The Thing About Work: Showing Up and Other Important Matters [A Worker's Manual]

by Richard Moran

Why does a CEO who has already made hundreds of millions of dollars continue to work?Why does a rock star who has made a bundle continue to tour?Why do retirees’ miss work as soon as they stop doing it?Why do we all wrestle with our life’s work and talk about it incessantly?The thing about work is that we love it, we hate it, we need it, we miss it, we measure ourselves by it, we judge others by it—we are addicted to it. Work often defines us and fulfills us. Yet, today’s rapidly changing workplace environment is stressful and confusing to deal with.

In The Thing About Work, Richard A. Moran takes a ground-level perspective on what is happening at work and how to thrive in the new professional world. Through funny, prescriptive vignettes and short essays, Moran finds the “white space” in the company manual—those issues that you encounter every day at work but which are not covered in employee training. He uses hilarious and true stories from his own life and others’ to answer questions like, “Should you take your dog to work?” and “How late is late?” and “What is that foreign object growing in the refrigerator?” This very contemporary view of work will prove invaluable for the modern employee.

248 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2016

Reviews

[Bonnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author says one day he saw about three people do really stupid things at work and he thought, gosh, isn't this common sense? Unfortunately neither his friends, family, nor publisher told him no, resoundingly, for god sakes Richard no, that book in your mind should not be written.

Everyone smart enough to advance at work, or interested enough to listen to an audiobook about this, probably doesn't need to read it. The "advice" was basic, full of platitudes, and annoyingly repetitive. Christ. How many times did I hear about his disapproval of dogs in the workplace? Answer: a lot. Who. Cares.

[Geoffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this periodically as an audio book. It was a good choice for this as the book includes a bunch of tidbits and insights into the workplace these days. I found it lighthearted and enjoyable for the most part. The only items that did not resonate with me is that it is more geared towards employees (which I am not) than entrepreneurs/owners, and, it is quite negative about working remotely or from home, which like it or not, is a growing reality each day. I get it that employees will probably screw around more when working outside of the office, as they don't have any skin in the game, although many won't.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is divided into short blurbs, anecdotes and essays about a wide variety of topics regarding etiquette, good practices, and work ethic. He uses a lot of platitudes, often in a self deprecating manner which sometimes comes off as slightly humorous. Yes, he may not like dogs in the workplace as others have pointed out with annoyance (get over it., it's not a big deal), but that's trivial and there are a lot of other topics that are of more substance.

Overall a useful book for someone out of college or just starting their career as well as someone who hasn't been in the workforce for awhile. Although most helpful for those types of readers, it contains a lot of good reminders that anyone can benefit to remember and reapply.

Another title for this book could be, "How to be Professional".

Takeaways:
Learn project management skills
There are no shortcuts to doing well at work, but these simple truths will lead to success:
Show up on time
Consistently work hard
Don't do stupid things, use common sense.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

This guy lost me rather early on when he expressed his disapproval (for the first time) of dogs in the office. He even goes so far as to claim that he otherwise loves dogs. Get out of here.

Dogs are incredibly therapeutic in an office and bring joy to most if not all employees on a daily basis. But I don't feel like I need to say much more on that topic since it seems so obvious what an ignoramus someone would have to be to put something else in print.

Otherwise, this book is dull and didn't seem to apply to my own work life at all. I was able to pick out a small handful of relatable tidbits but that's about it. This guy seems to have become a CFO in spite of his lack of awareness.

[Dy-an · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly fluff although I think I heard every 'workism' at my job. No real message.

[Catherine Rodriguez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unoriginal and redundant.

[Mitch Reaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book could be a helpful way for bosses to glean short memos worthy of sharing with their teams

[Tasha Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but useful chapters. Totally recommend.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright. Many short pieces of advice; some more helpful than others.

[Cody Garrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some funny, but non-valuable wisdom for the workplace.