blaming me for absolutely everything that had gone wrong in the previous six months. Someone who used to come to the office for the sole purpose of shooting the bull with me and organizing his social life had now declared me to be the very incarnation of evil. After a few months of being treated like a Green Peace activist at the Detroit Auto Show, I'd had enough and moved on to greener pastures. Thus, my darling ex-boss was free to continue blaming me not only for everything he hadn't done in half a year, but also to use me as an excuse for a couple of months going forward. And while he eventually got what was coming to him, it didn't do me a damned bit of good; I had already taken my screwing.

Now, as bad as your boss was, she wasn't the only one who did wrong by you, was she? What did all your so-called work friends do to defend you? If I were a betting man, I'd wager that most of them did absolutely nothing. And for this you should be grateful, because there is an excellent chance that at least one of your "friends" actively contributed to your demise. You see, your firing was not only monumental in your own life; it was noteworthy, if only a footnote, in your boss's life as well. And therefore, she most likely didn't fire you on a whim. Instead, she spent time preparing her case, justifying her actions and making certain that her ass was completely and securely covered. An integral part of this process is getting some snitch to say nasty things about you. This makes your firing, if you can believe it, seem more objective and, in a pinch, defensible. After all, she puts her own job at risk when she starts firing the wrong people.

Before you get any grand illusions of her imminent unemployment, relax. This almost never happens. Even if you were critical to the company, it often takes months before that becomes apparent. And believe me when I say that you could be the messiah and still not get rehired, even if the company should have never let you go in the first place. Life just doesn't work that way, and it won't help you to foster false hope.

But before obsessing about your ex-boss, let's return to the subject of one of your former coworkers, because at least one of them contributed to your professional demise. Your former boss is likely to be a bit of a coward and required at least one snitch among your peers to have the courage to act against you. As to the reason that someone spoke out against you, you can choose from the rich portfolio of human frailty--envy, greed, unfettered ambition, pettiness, revenge, etc. Perhaps one of your colleagues determined that your dumping would lead to his getting ahead. Or, the snitch may have sought vengeance for some real or invented slight. Still another possibility is that the secret collaborator just wasn't fond of you. Likely, you'll never know the reason why someone turned on you, just as you'll never be certain of the person or people who actually did it.

Now what about all your passive friends at work, the ones who stood by and failed to defend you? You have to know that once the witch-hunt starts, most people cannot move fast enough to get out of the way. To do otherwise would be to risk association with you, the designated problem. And in fairness, these so-called friends have a right to put their own desperate need to keep their crappy jobs ahead of your well-being. Are you going to pay their rent if they lose their job in your defense? Of course not, you've got your own bills to pay. So these people are just being human, but that doesn't mean that you have to like them for it right now.

Naturally, there are exceptions to every rule. First, you may have genuine friends who have spoken on your behalf because they don't want to see you get hurt, no matter who's at fault and what the personal consequences may be. Usually, these people also happen to be superstars at work and know that they would have to do a hell of a lot more than defend you in order to imperil their own position. In addition, there is a second category, which is so small that it may not have even been represented in your work situation: individuals possessing moral integrity and courage enough to speak fairly solely because it's the right thing to do. If you can't think of anyone like this at your own firm, don't be surprised; most of them seem to be off trying to save the world in one form or another.

So, you've actually got many people to be angry at. There's the demon ex-boss who actually dumped you. There is the collaborator(s) who helped your ex-boss feel justified in the deed. And there are your so-called friends at work who most likely did absolutely nothing to come to your aid in your time of need. And what's worse, with the exception of your boss, you really have no idea what part anybody really played in the little drama that was your dumping. At times, the very uncertainty will threaten to drive you mad.

Some people will tell you that you need to put these negative feelings aside; that unconstructive feelings simply make it harder to move forward. Such people have obviously never experienced the hell of being dumped and should keep their mouths shut. Screw them. You need to binge on your anger.

That's right, boil over--rage. Right now, you're like the Hoover Dam of negative feelings: You're either going to crumble under the pressure--at a time and place not of your own choosing--or vent. So express yourself. Be irrational: Yell, stomp, brood, break something of limited value, curse, use voodoo, and by all means play out elaborate revenge fantasies in your head. Delight in the loss of control that unfettered rage brings. And, as these emotions are inevitable, you might as well get them all out in one extended orgy of self-expression, which may take days and result in the kind of epic hangover that Wagner should have written an opera about. My only advice is that you exercise enough control to stay within the bounds of the law, remain physically safe, and try to keep any public insanity to a bare minimum. You're in enough pain without having to atone later for things you wish that you hadn't said or done in your "Mad Dog" phase.

Now you obviously can't stay ripping mad forever, and a reasonable question to ask yourself is how you can purge the rage. I can't speak for the rest of you, but I find that there are a couple of activities that help me get the anger out and something approximating a stable emotional state back in. First, there are mildly self-destructive, but ultimately harmless, activities that make me feel better. Into this category falls everything from the crying jags to the howling temper tantrums and gluttonous self-indulgences. You may not know how many Krispy Kreme doughnuts you can eat in a single sitting, but I do. I can also tell you just how hard I need to punch a wall before the subject of spackle and matching paint become germane topics of conversation. Keeping to my earlier point about physical safety, I've never required medical attention for this, but I once had to hire a contractor. And finally, there are the impassioned sessions in which I spell out my elaborate revenge scenarios, which my wife patiently witnesses, usually very late at night. (If I can't sleep, why should she?)

Second, there are healthy distractions. I find after I've sampled the joys of gluttony that a health kick is generally in order. I usually rein my eating back to the quantities that professional football players require and get serious about exercise. I lift weights, go running (more like power-waddling, actually), take long walks, and generally engage in healthy endeavors. I also use the opportunity to read the things that I never normally have time for and try to connect with friends whom I've inevitably been too busy to see. Heavy doses of these therapies generally get me to the point where the anger diminishes to a level where I can reestablish at least minimal amounts of self-control.

And then, of course, there is purposefully getting on with professional life--looking for a new, better job. I'll obviously return to that subject later. For the moment, though, I think it's far more important to not only get calm, but to appear to be calm to others. There's a difference, and you need to be cool to move forward.

So how can you tell if you've let go of the anger? Believe it or not, you may think that you're calm when you're still seething. I recommend that you observe how others react to you in nonheated settings. Try letting a friend or stranger ask you a difficult and deeply personal question, like, "How are you?" and see if you can answer without choking up or feeling the need to tell them your whole tale of woe. On the first try, you will almost certainly fail. You'll find yourself getting more emotional than you want, you'll say too much, find yourself being bitchy, or just come off as bitter. In my case, this means that more Krispy Kreme and bench press therapy is still in order.

Eventually, you will get to the point where you can avoid excessive responses and just send off the more minor, but still visible, signs of hurt: a pained expression on your face, a clenched jaw, or a throat so constricted that a tracheotomy seems reasonable. This isn't necessarily a problem; it just means that you still need to vent a little more before you should open your mouth. The idea is to keep purging the anger until some semblance of normal functioning has returned.

For the really tricky areas--the ones that always threaten to put you into a funk whenever you speak of them--you may want to script out a less painful storyline in your head. When you are relating the potentially painful part of your dumping, therefore, you don't have to think--you can recite instead. And with practice, the recitation comes to sound natural and comfortable. Thus, you appear calm and smooth on the surface even if you're roiling with anger, depression, frustration, and revenge fantasies just beneath. It doesn't work forever, and it doesn't bear much probing, but I think you'll find that this technique can get you over the rough spots.

Now, I'd like to give you an example, but before I do, I should note that the names of my previous employers--both companies and managers--have been changed to protect me from physical assault, legal entanglements, and character assassination--the kind that would prevent me from ever working again. If I were at the end of my career, I might have named names, but I've still got about thirty working years ahead of me. I hope you'll understand.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Job hunting is a different ballgame when you're holding a pink slip instead of a brand-new college diploma. In Landing on the Right Side of Your Ass, Michael B. Laskoff—a Harvard M.B.A. who has flown high and flamed out more than once—offers essential advice for those of us who have recently been laid off, restructured, or plain ol' fired. A tell-it-like-it-is bible of "reemployment," it tackles both the practical and the emotional issues of job loss.

Because he's not an academic, a recruiter, or a human resources professional, Laskoff has no ax to grind, no philosophy to peddle, and no corporate ideology to support. He's been through the job-loss/job-search drill more than once, and since he consistently has gone on to do better in terms of compensation, responsibility, and job satisfaction, he's the perfect ex-employee to share with you some hard-won wisdom, such as:

•How long to wait before launching yourself into the job arena
•How to channel anger, fear, and revenge fantasies into useful job-search tactics
•How to snag recommendations (and compensation) from ex-bosses
•How to determine your interviewers' hiring problems and then present yourself as the solution

Whether you're concerned about the emotional issues of unemployment (from denial and depression to anger and acceptance) or are looking for invaluable nuts-and-bolts advice (what to say about your ex-employer in an interview, how to handle financial issues, and what on earth you should do with all that free time between jobs), Landing on the Right Side of Your Ass is a straight-up, no-chaser survival guide for picking yourself up, gettingback out there again, and winding up with a job that's better than the one you lost.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal