Work Rules!
Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead
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4.3 • 41 Ratings
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
From the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations comes a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work -- and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring that they succeed.
"We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It's not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanizing." So says Laszlo Bock, former head of People Operations at the company that transformed how the world interacts with knowledge.
This insight is the heart of Work Rules!, a compelling and surprisingly playful manifesto that offers lessons including:
Take away managers' power over employees Learn from your best employees-and your worst Hire only people who are smarter than you are, no matter how long it takes to find them Pay unfairly (it's more fair!) Don't trust your gut: Use data to predict and shape the future Default to open-be transparent and welcome feedback If you're comfortable with the amount of freedom you've given your employees, you haven't gone far enough.
Drawing on the latest research in behavioral economics and a profound grasp of human psychology, Work Rules! also provides teaching examples from a range of industries-including lauded companies that happen to be hideous places to work and little-known companies that achieve spectacular results by valuing and listening to their employees. Bock takes us inside one of history's most explosively successful businesses to reveal why Google is consistently rated one of the best places to work in the world, distilling 15 years of intensive worker R&D into principles that are easy to put into action, whether you're a team of one or a team of thousands.
Work Rules! shows how to strike a balance between creativity and structure, leading to success you can measure in quality of life as well as market share. Read it to build a better company from within rather than from above; read it to reawaken your joy in what you do.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bock is a director of human resource at Google, though the company itself uses the term people operations. His delivery of his new book is consistently pleasant, engaging, and conversational, as he details the ways in which Google's sometimes quirky culture including such novelties as free gourmet meals for pet dogs in the cafeteria contributes to both employee fulfillment and a profitable bottom line. Bock's style does not embody the intense passion and persuasion of the more motivational offerings of the business genre; instead his reading is focused and straightforward. Listeners hoping for an experience to pump them up into a frenzy of inspiration should probably look elsewhere. One very minor oddity of the recording is that extra voices are provided to quote a few women in the narrative, though the practice is inconsistent and seems at odds with the overall presentation. A Hachette/Twelve hardcover.
Customer Reviews
Great balanced approach but yet radical and practical
I have a friend that works at Google. He started in mountain view and just relocated back to San Antonio to join google fiber. As we dialogued about the company and the culture I was drawn to this book after reading some of the authors posts on LinkedIn. I'm a married father of 4 with 3 of the 4 ranging from 3 years old to 9 months (3 under 3). With all my work, business travels and family time I was able to read this full book in less than a week and purchased the audio book for my wife. It was and is a great read. I must disputed the authors daughter.... :-)
What’s missing
The book is different from what I would expect most books about HR or People Ops are. There’s plenty of good ideas in here, but I think it is a pretty sanitized (almost political) narrative. The author doesn’t really address some of the challenges in DEI recruitment and gender inequities that affect the wider world of tech.