Surviving the Daily Grind: Bartleby's Guide to Work

by Philip Coggan

One of today's pre-eminent financial journalists, and the "Bartleby" columnist for The Economist, reveals strategies and tips for surviving—and making the most out of—the work week.

We spend a lot of our time at work and would be depressed with nothing to do. But when it gets to Monday, many of us are already longing for the weekend and the prospect of escape. How did work become so tedious and stressful? And is there anything we can do to make it better?

Based on his popular Economist "Bartleby" column, Philip Coggan rewrites the rules of work to help us survive the daily grind. Ranging widely, he encourages us to cut through mindless jargon, pointless bureaucracy and endless meetings to find a new, more creative—and less frustrating—way to get by and get things done at work.

Incisive, original, and endlessly droll, this is the guide for beleaguered underlings and harried higher-ups alike. As Rousseau might have "Man was born free, but is everywhere stuck in a meeting." If you've ever thought there must be a better way, this is the book for you.

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2024

About the author

Philip Coggan is a British columnist and author of books on economics. He currently writes for The Economist. Previously, he worked for the Financial Times for 20 years.

Reviews

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surviving the Daily Grind : Bartleby’s Guide to Work (2022) by Philip Coggan is an informed, amusing guide to modern office culture. Coggan writes the Bartleby column for The Economist.

Coggan is insightful and witty as meetings, office life, jargon, managers, chief executives and the future of work are dissected. There is mirth made of much of the strangeness of modern office life but Coggan also understands that it is necessary. David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs theory is also neatly taken apart. Coggan also writes really well.

Surviving the Daily Grind is worth a read for anyone pondering office life.

[Ronald J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Bartleby columns in The Economist. It’s a character from the Herman Melville short story, Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. He refuses all requests from his bossy, saying: “I would prefer not to.” Phillip Coggan has a wicked wit, a sardonic and acerbic look at the bureaucracy and bullshit that workers have to put up with in the corporate world, not to mention the jargon. There are many great turns of phrases herein, such as what Rousseau might have said: “Man was born free, but is everywhere stuck in a meeting.” The chapters divided into: Interviewing for the job; meetings (love the Bartleby’s law: 80% of the time of 80% of people in meetings is wasted!); office life; jargon (bullshit bingo); life of the manager (The Bartleby curse is that people get promoted until they reach a level when they stop enjoying their jobs); the cult of the CEO (“Sometimes, the very worst kind of manager is the person in charge of the company”), hiring advisers (it is nearly always a better deal for the advisers than the advised); and more. Commenting on how we tend glorify CEOs, how hard they work, emailing at 3am, etc., Bartleby writes:

"It is also annoying to read about the executive’s exercise routines. This does not necessarily translate into management skill. Winston Churchill ran the British war effort on a diet of cigars, brandy and afternoon naps."

Corporate culture (dates back to Tom Peter’s In Search of Excellence), psychological safety, rank and yank, annual performance reviews, 360 degree feedback are also all taken on, while the last two chapters deal with the future of work. Bartleby is still one of my favorite columns in The Economist, though I believe Coggan has moved on from it, he’s left behind a legacy of perceptive sardonic wit and cynicism.

Notable
Toyota, jidoka, which means “automation with a human touch”.

“The criteria for deciding which companies qualify as “good” under the ESG measure can be very woolly. An analysis by The Economist found little correlation between the scores achieved by companies under two leading ESG rating systems.”

“Frederick Winslow Taylor who developed the concept of “scientific management”. The trouble is that his methods were not always that scientific. his calculations on a small group of well-built Hungarian workers who, attempting to impress him, managed to shift 16.5 tons of iron in quick time. This was the equivalent of shifting 71 tons a day. Taylor rounded this up to 75 tons and then, assuming that such sustained effort by all workers was impossible, cut the number by 40% to create a daily target of 45 tons. At best, this was a “back of the fag packet” calculation.”

MBA = mediocre but arrogant

“In 1589, William Lee invented a stocking-frame knitting machine that would replace the slow process of hand-knitting. he applied to Queen Elizabeth I of England for a patent, he was refused. ‘I have too much love for my poor people who obtain their bread by the employment of knitting to give my money to forward an invention that will tend to their ruin by depriving them of employment and thus making them beggars,’ the great Queen said. One of the earliest examples of the concern that technological improvement would lead to unemployment.”

“Job snobbery is a long-established trait. Aristocrats tended to look down on those people who were “in trade”; Napoleon dismissed Britain as “a nation of shopkeepers”

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wise, practical advice on keeping your sanity, while navigating the often ridiculous expectations of the modern corporate workplace. Have less meetings; if required keep them focused and short, and give people the time and space to get on with their work.

[GRANT ROSS · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tongue-in-cheek look at the world of business with some nevertheless very good insights and advice on how the business world is developing, and how to get on in it.

[Ryan Maloney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying to read more nonfiction, this was an interesting concept/details explained by the author. Pretty quick read (only like 150somethingish pages i think)

[Marc Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jargon chapter was a highlight.