The Real Office: All the Office Questions You Never Dared to Ask

We live in an extremely complex world, and nowhere is the degree of such complexity more apparent and perfectly illustrated than in the offices where we work. There wouldn't have been a book such as Lucy Kellaway's //The Real Office: All the Office Questions You Never Dared to Ask// if this weren't true. Navigating through the socio-psycho-physio-political landscape of your workplace has gone far beyond the realm of after-office happy hour bar talks or dinnertime work talks with your uninterested spouse into the realm of a pulpy advice column in a respectable financial newspaper--and now into Kellaway's problem-solving book for everyone from executives to file clerks. There are already too many peddlers of so-called "solutions" when it comes to dispensing workplace advice. A plethora of executive coaches, trainers, and facilitators are more than willing to step in and offer advice based on fashionable theories of management. Kellaway, on the other hand, has no fashionable theories except to recognize that working life can be hard, and she strives to offer office workers as much relief and comfort as possible in the everyday struggles amidst the copiers and filing cabinets. In //The Real Office//, Kellaway rates each problem in terms of angst and difficulty, offers her solution, and provides alternative (and sometimes even opposing solutions) from others. Twenty-five years of working in an office and her abiding interest has given Lucy Kellaway the qualifications to hand out advice on such work-related matters as: what to do with a boss who happens to be an out-and-out bully, a gay PA who cries at the slightest thing, sharing an office with an ex-lover, choosing between love and interesting work, pursuing half-baked dreams, getting out of a rut, deciding to quit when passed over on a deserved promotion, how to be a successful leader and still be a nice person, how to be a workaholic and still see your kids, and how to contain panic attacks before a speech, among many others. From her years answering office workers' dilemmas via her advice column, it appears that the supply of problems in the workplace is close to endless, so it is likely that we can expect Lucy Kellaway gleefully dispensing more advice to so much more "quaint, unexpected, as well as morally interesting" problems that "tests one's humanity" in a probable sequel to this book. If only for the human interest angle of this nonfiction, this book (and its possible sequel) is nothing less than an educational, enlightening, and entertaining read. Reviewed by Dominique James

As somebody who hasn't worked since December 2002 and has only bleak prospects of working again, I may not have any practical use for this book, but having spent many years working in offices, I can at least relate to some of the problems raised in this sometimes serious, sometimes funny, book that attempts to answer some of the problems that arise in office life. The book begins with an introduction by the author, who has written an office agony column for the Financial Times, from which the best problems have been selected. In the process of writing her column, the author found that bosses never wrote in with their problems, so she took suitable opportunities that she got to talk to bosses as an excuse to identify their problems. The problems are classified by type, with a chapter each devoted to bosses, underlings, workmates, sex (and love), ambition, children (and wives) and, finally, office life. For each problem selected, the author provides her own answer, but also includes a selection of answers from Financial Times readers. Among the 43 problems, here's a few that might tempt you to read this book. My new boss thinks I'm a waste of space. My ageing boss is a slacker who won't quit. My boss is an out-and-out bully. What can I do? Should I tell my boss what I think of him? Can I fire a woman without her suing? Do I have to fire a friend? I did something silly at the office party. Is my close friendship with a female colleague dangerous? Why do I have to choose between love and interesting work? I never wanted to be a lawyer, but now I'm stuck. I love my work, but the money is rubbish. My baby is ill and my boss couldn't care less. No one wants to hire my clever daughter. I'm discriminated against at work because I'm childless. I pressed SEND without thinking. Help! Do I dare to take a lunch break? Should I join the company cricket team? When one looks more closely, the problems are more specific than the headline suggests. As an example, take the one that asks Should I tell my boss what I think of him? This was raised by somebody required to do an appraisal on their boss. Appraisals are one of those ideas that have become fashionable in business in recent years. When I started work, appraisals didn't exist. When they were introduced originally, bosses appraised their workers. Later, it became common practice for everybody to be given somebody - or maybe a few people - to appraise. Although the appraiser's name is supposed to be anonymous, the person being appraised can usually work out who has appraised them, especially if criticism is involved. Therein lies the problem that is discussed in this book. If the appraises, who doesn't like the boss, explains why in the appraisal, it is likely to backfire. If the appraiser lies to protect their career, nothing changes. I never liked the appraisal system anyway, but reading about this problem tends to confirm what I always thought - that appraising bosses can never work. The appraisal proble