Out of Office
★★★★
In Out of Office, Anne Helen Peterson and Charlie Warzel take on the future of work, primarily the sea change in knowledge labor that was sparked by the pandemic shift to home offices. A guiding question seems to be: how can professionals make the experience of work—especially remote work—suck less? The primary reason to make work better, they say, is not to produce more and more for our companies, but to become liberated and live fuller lives for ourselves. Peterson and Warzel emphasize flexibility, positive org. culture, and the thoughtful application of technologies as a way through the morass. I found the chapter on culture and the discussion of middle managers to be particularly helpful.
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“A healthy work culture creates the circumstances for all employees to do their very best work. But a sustainable, resilient one understands and eagerly invites them to have lives outside it.”