Summary of Charlie Warzel & Anne Helen Petersen's Out of Office

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The dark promise of flexibility is that it gives workers the freedom to work on their own schedule, for less, with no labor protections. It primarily benefits a company's bottom line and makes the workforce less resilient and resentful.

#2 The defining characteristic of the flexible workplace has never been freedom, but rather worker precarity. The future has always been some sort of flexible work configuration, but we have a rare chance to redefine its character and where its benefits will flow.

#3 Between 1979 and 1996, more than forty-three million jobs were eliminated from the American economy. In the 1980s, the composite of laid-off workers tilted more towards lower-skilled jobs, whose pay averaged under $50,000 a year.

#4 Productivity culture is rooted in the performance of work: making a to-do list and crossing items off it, achieving in-box zero, writing and sending memos, or holding meetings. Some of this work serves a purpose, some of it stinks of desperation, but all of it offers the worker the feeling that they’re productive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669356998

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Charlie Warzel & Anne Helen Petersen's Out of Office

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The dark promise of flexibility is that it gives workers the freedom to work on their own schedule, for less, with no labor protections. It primarily benefits a company's bottom line and makes the workforce less resilient and resentful.

#2

The defining characteristic of the flexible workplace has never been freedom, but rather worker precarity. The future has always been some sort of flexible work configuration, but we have a rare chance to redefine its character and where its benefits will flow.

#3

Between 1979 and 1996, more than forty-three million jobs were eliminated from the American economy. In the 1980s, the composite of laid-off workers tilted more towards lower-skilled jobs, whose pay averaged under $50,000 a year.

#4

Productivity culture is rooted in the performance of work: making a to-do list and crossing items off it, achieving in-box zero, writing and sending memos, or holding meetings. Some of this work serves a purpose, some of it stinks of desperation, but all of it offers the worker the feeling that they’re productive.

#5

productivity culture has no room for creativity. It is all about getting things done, and it exudes an aura of efficiency. It has no room for thoughtful management or mentorship, the sort that actually makes your organization run more smoothly.

#6

The idea of the happy worker is fundamentally subjective. It is used to describe an employee’s resilience, or their