Burnout has become common enough to require regulation, which says something about how work is being structured. Much of the response continues to focus on individuals, while the environments that produce the problem remain largely unchanged. At some point, that approach reaches its limit. The focus needs to broaden and become a more explicit, shared responsibility between organisations and the people who work within them.
This book has the tone of someone looking around an office, raising an eyebrow, and finally saying the quiet part out loud.
It is sardonic, occasionally funny, and often grim in the way that only recognition can be. I laughed, then felt slightly implicated. Graeber focuses not merely on hard, boring, or mismatched work but on a particular misery: work that feels unnecessary, performative, or maintained for reasons no one will name without sounding rude.
The worker stories landed for me because they echo what people have thought but never said in the lunchroom. I appreciate how it breaks through a wall of politeness and paints the strange theatre of modern work, where busyness is rewarded, visibility can outrank usefulness, and whole layers exist to preserve the appearance of importance.
'Spectacular and terrifyingly true' Owen Jones 'Explosive' John McDonnell, New Statesman, Books of the Year 'Thought-provoking and funny' The Times
Be honest: if your job didn't exist, would anybody miss it? Have you ever wondered why not? Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words: they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why, and what we can do about it.
In the early twentieth century, people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead, something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised, but…
Amy Edmondson writes about something that many people feel but likely feel reticent to speak about.
Psychological safety is often spoken about in broad terms, and this book brings a level of precision that makes it practical. The ability to speak up, ask questions, and admit mistakes is not a nice extra. It is at the centre of learning and collaboration.
The absence of safety speaks volumes in silence and promotes hesitation, which leads to disengagement; each phase, accompanied by a cost. It may appear that work gets completed, but progress and innovation are lying by the wayside.
I love the reminder this book gives that the tone of a workplace influences what gets said, and what is said informs where we focus.
Conquer the most essential adaptation to the knowledge economy
The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth offers practical guidance for teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy. With so much riding on innovation, creativity, and spark, it is essential to attract and retain quality talent-but what good does this talent do if no one is able to speak their mind? The traditional culture of "fitting in" and "going along" spells doom in the knowledge economy. Success requires a continuous influx of new ideas, new challenges, and critical…
I don't return to this book, but I'm glad it exists.
It's slightly confronting and sometimes blunt or mildly irritating, but that bluntness is its value: it cuts through the layer people hide behind. The idea is simple: care personally and challenge directly. The book shows how easily that balance slips; conversations are softened to avoid discomfort or delivered without care, and something of worth is lost.
What lingers is the clear cost of avoiding honest conversation, visible in everyday interactions where something needs to be said and isn't. It did not make me comfortable. If you can take a cold shower first thing, it will speak your language. It demands transparency, which makes it worth reading.
Featuring a new preface, afterword and Radically Candid Performance Review Bonus Chapter, the fully revised & updated edition of Radical Candor is packed with even more guidance to help you improve your relationships at work.
'Reading Radical Candor will help you build, lead, and inspire teams to do the best work of their lives.' - Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In.
If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all . . . right?
While this advice may work for home life, as Kim Scott has seen first hand, it is a disaster when adopted…
This one is different from the others because everyone loves a story, don’t they? Through Keiko, Sayaka Murata explores what it means to find stability within a clearly defined role while showing how quickly systems and social expectations question anything outside the norm.
There is a terrific, palpable tension: a system that rewards conformity set against an individual making deliberate choices about how to live within or alongside it. I applaud Murata’s deft hand to expose how social pressure can determine identity, labour, and belonging, making Keiko’s small acts feel both radical and painfully ordinary. The novel asks a simple, urgent question: who decides what a meaningful working life looks like?
To create innovative, collaborative, and high-performing organizations, we need a new leadership model.
Speaker, consultant, and former Silicon Valley executive Minette Norman is committed to inspiring leaders by sharing some of the most important things she learned over the decades she spent in the corporate world, such as: every human…
Meg Jay brings attention to a period of life that is often treated as more flexible than it really is.
The twenties are sometimes framed as a time to figure things out loosely. This book suggests something more structured is happening. Decisions made during this time tend to build on each other, creating momentum in ways that are not always apparent at the time.
What I find particularly useful is how it connects identity, work, and relationships. It gives insight into early career experiences, while also offering a way to better understand the pressures and decisions facing the next generation of workers.
Revised and reissued for a new generation, The Defining Decade has changed the way millions of twentysomethings think about their twenties -- and themselves.
Our "thirty-is-the-new-twenty" culture tells us the twentysomething years don't matter. Some say they are an extended adolescence. Others call them an emerging adulthood. In The Defining Decade, Meg Jay argues that twentysomethings have been caught in a swirl of hype and misinformation, much of which has trivialized the most transformative time of our lives.
Drawing from more than two decades of work with thousands of clients and students, Jay weaves the latest science of the twentysomething…
Many organisations are investing in wellbeing, while lamenting that outcomes aren't improving in line with investment. Setting aside the idea that individuals must develop an abrasive grit, ROW’s perspective examines how environments incubate their inhabitants. It then focuses on what drives outcomes at work, exploring how systems and expectations influence behaviour, and why individual-focused approaches often fall short even when the intent is strong.
The central idea is that when fundamental human needs are supported, performance and risk improve measurably, and organisations often try to influence those outcomes without addressing their root drivers. The book brings organisational responsibility and individual choice into the same conversation and asks a straightforward question: what needs to change in how work operates for desired outcomes to follow?
