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Out of Office
Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home | Anne Helen Petersen, Charlie Warzel
6 posts | 6 read | 7 to read
The future isnt about where we will work, but how. For years we have struggled to balance work and life, with most of us feeling overwhelmed and burned out because our relationship to work is broken. This isn't just a book about remote work. It's a book that helps us imagine a future where our livesat the office and homeare happier, more productive, and genuinely meaningful (Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit). If you think youve been working from home recently, Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen are here to tell you otherwise. What weve been doing is something else entirely, a jury-rigged compromise made under the duress of a national crisis thats satisfactory for neither the worker nor the employer. For Warzel and Petersen, the past year has revealed that there may be another path forward for work, one that doesnt involve hellish daily commutes and the demands of jam-packed work schedules that no longer make sense. As a society, we have talked for decades about flexible work arrangements. In this book, the authors make clear that we are at an inflection point where this becomes possible for many companies and their employees. Out of Office combines groundbreaking reporting and the couples own experiences after they made the decision to leave their desk jobs in New York City for Montana. They describe how workers and employers across America, and around the world, are finding new ways of working that make people happier and more productive, and make companies more profitable. This is a book that aims to reshape our entire relationship to the office.
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review
LisaLovesToRead
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Mehso-so

This book was ok. There were some decent points raised. But overall it didn‘t feel too earth-shattering.

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DinoMom
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The fabulous @ShelleyBooksie and I are on a work trip. Can‘t go on a plane with out some good reads!

StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego Love this. You two have fun. 💙 2y
DinoMom @StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego it‘s going to be a jammed packed work week but we will sneak in some fun. 2y
37 likes2 comments
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kbuggle
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Pickpick

Was expecting something else completely going into this, and what I read was a lot better, and less draining, than I had prepared myself for. Really interesting and different than a lot of other books I‘ve been reading on this topic lately. And Helen Peterson‘s email newsletter is also worth subscribing to

12 likes1 stack add
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OutAndAbout
Panpan

I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, i couldn‘t get through it well enough to do it justice. There‘s a predominant “all corporations are evil and out to suck the life from you” vibe in the first parts and in the summary. I skimmed the majority of the book. The one piece of good advice I saw was to do a time audit and talk to your manager if your time is being spent on things not in your job description. Your results may differ

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Christine
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Pickpick

Lots of good stuff about why we should maybe let much knowledge work stay remote. They argue convincingly that the old “normal” of work is not an entirely good thing - for the individual or society. Mostly one realizes how many of our systems need to be revamped for this to work well and how those revamps would probably be great for more than just knowledge workers. I love Anne Helen Petersen and wish she'd co-narrated the audiobook. But ⬇️

Christine her partner did a good job. I‘m less familiar with his work, but he comes off as the prototype of the word “affable.” 🙂 2y
BookBabe Sounds interesting! Great review! #stacked 🙌🏻 2y
Suet624 What is “knowledge work”? (edited) 2y
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Christine @BookBabe Aww thanks! And I hope you like it if you get to it - definitely makes some interesting points.
2y
Christine @Suet624 That‘s such a good question. I think it means anyone whose job is mostly about thinking and done on a computer. But you asking that makes me think about how it‘s kind of a goofy term bc of course all jobs require lots of knowledge! 2y
Suet624 @Christine yes, the term made me uncomfortable. 😊 made it seem as though work that needed to be done at the worksite was “less than”. 2y
Christine @Suet624 Yeah, it‘s a weird term. And when it comes to this book‘s topic, there‘s a whole lot to be said about privilege and the way our society rewards certain types of work and workers over others. What I liked about the framing of the book was how much it focused on the ways our broken systems hurt everyone and how that connects to individualism. 2y
Suet624 Thanks for the explanation. It sounds interesting and important. 2y
41 likes4 stack adds8 comments