The world of work wasn''t always what it is today. Just a few thousand years ago, all the necessities for life could be collected in 15 hours a week, with the rest of the time set aside for leisure. How did we go from hunter-gatherer society to white-collar rat race? Today, many people work in jobs with titles that would have baffled our ancestors: creative director, logistics coordinator or social media curator. Based on his immensely popular Bartleby Economist column, Philip Coggan rewrites the rules of work to help ordinary workers get through the week, filled with such sage distillations as "80% of the time of 80% of people in meetings is wasted" and "Jargon abhors a vacuum". But this book is also designed to help managers by pointing out some of the obvious traps they fall into, like corporate waffle or the hierarchy of fleas. Incisive, original, and endlessly droll, this is the guide for beleaguered underlings and harried higher-ups alike. As Rousseau might have said: "Man was born free, but is everywhere stuck in a meeting."

Vorwort
The esteemed Bartleby's one-stop guide to surviving the daily grind

Autorentext
Philip Coggan writes the Bartleby column for Economist and is the former writer of the Buttonwood column. Prior to joining Economist he worked for the Financial Times for 20 years. In 2009, he was voted Senior Financial Journalist of the Year in the Wincott awards and best communicator in the Business Journalist of the Year Awards. Among his books are The Money Machine, a guide to the city that is still in print after 25 years and The Economist Guide to Hedge Funds. His book Paper Promises was Spears' business book of the year in 2012.

Klappentext

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 on at work.

Incisive, original, and endlessly droll, this is the guide for beleaguered underlings and harried higher-ups alike. As Rousseau might have said: "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.

Zusammenfassung
The esteemed Bartleby's one-stop guide to surviving the daily grind