L?ast week, I went to a dinner ?party that gave me a bout of ?indigestion. It wasn’t the ?bruschetta and penne alla luganica that did it but another guest’s tale of woe at work.

My fellow diner had been an executive at a well-known, global business. She had been with the company for almost a decade and had spent most of that time gradually moving up the corporate ladder, taking on bigger projects, working with increasingly important clients and, until recently, doing her job to the satisfaction of her managers.

That all changed when she was told abruptly that she was no longer right for the business and, after a tortuous dance of negotiating a deal, was promptly out the door.