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Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home by [Charlie Warzel, Anne Helen Petersen]

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Anne Helen Petersen

Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home Kindle Edition

by Charlie Warzel (Author), Anne Helen Petersen (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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“This book will challenge you to rethink what it takes to make remote work work—not just for companies, but for people.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

The future isn’t about where we will work, but how. For years we have struggled to balance work and life, with most of us feeling overwhelmed and burned out because our relationship to work is broken.

This “isn't just a book about remote work. It's a book that helps us imagine a future where our lives—at the office and home—are happier, more productive, and genuinely meaningful” (Charles Duhigg, best-selling author of The Power of Habit).

Out of Office is a book for every office worker – from employees to managers – currently facing the decision about whether, and how, to return to the office. The past two years have shown us that there may be a new path forward, one that doesn’t involve hellish daily commutes and the demands of jam-packed work schedules that no longer make sense. But how can we realize that future in a way that benefits workers and companies alike?

Based on groundbreaking reporting and interviews with workers and managers around the world, Out of Office illuminates the key values and questions that should be driving this conversation: trust, fairness, flexibility, inclusive workplaces, equity, and work-life balance. Above all, they argue that companies need to listen to their employees – and that this will promote, rather than impede, productivity and profitability. As a society, we have talked for decades about flexible work arrangements; this book makes clear that we are at an inflection point where this is actually possible for many employees and their companies. Out of Office is about so much more than zoom meetings and hybrid schedules: it aims to reshape our entire relationship to the office.

Print length

273 pages
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

December 7, 2021
File size

3741 KB
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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

A Fortune Book to Read • An Inc.com Inspiring New Book • A LitHub New and Noteworthy Book • A Riveter Best Book of the Year • A TechCrunch Best Book of the Year • A TechRepublic Best Book of the Year

"The authors take the reader on a deeply researched tour through America’s broken work landscape and sketch out a vision of what a better future might look like.”
—David Wainer, Bloomberg Businessweek

“This book will challenge you to rethink what it takes to make remote work work—not just for companies, but for people. With lucid writing, provocative examples, and refreshing candor, Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen highlight what too many workplaces are doing wrong—and how we can start getting it right.”
—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

"Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen talked with workers and managers around the world to get at the meat of how to change the story: trust, flexibility, and equity for every employee level. A healthy work–life balance doesn’t mean a decrease in productivity; it means happier, healthier workers."
—BookRiot

"Insightful and timely... Never sacrificing meaningful analysis for easy answers, this is a remarkable examination of the rapidly-changing workplace."
—Publishers Weekly, starred

"If you believe there’s a better way to live than refreshing your work email until you close your eyes at night, you’ll appreciate this deep dive into how workers relate to the office."
—Angela Haupt, Washington Post

"Out of Office isn't just a book about remote work. It's a book that helps us imagine a future where our lives - at the office and home - are happier, more productive, and genuinely meaningful. As companies and employees imagine their post-pandemic futures, Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen have provided an essential framework for rethinking how we work.”
—Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of HabitandSmarter Faster Better

"Based on a historical review of workforce expectations, journalists Warzel and Petersen focus on four key areas for strategic change to improve working conditions, employee satisfaction, and wellness... Prior to the pandemic, worker burnout, transience, and dissatisfaction were culminating in a call for change. The pandemic and remote-work chaos heightened awareness of the need for change, the returnto work now occurring provides the opportunity, and this book provides a roadmap."
—Booklist

About the Author

CHARLIE WARZEL writes the newsletter, Galaxy Brain for The Atlantic, where he is a Contributing Writer. Before that he was a writer-at-large for the New York Times Opinion page, and a senior technology writer at BuzzFeed News. He was the lead writer of the Times' Privacy Project and co-author of 'One Nation Tracked,' a seven-part investigative series on smartphone location tracking, for which he was named a finalist for the 2020 Livingston Award for National Reporting. Before the Times, Warzel was a senior technology writer at BuzzFeed News, covering technology's biggest platforms, disinformation, and information warfare. He was the recipient of a 2019 Mirror Award for his reporting on Facebook's privacy struggles. He lives on an island off the coast of Washington state.

ANNE HELEN PETERSEN writes the newsletter Culture Study, and is the author of four books, most recently Out of the Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home (co-written with Charlie Warzel) and Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. She received her Ph.D. in media studies from the University of Texas, and was formerly a senior culture writer at BuzzFeed News. She lives on an island off the coast of Washington state. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08PCNQY35
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (December 7, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 7, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3741 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 273 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0593320093

Best Sellers Rank: #93,150 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #39 in Workplace Behavior
- #40 in Career Guides
- #305 in Workplace Culture (Books)

Customer Reviews:
186 ratings

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Anne Helen Petersen received her PhD in media studies from the University of Texas, where she studied the history of the gossip industry. Today, she writes about the future of work, celebrity, burnout, and more at her newsletter, Culture Study.

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Charlotte A. Hu

Talks redeveloping cities; but telework = migration to rural areas - Great ideas for telework office

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 10, 2022

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Most of what the author wrote, I disagree with, but I gave him 4 stars for stepping out in front of the pack. I saw the other posts about missing pages in the print edition. I listened to the audible version and didn't notice any gaps.
One thing that resonated with me and we're going to try to implement in our office is an intro video from each employee on an intranet website so incoming employees can orient themselves within the organization. It has been a challenge for onboarding people to feel connected since they (including me) have never been in the building and don't have the opportunity to bump into people and chat. This has impacted us in two ways - 1) knowledge of the function of various offices and to know who to call for what and 2) just feeling human. We did a mental health stand down recently and our U.S. Air Force folks created an ice breaker where each person shows something on camera that is sentimental to them. This was a great getting to know you opportunity. I'm going to add that or something like it to our intro videos so the videos aren't just business.
The other elements of the book, however, fell flat. The discussions about restructuring cities seemed odd since my brother is moving from San Diego to a rural 44 acre ranch in Houston, Mississippi where he can telework the same job he had in San Diego. One of my colleagues from the DC area moved to rural Delaware already and another is working on buying a place in southern West Virginia. As far as I can see, the 200+ year trend of rural to urban migration might be reversed thanks to COVID and telework/remote work. Add to that, I'm watching The Wire (yes, I'm late). But cities just look dystopian to me.
The note to workers fell flat. While the author read a lot and researched a lot about making predictive books, he doesn't seem to have read the books about Why We Work. The latest logic is that humans desire autonomy, mastery and purpose. So, his rail against discipline and self denial didn't connect. Mastery requires hard effort. But it's emotionally, spiritually and socially fulfilling. But that requires a purpose. Of course, the author's example of 75 Hard lacks a purpose. People are increasingly searching for jobs that give more than just a salary, but rather provide a sense of purpose and value added to humanity. Sorry, he missed.
The community section misses largely due to the missing migration element. If I'm right and people are migrating from urban to rural, we will return to an environment where you know the names of your neighbors. What's more, even before I moved to house just outside the city limits of Mount Airy, an hour or more from DC, I was seeing a lot more of my neighbors in College Park because all of us were teleworking and we all walked around the neighborhood several times a day. I did and I encourage my colleagues to get outside and walk during theoretical telework meetings. Of course, collaborative document creation meetings don't allow for walks. We have to be on the computer. But if we are discussing how things can or should work, walking while talking is good.
While I disagreed with the author maybe on most points, I give him a positive review for making me thing about precisely how I disagree and why. I'm also deeply grateful for him giving me some talking points for the discussions in my office regarding the workplace of the future.
Maybe the best part of this book will be the next book, the one I hope he writes after he gets feedback on this book and/or feedback from discussions online about this book.

3 people found this helpful

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E. Hanna

One of the Best Business Books!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 7, 2022

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This is one of the best books I've read in a long time about business, work culture, management and any other employee-employer relationship-based narrative. I thought that the book will be about how to manage or organize one's life out of the office and how to work from home, i.e., a typical business book on how to do better and how to make work "work". But the book actually separates the typical pro capitalistic culture that engulfs our society and in a witty way, allows you to think about life independently from work. Ever since I started working, I found out that every single organization focuses on what's good for the shareholders, profits, and the hunger for continuous growth - which I understand - but the sad part it is in every way possible, even if that interferes with life, family and individual's well-being. Nobody cares about the employee, and everyone is replaceable - any one that says otherwise is lying. Separating work from personal life is paramount to leading a better fulfilling life - unless you want to reach your old age with regrets for missing out on enjoying life.
I am not sure who would give such a book a negative review or a one-star rating unless that individual is (1) paid to do so or (2) owns / manages the organization(s) that treat(s) their employees as slaves (which are plenty). Advocating for a better work-life balance cannot be criticized in any way and criticizing that is simply dumb.
The pandemic has taught a lot of us the importance of having a balance, of having a life outside of work, and of putting family and friends above all - including work, promotions and bonuses. None of it has any meaning otherwise. Work hard but play even harder - and separately.
I wish there are more books that advocate such a shift in culture, and I hope that owners and managers will realize that themselves and change the business culture forever - to the better, with respect to the employee and their personal life.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

"Heigh-Ho, It's Off to Work We Go" or Not?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 20, 2021

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During the pandemic, it is estimated that 43% of Americans worked remotely. This timely, well written and researched book explores the history of work and how it has evolved over time. The authors, both journalists, crafted this work around four major themes: Flexibility, Culture, Technology of the Office and Community. All of these major themes contain pros and cons. For example, working from home may provide options like working when it is convenient for you or working around child and elder care needs, but it may result in actually putting in more overall hours on your job. The remote workspace may create a sense of isolation and a lack of benefits, but it also provides some space to set the worker's own ground rules.

This reviewer found the chapter on Technology of the Office fascinating! How can team and group work continue in isolation? Human ingenuity necessitated the development of programs that enabled people to work with and communicate with others. It also allowed for the inclusion of more types of workers: the disabled, women and minority workers. Sometimes these technologies can create problems. For example, the introduction of email in the office, actually increased the use of paper by 40%! This book explores how some companies made a commitment to address this problem.

The authors readily admit that it is difficult to predict the future of both work and the work place. The last chapters: A Final Note to Bosses and Letters to Workers provide a lot for both sides of the desk to think about. Work is a job and a way to make a living. What about quality of family life and the design and needs of the communities in which we live? Can a human make the most of all of it? The authors believe, there is a way.

8 people found this helpful

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KG

Too much of a rant

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 14, 2022

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This book is basically a rant about everything that’s wrong with the corporate environment, combined with some very boring history lessons, and provides few insights or suggested solutions. Would not recommend to anyone who is seriously interested in learning about navigating the new world of hybrid work

5 people found this helpful

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Brian Yarwood

Tarifa chalets Out of the Office

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 15, 2022

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This book is an excellent read and because our own personal
weakness in are DNA is that we like people.
We set up “ Out the Office “ 14 years ago so this book
answers most all anthropological questions on the future
of work / life balance.
Life chances are : Circumstances, Chances and Luck.
We are lucky that we studied Global change and we like people !

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