Myths of Work

The aim of the book is to debunk myths around how a stereotypical workplace should be. Is the 8 hour day, the correct working hours, do open plan offices get the best work out of people, do benefits like pool tables improve the workplace. This is all handled myth by myth in an academic framework with research and references to back up their reasoning. A very interesting read.

Relatively short, this book was a really easy read. Some of the ideas seemed a little common sense to me (not every office should emulate Google) but there are some that I know aren't as common sense for others (listening to music at work? Horrors!). One I hadn't heard this specifically: We only use 10 per cent of our brain at work (I had heard the myth that we only use 10 percent of our brain, but ony at work). The chapters end with references and further reading that looks interesting.

Four stars
This book comes out October 3

Concise look at people management

I found that the title of the book does not reflect the content, which is more narrowly focussed on people management. I think that this narrow focus is great and allows the authors to discuss more management myths than they would have otherwise. As a manager and as someone who had managers, I agreed with much of what Ian MacRae and Adrian Furnham wrote. Since I am not an HR professional, I can’t say with any certainty that the authors did a thorough survey of the literature but what they did write seems to be well referenced and study results are given where appropriate. I recommend this book to all managers.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.