First published 2025
Maya Chen watches her colleagues pack their desks as another round of layoffs hits the tech company where she once felt secure. The traditional career path she followed for fifteen years crumbles around her as automation and gig work reshape the landscape. She must choose between clinging to a system that no longer serves her or venturing into uncertain territory. Her husband wants stability for their family while her teenage daughter questions why anyone would want a regular job at all. Maya discovers that survival means unlearning everything she believed about work and success. The story follows her journey from corporate employee to something entirely new, exploring what happens when the old rules stop working and new ones have yet to emerge.
Genres: fiction, business, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, fish-out-of-water
288 pages · Hardcover · Harvard Business Review Press