Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person

 Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person
by Barrie Jaeger
Pages: 238
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This title builds on Elaine Aron's bestseller, The Highly Sensitive Person and includes a foreword by her.

People who are highly sensitive are often creative, intelligent and dedicated workers. But to be successful, they need to have work that they are passionate about and develop skills to build confidence, combat stress and the over-stimulation that comes with many workplaces.

This book can help anyone who is a highly sensitive person find out if their job is the right one for them, learn how to make their opinions heard and valued, protect themselves from bullies. It could also be a useful tool for managers and others in leadership roles. Currently experts estimate that 20% of the population is a highly sensitive person. They are often introverts but there are some extroverted highly sensitive people too.

After a co-worker loaned me her copy of Elaine Aron's book, I realized that I am a highly sensitive person and that can be a good thing. I picked up this title, from the State Library collection to see what insights and tips it could provide me. I knew that library work has given me great opportunities to help others find information and resources they needed as well as a new favorite author. This book helped me realize why, though I loved helping people and working at the public library, I needed a change. The quieter atmosphere and the great reference staff team at the State Library has reduced my stress and made me look forward to going to work each day again.

Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything by Anne Bogel

Summary: "If the viral Buzzfeed-style personality quizzes are any indication, we are collectively obsessed with the idea of defining and knowing ourselves and our unique place in the world. For readers who long to dig deeper into what makes them uniquely them(and why that matters), popular blogger Anne Bogel has done the hard part--collecting, exploring, and explaining the most popular personality frameworks, such as Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, and others. She explains to readers the life-changing insights that can be gained from each and shares specific, practical real-life applications across all facets of life, including love and marriage, productivity, parenting, the workplace, and spiritual life." - Amazon

I have always been interested in personality tests.  I find the categorization of people fascinating, and I think all of these different tests can help you figure out a little more about yourself, even if it's just that you don't like personality tests :).

One of the better parts of this book was the inclusion of tests I have never taken or heard much about, like the StrengthsFinder and Enneagram.  It was fun to take the tests, read her interpretation, and examine how I fit into the molds.  This book is NOT a scientific study.  It is based on research, but it is meant more for the average person who wants to learn more about personality and personality tests.

4/5

224 pages

Just in case anyone is interested, I am an INTP, Type 9, Words of Affirmation, Intellectual, and a Ravenclaw (this one isn't in the book but still highly relevant, imo).  And if  you know yours, share!

"The Power of Sensitivity: Success Stories by Highly Sensitive People Thriving in a Non-sensitive World" by Ted Zeff, Ph.D.

This book is an accumulation of short essays written by highly sensitive people.  High sensitivity is an innate trait with the tendency to process information more deeply, be easily overstimulated, have increased emotional reactivity and empathy, and have an increased perception of subtleties.  Although research shows that about 20% of the population are highly sensitive people (HSPs), we are not very valued in our society.  We are usually told "you're too sensitive" or "just get over it" or "be more sociable" and are made to feel like there is something wrong with us.  This book shows HSPs having success in many aspects of life by using their high sensitivity to enhance the world around them.  Quite a few suggestions are given for improving the quality of life, including self-care, somatic healing, releasing guilt, risk-taking, and more.  It was inspiring to read how so many HSPs have come to accept and value their high sensitivity.  I highly recommend first reading the most authoritative book on HSPs, "The Highly Sensitive Person: How To Thrive When The World Overwhelms You" by Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D., before reading this one.  186 pages.

"Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History's Great Personalities" by Claudia Kalb

This excellent book covers the mental illnesses and/or personality disorders of 12 very famous people:  Marilyn Monroe (borderline personality disorder), Howard Hughes (obsessive-compulsive disorder), Andy Warhol (hoarding), Princess Diana (bulimia), Abraham Lincoln (depression), Christine Jorgenson (transgender), Frank Lloyd Wright (narcissism), Betty Ford (alcoholism/drug addiction), Charles Darwin (anxiety), George Gershwin (hyperactivity), Fyodor Dostoevsky (gambling addiction), and Albert Einstein (Asperger's syndrome).  I love personality theory and found this book to be extremely engrossing and accessible with many sources and notes listed for each person, some of which I can't wait to read for a deeper understanding.  The author is not making diagnoses on her own (she's a journalist and editor) but used these many sources to paint a fascinating and usually compassionate portrait of these well known people.  I found all except the final two figures and their diagnoses to be engrossing, probably because I don't find gambling addiction and Asperger's syndrome to be all that interesting.  However, the fact that all of these people made great contributions to society while trying to deal with sometimes debilitating problems makes their accomplishments all the more remarkable.  (Except for Frank Lloyd Wright - he was just a huge jerk to everyone around him and probably could have achieved even more if not for his extreme narcissism.)  320 pages.

"Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain

This wonderful book, written by an introvert, explains not only the biology of introversion but how introverts are different from extroverts as babies and in work, love, communication, parenting, and more.  First popularized by psychologist Carl Jung in 1921, introversion and extroversion refer to different points of focus.  Introverts focus on their inner thoughts and feelings while extroverts focus on their external world of people and activities around them.  Quoting Cain, "Introverts recharge their batteries by being alone; extroverts need to recharge when they don't socialize enough."  She explains how introversion is not the same as shyness, which is caused by social anxiety or the fear of social disapproval.  All introverts aren't shy, and all extroverts aren't loud and gregarious.

As a psychology major in college, as well as an introvert, I've read a lot about this subject over the years so I went into this book with a good understanding of it.  However, I hadn't read much about the ideal work environments for introverts and extroverts.  Introverts do their best creating if they are able to get away from other people and their many noises and distractions so that we can concentrate and do our deep thinking without interruptions.  Four walls (real walls that reach from floor to ceiling!) and a door so that we can work alone are what introverts need.  Committees and teams are better for extroverts, who tend to dominate such environments even if they don't have the best ideas. 

Cain covers many other topics in regards to introversion, all of it backed up by science. I could go on and on about how many parts of this book were so interesting and really acknowledged and validated my feelings of otherness, especially in the American culture that values extroversion and socializing so much.  I think everybody should read this book, especially extroverts who are supervisors or parents of introverts so that they are better aware of how to deal with this personality type that is so different from their own.  Very highly recommended!  333 pages.

Susan Cain's web site where you can take a quiz to see if you are an introvert or an extrovert:  http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/

Radio interview with Susan Cain:  http://ttbook.org/book/susan-cain-quiet-power-introverts-world-cant-stop-talking