- Paperback: 360 pages
- Publisher: iUniverse; 1 edition (30 July 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1440158045
- ISBN-13: 978-1440158049
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 12.7 x 2.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,377,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Pink Slips and Parting Gifts
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
By the time Easton Company CEO Jeffrey Elkins entices a major competitor to buy his Fortune 500 company, the corporate jet is waiting and his parachute is platinum.
In thirteen weeks the deal of a lifetime transforms a handful of quirky executives into undeserving multimillionaires, propels a workforce into unemployment and dispatches unsuspecting retirees into poverty. In the background, security guards dance naked in mall fountains, the corporate jet is sold on eBay, and a CEO utters his final words before relinquishing his title: Make sure the employees get their pumpkin pies.
The memorable cast of corporate characters includes a germophobic CEO, a marketing VP turned Elvis impersonator, the Sundance Kid of Everyman Compensation, and a purchasing director nicknamed the eBay Wizard.
An estimated one in five corporate employees has experienced a merger or acquisition. Pink Slips and Parting Gifts is their story - the one every corporate cubicle jockey, business-class road warrior and mid-level manager will want to read.
About the Author
Deb Hosey White is an executive management consultant and retirement coach. With more than thirty years experience working for Fortune 1000 companies, she has lived mergers and acquisitions from inside the conference rooms, cubicles and executive suites of corporate America.A long-time Baltimore-Washington area resident, Deb White now lives and writes in beautiful North Carolina with her husband David.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
In the world of fiction, many tales have been written about the famous business icon at the top of the pyramid whose name and life will always be remembered. However, when do we ever hear the story of the little guys at the bottom of the pyramid - the foundation blocks of the structure itself, without whose strength and stamina the whole building would collapse? Even if you have never worked in the corporate business world or been part of a merger or acquisition, you will find Deb Hosey White's Pink Slips and Parting Gifts a clear and insightful journey into the world of corporate America. White defines and describes in great detail, but in simple terms, the lives of the "foundation" employees of The Easton Company through the merger process, opening the reader's eyes to the stark reality of how their lives are thrown into upheaval by the selfishness of those great icons at the top.
If you have lived through the experience of a merger or acquisition, you may very well find yourself relating to the events and people within the storyline. The story is told through the eyes of employees at every level, from the maintenance man in the basement, to the accountant, to the human resources specialist, and it touches on all aspects of their shock, pain, heartbreak, confusion, and loss as their lives are turned upside down.
On the one hand, this is a very refreshing read as it falls outside of the standard, repetitive subject matter in the world of fiction today, but on the other hand it is a very disturbing and rude awakening to what the world of business has become. Gone is the much loved and admired company founder dedicated to the common good, the community, and the company's employees, who built the company from the ground up to be known for its solid reputation, positive profile, and profitable business sheet. Enter the power and money hungry CEO's and executives of the Fortune 500 generation who forget about the original goals and whose only concern now is the size of their parachute (the job insurance for top executives in case of a merger or acquisition) which allows them to leave with millions in their pockets to secure their futures, while the low men and women on the totem pole watch their futures crumble before their eyes.
Although the chapters were so short that I found the storyline a bit disjointed, making it difficult to get to know the characters, I was intrigued by the plot of this novel right from page one, and I could feel the tension building throughout as the employees of The Easton Company, comfortable in their stable lives, were thrown into chaos with no warning. It makes one yearn for the early days in business when no one was making huge amounts of money, but everyone loved their work and lived comfortably. No one, not even the CEO, was wealthy!
Pink Slips and Parting Gifts was certainly an eye opener for me, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to see the truth behind big business today and the power of the privileged few.
Deb Hosey White is an executive management consultant and retirement coach who lives and writes in North Carolina with her husband, David. Reviewer: Cindy Taylor, Allbooks Review.
If you have lived through the experience of a merger or acquisition, you may very well find yourself relating to the events and people within the storyline. The story is told through the eyes of employees at every level, from the maintenance man in the basement, to the accountant, to the human resources specialist, and it touches on all aspects of their shock, pain, heartbreak, confusion, and loss as their lives are turned upside down.
On the one hand, this is a very refreshing read as it falls outside of the standard, repetitive subject matter in the world of fiction today, but on the other hand it is a very disturbing and rude awakening to what the world of business has become. Gone is the much loved and admired company founder dedicated to the common good, the community, and the company's employees, who built the company from the ground up to be known for its solid reputation, positive profile, and profitable business sheet. Enter the power and money hungry CEO's and executives of the Fortune 500 generation who forget about the original goals and whose only concern now is the size of their parachute (the job insurance for top executives in case of a merger or acquisition) which allows them to leave with millions in their pockets to secure their futures, while the low men and women on the totem pole watch their futures crumble before their eyes.
Although the chapters were so short that I found the storyline a bit disjointed, making it difficult to get to know the characters, I was intrigued by the plot of this novel right from page one, and I could feel the tension building throughout as the employees of The Easton Company, comfortable in their stable lives, were thrown into chaos with no warning. It makes one yearn for the early days in business when no one was making huge amounts of money, but everyone loved their work and lived comfortably. No one, not even the CEO, was wealthy!
Pink Slips and Parting Gifts was certainly an eye opener for me, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to see the truth behind big business today and the power of the privileged few.
Deb Hosey White is an executive management consultant and retirement coach who lives and writes in North Carolina with her husband, David. Reviewer: Cindy Taylor, Allbooks Review.
Format:Paperback
I was privileged to be an early reviewer and editorial assistant for Pink Slips and Parting Gifts. There aren't many business novels in the marketplace, but for anyone who has lived through a company merger/acquisition, or who has suffered through corporate downsizing, layoffs, or loss of retirement and health benefits, this is a must read.
This novel is full of incredible stories from corporate cubicles and boardrooms and it's also loaded with colorful and quirky characters. For anyone who has shaken their head after reading a recent business news story--about company jets, CEO mega-millionaires, or corporate risky business--Pink Slips and Parting Gifts is worth reading.
This novel is full of incredible stories from corporate cubicles and boardrooms and it's also loaded with colorful and quirky characters. For anyone who has shaken their head after reading a recent business news story--about company jets, CEO mega-millionaires, or corporate risky business--Pink Slips and Parting Gifts is worth reading.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
17 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
A Great Read!
28 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback
This book takes you on insider's journey through the life cycle of a company. The vital and pace-setting company that grew to be a leader in its industry and fell victim to the 21st century corporate merger where a few get rich and everyone else is irrelevant. Especially when the acquiring company has an entirely different perspective from the original company on the value and treatment of employees.
From the first chapter, I was riveted! This book is a great read! I felt like I was there as the story unfolded and I was relieved that I wasn't. It gives the reader a fly-on-the-wall view inside the board rooms and hotel rooms where deals are brokered. Anyone who works in an office will recognize co-workers, supervisors and executives in this story of corporate greed and today's workplace where employee loyalty has no inherent value.
From the first chapter, I was riveted! This book is a great read! I felt like I was there as the story unfolded and I was relieved that I wasn't. It gives the reader a fly-on-the-wall view inside the board rooms and hotel rooms where deals are brokered. Anyone who works in an office will recognize co-workers, supervisors and executives in this story of corporate greed and today's workplace where employee loyalty has no inherent value.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Thoroughly enjoyable, funny, and very human
23 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you've ever been the victim of a "Merger and Acquisition," your story is finally being told. You need to read Pink Slips and Parting Gifts by Deb Hosey White.
I worked with the author at a real estate development company in the Baltimore/Washington area that was acquired. It was the second of three companies for which I have worked that were acquired, and also the second company from which I had thought I would retire. How silly of me. I left this particular company soon after the acquisition was announced.
Through a series of vignettes, Ms White tells an incredible story from the perspective of those affected by the acquisition and not so much about how clever everyone was making the deal. These are two of the things that sets this fictional story of the acquisition of The Easton Company by Pratt-Miles apart from others written around the M&A topic.
Normally I am a slow reader, but I must say this book sucked me in, partly because the subject matter was personal.
This is the story of a corporation (The Easton Company) that has accomplished great things on a community level, from an employee standpoint, and oh yeah, they made an excellent profit too. The company's employee's had given their all for it. But, in the end it is basically stomped on and thrown in the trash by its acquirer (Pratt-Miles).
I particularly enjoyed the sections of the book that told the stories behind the people, like the guy who had left a good job with a Fortune 500 company to work for Easton only to have Easton sold 6 months later. The author captures characters very well. You'll recognize these people as ones you've either had the pleasure or displeasure to call co-workers.
There were several areas of the book that brought immediate laughter, like the part in the beginning where the author questions how the CEO tells the founder's widow that he's selling the company, and much later the part about the disposition of the former CEO's beloved, private, corporate jet.
As I said, I found Pink Slips and Parting Gifts thoroughly enjoyable, funny (sometimes laughing out loud), and very human. The author has a true talent for telling stories. Thank you Ms White for writing a wonderful book. Please let us know when you complete the next one. And I'm definitely in line for opening night at the movies! ;-)
I worked with the author at a real estate development company in the Baltimore/Washington area that was acquired. It was the second of three companies for which I have worked that were acquired, and also the second company from which I had thought I would retire. How silly of me. I left this particular company soon after the acquisition was announced.
Through a series of vignettes, Ms White tells an incredible story from the perspective of those affected by the acquisition and not so much about how clever everyone was making the deal. These are two of the things that sets this fictional story of the acquisition of The Easton Company by Pratt-Miles apart from others written around the M&A topic.
Normally I am a slow reader, but I must say this book sucked me in, partly because the subject matter was personal.
This is the story of a corporation (The Easton Company) that has accomplished great things on a community level, from an employee standpoint, and oh yeah, they made an excellent profit too. The company's employee's had given their all for it. But, in the end it is basically stomped on and thrown in the trash by its acquirer (Pratt-Miles).
I particularly enjoyed the sections of the book that told the stories behind the people, like the guy who had left a good job with a Fortune 500 company to work for Easton only to have Easton sold 6 months later. The author captures characters very well. You'll recognize these people as ones you've either had the pleasure or displeasure to call co-workers.
There were several areas of the book that brought immediate laughter, like the part in the beginning where the author questions how the CEO tells the founder's widow that he's selling the company, and much later the part about the disposition of the former CEO's beloved, private, corporate jet.
As I said, I found Pink Slips and Parting Gifts thoroughly enjoyable, funny (sometimes laughing out loud), and very human. The author has a true talent for telling stories. Thank you Ms White for writing a wonderful book. Please let us know when you complete the next one. And I'm definitely in line for opening night at the movies! ;-)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Insight into the "new" corporate culture
7 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback
Deb White offers a look at a corporate culture that values executive "me firsters" over (1) the company; (2) the community; and (3) the employees. Mergers are about platinum parachutes and executive enrichment. Who cares if a going concern employing thousands is destroyed? Who cares if loyal employees and retirees lose out? Who cares if the corporations community base experiences secondary job losses? This often witty, often poignant account is well worth reading. I'm still wondering about the final fate of the yellow leather sofa.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
