Hidden Rules of Class at Work
Author: Ruby K. Payne & Don L. Krabil
Hidden Rules of Class at Work, is written for people who supervise others. It provides tools to identify
an individual's strengths and weaknesses by looking at his/her resources, an understanding of how economic class
influences opportunities to develop resources, an understanding of how economic class influences - often subtly
yet significantly - behaviors that show up in the workplace and an understanding of how the levels of an organization
reflect the hidden rules of class.
Further Hidden Rules of Class at Work provides tools that will help supervisors develop employees to function
at the level of the organization to which they have been promoted or are expected to function. There are also tools to
help determine how to spend training dollars and assist with one's own promotion.
It's important to note that most supervision comes from mid-management types of positions, which generally follow
the hidden rules of middle class. This book has no intention of judging one class as better than another. Rather, different
realities demand different types of behaviors that, in turn, generate hidden rules. The ability of an individual to fit into a
work environment and be productive in that environment is crucial to understanding workplace success.
This book's principal objective is to identify and articulate a number of issues that are alive in the workplace - but that
have seldom been articulated previously. The book is intended to look at how issues of class determine one's ability to
survive in the workplace - and to offer the tools necessary to move to a different level of the organization if one so desires.
Excerpt
Hidden Rules of Class At Work:
"If you were trying to get people to think a little differently, it certainly worked in my case. I will probably be rereading
for a long time."
-Joe McNerney, Recruiting Advisor