Customer Reviews

Why Work Is Weird: An Antidote to the Frustrations of Corporate Life

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Reading "Why work is weird" is like having a wonderfully wise and highly practical friend alongside you, as you talk through common issues that arise in the workplace, and more broadly, in life in general.

You feel as if you are sitting alongside the 'patient' who is explaining to the 'WorkDoctor' what's wrong. The WorkDoctor listens, carefully diagnoses the 'problem', explains the root cause of it, and provides a coherent framework for the solution.

The book is worth buying if you only read one chapter, and use it to help think through that area of work or life. But there are seven chapters! They cover such issues as: why do I change into someone else when I'm at work? why can I never get the balance right in life / work / everything?; why am I not enjoying life, even when highly successful? and how do I go about changing things in an effective and real way?

Each chapter gives analytical tools to help the reader diagnose themselves or their organisations. It's an easy read, and happily not full of much management jargon.

It's well written, in a conversational, accessible style. Yet it provokes so much personal reflection that this reviewer found himself reading each chapter twice, reflecting first on what it said to me, and then on what it said to my organisation. It's full of profound insights put simply, and I found myself repeatedly saying "now I see why ...". And then it helps you through the challenge of moving forward in a realistic and practical way.

A magnificent book to enjoy - in parts or as a whole - time and again.