«Always be assessing your particular skills and your particular experience and your particular abilities and energies and interests, and matching them up with the available work to be done. And then be prepared to sell yourself into challenges.»

«We are all moving into the workplace of the future together. It's all about competing for the best people. And the best people are thinking about their worklives in a whole new way. [Employers] have to lose their attachment to the old-fashioned career path. We can all learn from the emerging workforce and generation.»

«The No. 1 thing is to be one of those people who gets a lot of work done very well, very fast. Don't be scared into submission by all the downsizing activity. That's exactly the wrong message to take.»

«There's tremendous demand for skilled people at all levels of almost every organization and almost every industry and that's true in almost every part of the country.»

«In today's global economy, employees and their employers need to think about their working lives in a whole new way, ... Everything is turned on its head. [Job] security is not about stability; it's about mobility. The very same forces that are changing today's workplace are working on Gen X, and they are dovetailing.»

«If you're one of those people who gets tons of work done very well, very fast, and you can prove it, you're not going anywhere.»

«The thing that people need to remember is that downsizing may be back on the front pages, but the downsizing never slowed down. Downsizing has been a constant and regular feature of the new working world, and it will continue to be.»

«Whatever you don't outsource, you'd better be great at, ... Before we're through, you might be the only 'employee' left in your business.»

«The norm will be to work for several employers; on again, off again; as an employee one year, as an independent contractor the next year; 40 hours one week, 20 hours another; on-site this month, telecommuting the next; and so on,»

«[? The CIA offers one-year sabbaticals to some of its agents who are considering leaving. Those who do leave may still be tapped for their expertise on an as-needed basis.] Indeed, it is common practice for the CIA to keep the security clearance of former agents long after they leave the agency so they can accept missions on an occasional basis, ... Why? In order to maximize their massive training investment and, even more critical, to give the individual a strong personal incentive to maintain the integrity of the proprietary information in her brain.»