Product Description

A practical guide to coping at work

Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person builds on Elaine Aron's groundbreaking bestseller The Highly Sensitive Person.

This new book, which includes a Foreword by Aron, gives highly sensitive persons (HSPs) strategies to build confidence, combat stress, and find work that is emotionally, financially, and creatively rewarding.

Based on cutting-edge medical and scientific research, this fresh perspective on how readers can secure satisfying careers includes strategies to:

• Detect jobs that are not right for HSPs
• Make their opinions heard and valued
• Control good personal internal boundaries
• Defend themselves from bullies in the workplace
• Move out of a job that feels like drudgery, and into a job that supports career goals and dreams

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #432472 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The titular Highly Sensitive Persons are intelligent, creative, idealistic and possessed of a strong work ethic. But unlike other workers, they suffer under routine, can be bothered by the sensory environment (the hum of fluorescent lights, workplace odors), might go through cycles of enthusiastic over-stimulation followed by brooding withdrawal, and might even dissolve in tears when pressured by deadlines and criticism. "Work Purpose Coach" Jaeger, following Elaine Aron's The Highly Sensitive Person, insists that HSPs stand up for their right to be sensitive. She provides HSP readers with useful tips on how to monitor oneself, relax and set boundaries to avoid getting overwhelmed; how to face down office bullies; and, using carefully scripted model monologues, how to inform coworkers and supervisors of one's needs as an HSP (talk about "fatigue" rather than "depression," for example). Her goal is to help HSPs ascend from Drudgery, through the "purgatory" of Craft, to their true Calling-which involves "a blending of the intense mind with the love and joy of our imagination and emotions" and leads to being "lifted, inevitably, up toward Heaven." The book is most compelling in its descriptions of Drudgery, which draw on writers like Barbara Ehrenreich to detail what some have termed the "modern slavery" of the corporate workplace. Unfortunately, Jaeger's priority is less to reform the workplace than to survive or escape it, if necessary, through self-employment. Still, readers will find this a perceptive guide to easing their torments.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
This book enlarges upon The Highly Sensitive Person (1996), by Elaine Aron, who describes the HSP as someone whose nervous system is particularly susceptible to stimuli. HSPs are more sensitive not only to their physical environments but also to emotional trauma. Jaeger believes that about 20 percent of the population can be described as HSPs and that the personality type may be inherited. In discussing the work environment, Jaeger recommends that HSPs avoid drudgery, which is particularly devastating because HSPs are generally creative types who thrive on new challenges. Jaeger also advises that craftwork can quickly deteriorate into drudgery for HSPs, who often remain in a job they hate for too long because of commitments or fear. Instead, HSPs need to find more fulfilling work, which the author refers to as a calling. Jaeger says the particular needs of HSPs include stress management, rest and healing, learning the importance of saying no, and dealing with abusive co-workers. Jaeger includes case studies and quotes from numerous HSPs to illustrate the advantages of finding satisfying work. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover

Building on Elaine Aron's groundbreaking work in The Highly Sensitive Person, this invaluable book helps highly sensitive persons find the work they are called to do and do their best work in less than perfect enviornments. Here are strategies that will help HSPs experience work in a way that is emotionally gratifying, financially rewarding, and that allows them the freedom to achieve their maximum potential. Because the real job for these exceptionally creative, multi-talented people is learning how to make their sensitivity work for them.

Based on lifelong study, cutting-edge research, and extensive interviews with hundreds of HSPs, Dr. Barrie Jaeger tackles the problems and issues highly sensitive people face on a daily basis--from feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of work and overstimulated by the workplace environment, to suffering from a lack of confidence, and a nagging sense that they are not "cut out for the real world."

Jaeger outlines three experiential states of work, and shows HSPs how they can progress from the lowest, most arduous level, when a job is "just a job," to the highest and most desired state of comfort and happiness in their work:

• Drudgery: For those who are particularly unhappy in their jobs, Jaeger shows how to identify particular aspects of any job that contribute to unhappiness, why certain jobs don't work for HSPs, and what to do to get out.
• Craft: HSPs who take pride in jobs that showcase their skills typically have control over their work and exhibit self-confidence in a job well done, but may not be as comfortable in their environment as they would like. Craft addresses important issues in the psychology of work regarding self-employment and entrepreneurship.
• Calling: The highest level of achievement for HSPs, Jaeger shows how to find a calling--and how to let a calling find you--meaning work that brings joy, creativity, and the greatest level of satisfaction.

Jaeger also includes dynamic exercises, shows ways to take breaks (vital for stress relief) and provides helpful personal assessment features. Encouraging, invigorating, and healing, Making Work Work is an owner's manual for any highly sensitive person who wants to discover how to love what they do--and do what they love.

"If plunging ahead into the unknown to try to find one's true work is not courage, I do not know what is. And Barrie Jaeger is giving that courage. It is at work that HSPs are able, or forced, to interface with the often troubled and troubling non-HSP world. Here is where hope and support are most needed. Barrie provides what counts--the emotional support. Soul support."

--From the foreword by Elaine Aron

If you feel drained and generally debilitated at work, or your work doesn't fulfill your creativity, you may be among the 20 percent of the population who find themselves overwhelmed by the pressures of their job. The Highly Sensitive Person is often highly intelligent, imaginative, empathetic, and hyper-aware of his or her surroundings. This sensitivity is part of being passionate about your work. But it can make being part of the work force a painful trial.

Building on the groundbreaking national bestseller, The Highly Sensitive Person, this book is devoted to explaining why traditional work doesn't work for you--and what you can do to improve your situation. Dr. Barrie Jaeger provides proven strategies to find work you can embrace--and not just endure.

Customer Reviews

Reassuring, but not a definitive how-to guide
This book is touted as being a guide for the highly sensitive person looking for meaningful work. While it offers excellent practical advice for dealing with difficult people (wish I'd had this book two jobs ago), the majority of the book simply describes what the ideal workplace for an HSP would be like. The author's conclusion is that HSPs are best suited for self-employment in a creative field. OK, great. Where Ms. Jaeger falls short is in providing practical advice for how to find or create that type of work situation. Obviously she conducted multiple interviews to get the personal stories that are sprinkled through the chapters. Most interview subjects are creative professionals, yet the most they say is something like, "I really love my job. Now I feel like I'm doing the work I was born for!" NO ONE talks about what they did to establish themselves (classes? training? trust fund? luck?), or how they stay in business (for instance, as an introvert, how do you effectively market your services/products to new clients?). Being an HSP who's considering self-employment, I found it frustrating to read a so-called "career guide" that in essence told me things I already know. Yes, I know I'd work best in an enviroment where I pick my own hours, have soothing lighting, and friendly coworkers. And sure, I want to find my Calling. But simply telling me to "keep working on yourself, and eventually you'll find your true Calling" really doesn't do much for me. Would have enjoyed this book more if the author had included a chapter in which her interview subjects shared personal stories of the steps (esoteric as well as practical) that they took to find their Callings.

Affirming but does not work
I so looked forward to getting this book - it's title set an expectation that it may reveal some action(s) to be taken on the path to career fulfillment. It was scattered and a bit shallow, leaving it hard to believe the author "owned" the knowledge claiming to be shared. There were quite a few affirming lines, little new information about being highly sensitive, and no solutions to follow up the conclusions drawn. I found the writing ruminating at times and missing the self discipline and focus that is touted as necessary to make work work. I'm sorely disappointed and would not recommend it to anyone who's in a poor work state or in transition - this book simply observes what it is like to be there and doesn't offer much to help you out.

Deeply thoughtful + practical approach to sensitive work
This is an excellent book, and the only one of its kind that I have seen. As a very sensitive person, I have struggled all my life to find work that I can enjoy, yet which does not overwhelm me. The realities of office politics, long hours, and other demands have drained my energy and left me feeling low or depressed about work in general.

In this book, Dr. Jaeger addresses all of this. What makes for a good job fit for YOU? How does one go about determining that? What does it mean to have a drudgery job, yet to feel that in some way, one has a "Calling"? Or, is your job one that is "okay", yet some aspect is not all you'd like it to be; and what might you do about that? What constitutes "balance" for a sensitive person? Is a regular job a waste, or should I try self-employment? How do I handle noise, bullying, and excessive demands on the job? And how do I take care of my sensitive self, even if I am not emotionally sensitive; so that I have energy and zest for work AND life?

I highly recommend this book. It has helped me to understand my needs & my situation a lot. It's one of the best out there for those of us who know we have gifts, but have had a hard time figuring out exactly how to share them with the world, in a way that works for us. I'm enriched for having read this book.