If You Want Guarantees, Buy a Toaster: Coping with Corporate Change

In this timely, astute, slightly Machiavellian guidebook, Hochheiser ( How to Work for a Jerk ) charges that seemingly unrelated forces, persons and a domino-like succession of events can bring about changes that drastically affect livelihood. Even apparently negative changes, he adds, need not be debilitating, especially if we are able to anticipate and exploit them. Maintaining that instinct and clear goals ``are the first line of defense,'' he suggests realistic ways of recognizing the former and pursuing the latter, even though it may mean finding a new occupation (even self-employment), lifestyle, locality, etc. Free of didacticism, this well-written volume, studded with brief, pungent examples, is rich in advice that bears the mark of personal experience. Author tour. (Aug.)