Working 9-5 Archives - Awful Library Books

Home Office Advice

October 11, 2021 Mary Kelly Bleeding Edge, Working 9-5 2 comments

The Home Office Book
Alvarez
1990

Time to get your home office in shape. This book is pretty comprehensive. All the those important decisions on furniture, equipment, and design are helpfully analyzed for convenience.

What version of DOS do you need?
IBM Clone or the real IBM?
Lotus 1-2-3 or VisiCalc?
America Online or Prodigy?
Cordless phone or phone with a cord?

Of course you should also consider driving or walking to the post office because this book is still a few years from widespread home use of the Internet. Maybe you want to consider getting a fax machine?

I did get a kick out the bygone days of the early 1990s. Clunky computers, dot matrix printers and so many floppy disks are quite a contrast to the technology of today. COVID makes home offices kind of important, so maybe a more up to date book on home offices is required.

what to do with the rest of your life cover

Figure Out Your Life

September 28, 2021 Mary Kelly Ladies only!, Working 9-5 One comment

What to Do With the Rest of Your Life
Catalyst
1981

We have had a couple of books authored by the organization Catalyst. This non-profit advocated for women in business. They published career advice for women in the 1970s and 1980s. If you have been a long time reader of this blog, you might remember this particular book.

It felt like this book was more about introspection and finding your “perfect” career path. It was definitely published with nice, privileged, ladies in mind. See the bottom paragraph on the introduction page.

Like I have commented before, this very much is for that 1% of working women that have resources and a nice safety net. I doubt that the single mother trying to make ends meet has time to have an introspective meditation on career satisfaction.

Really, just get in there and weed those career advice books.

It’s Labor Day Weekend! Start off with some books about work.

September 3, 2021 Mary Kelly ALB Announcements, Making a Living, Working 9-5 2 comments

Labor Day (Monday, September 6, 2021) is one of my favorite 3 day weekend holidays. For me, it is the unofficial end of summer. Back when I was in youth services, I felt like I had maybe 15 minutes of a break in late August before I started all over with summer reading planning for the next year and getting ready for the next round of students. The Labor Day weekend was almost sacred in my book.

To celebrate Labor day, I have selected a few “labor” themed posts. To add on this, we would like to give a shout out to the Reuther archives. Just about everyone back in our day made a trip to the Walter P. Reuther Library/Archives as part of the intro to libraries course. The Reuther archives is the largest collection of labor archives in North America. If you are a history nerd, take a peak at some of the exhibits available.

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!

High School Resumes

March 1, 2021 Mary Kelly Working 9-5 4 comments

Creating Your High School Resume
Troutman
1998

Of course anyone hanging around this site already knows, I have a serious issue with old career materials. Well, add this one to the pile of irritations. First, it is dated. Obviously the impact of technology changes how we even go about finding jobs. (Note the recommendation of using Alta Vista for searching.) Second, resumes for high school students seems a bit much. The subtitle implies college and post college too. If the title said High School, I doubt a college level student or post grad will think this is appropriate for their needs.

Offbeat Careers

January 29, 2021 Holly Working 9-5 6 comments

Offbeat Careers: The Directory of Unusual Work
Sacharow
1988

Submitter: Well, Al and I have very different opinions about what constitutes “offbeat.” Mainly things that aren’t actually careers, maybe not even jobs. Miss America? Game Show Contestant? Dated and just… odd. Mary may be interested in at least one of the careers listed! LOL!

All career books need careful curation, but this one was an easy weed!

Sexual Harassment for the 1990s

January 26, 2021 Mary Kelly Working 9-5 7 comments

The 9-5 Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment
Bravo and Cassedy
1992

In 1991, Anita Hill testified that she was sexually harassed by Clarence Thomas at his confirmation hearing. In my opinion, this was when sexual harassment became a mainstream discussion topic. I also remember watching the hearings on television. Fast forward to the mid 1990s, and the Monica Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton administration. Keep fast forwarding and you can add Robert Packwood, Mark Foley, Newt Gingrich, Gary Condit, Anthony Weiner, Mario Batali, Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Roger Ailes, etc. You get the picture.

Executive Careers in the Time of COVID-19

December 10, 2020 Mary Kelly Working 9-5 9 comments

Executive Resume Book
Foxman
1988

This website started because I had some serious problems with old job hunting and resume books. Of course in 2007 and 2008, our area was hard hit. Our own collection was picked clean. The fact that I found several copies floating around was a bit irritating.

I will give credit to some chapters on what I will call a self-assessment. However, the discussions on using offset printing, paper, and other non-electronic issues is almost quaint. This book is so out of date, it’s ridiculous. The worst part was when I was helping people back in 2007/2008, the older people that were out of work for the first time since the 1980s thought advice like this was still the way to go.

Your call is important to us

September 28, 2020 Mary Kelly Working 9-5 10 comments

Telephone Courtesy & Customer Service
Finch
1987

Think of a customer service course you are being forced to attend. This is that workbook. It reminds me of something that would be mandated so someone can check off a box on a form. Of course one should use courtesy answering customer calls. They should also be mindful of word choice. However, some seriously big gaps exist in this training:

Customer emergency – someone on the line in trouble (health or whatever)
Angry customers – How do you handle those swearing and yelling?
Customer threats – this can run the gamut to mild intimidation up to a bomb threat