Daily Excerpt: The Book That (Almost) Got Me Fired (James) - Introduction

 


The Book That (Almost) Got Me Fired by Kelly James is now available in audiobook!

#3 ON AMAZON'S LIST OF HOT NEW RELEASES FOR NEARLY A MONTH

Book description:

You're 52. Divorced. Single mom to a teenaged son and a tween daughter. Happily self-employed but worried about the cost of health insurance, the inevitable impact of perimenopause on your body, and whether you should keep dating a sexy plumber who's sweet and funny but lives an hour away and doesn't seem that into you.

So, after 22 years of fulltime freelancing, you take a day job as a tiny, creaky cog in the corporate American machine where you're decades older than most of your coworkers - and you write about it. The Book That (Almost) Got Me Fired: A Year in Corporate America is an entertaining, midlife memoir that shares what (and what not) to do when you make that corporate leap.



Keywords:
Midlife career change; Corporate culture transition; Workplace memoir; Freelance to corporate; Women in the workplace; Single mom career; Over 50 career switchl Workplace humor; Corporate survival guide; Midlife reinvention; Career transition memoir; Age diversity workplace; Work-life balance; Second career journey; Corporate America satire; Female workplace memoir; Workplace resilience; Career pivot after 50; Self-employment to corporate; Midlife professional growth; Business humor


Introduction

 

I’d had a reasonably successful career as a fulltime freelancer and ghostwriter when I decided to go “in-house” and take a fulltime job in January, 2019. I decided I’d take the job, and write about it, the way the late Barbara Ehrenreich did in “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.” A year later, I had more than 130,000 words of notes, and spent the next couple of years writing the book you’re holding in your hands (or more likely, perusing on an e-reader of some sort).

My goal was to write a prescriptive work memoir aimed at women who were reentering corporate America after years, or decades, away from it. I thought I’d be writing about how to work with people decades younger than myself, whether I could shoehorn my freelance mindset into a corporate structure, and whether a midlife woman could learn (lots of!) new skills and succeed in a completely new environment—and I did.. But I also wound up writing about anxiety, single parenthood, female friendship, aging and body image, love, and gratitude.

            In many cases, I’ve changed the names of the people who appear in this book; with others I’ve included their names, with their permission. I’ve told this story as truthfully as I can, and acknowledge that a memoir is by necessity drawn from a writer’s memory and that the people who lived the story along with me may remember events differently.

My hope is that you’ll enjoy the ride, and find the advice I share useful as you pursue your career goals, whatever they may be. Four and a half years after my first day at a company we’ll call “Digital Edge,” I’m still a fulltime wage worker (although at a different company) by day, and a freelance writer by night. I am grateful for the ability to write for a living, and to share my story with you.

Thank you for reading, and please reach out if you have questions about midlife career transitions, successful freelancing, or the care and feeding of the creative mind, or you have great ideas for what I can make for dinner tonight.

 



Read more posts about Kelly and her book HERE.







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