Former Time Warner corporate communications exec James Kunen told CBS News the modern corporation has been hollowed out to become an "organization chart, a scheme," in discussing his new book, "Diary of a Company Man."

Kunen tells the story of how he was fired at TW (along with 500 co-workers) and describes the end of the era of loyal employees, or "company men," as they were once called.

"There's no sense of a group of people bound together by common interest," he said.

On his role as a company PR pro reassuring nervous workers about layoffs, he added: "Before I was laid off, a large part of my job was to reassure employees that they were valued as human beings and they wouldn't be laid off, even though I had reason to believe that wasn't probably the case."

Kunen's book is about moving on from his corporate PR gig. "I wrote the book to encourage the millions of people who have had this sort of soul-crushing experience," he said. "No one should be treated this way - but if you have been, lo and behold, you may now have the chance to get back in touch with yourself and lead a happy and useful life."