The Rules of Work, Expanded Edition: A Definitive Code for Personal Success (2nd Edition) (Richard Templar's Rules) [Formato Kindle]

The format of the book The Rules of Work is nicely laid out and the flow from the first rule to the last makes common sense. You build one habit on top of the other to fashion yourself into a professional level employee. After all, how can anyone really argue against presenting a clean and polished appearance?
While I'm working, I adhere to many of these rules myself and while I am not at the moment trying to make it to the top of the corporate ladder (maybe after the kids are in school full time), I do notice that certain managers choose me for project work over peers who are dressed more casually or truly gossip more. What is also interesting is that I have begun doing some of these things in my personal time too. I no longer dress in sweats on my days off, but make sure I look tidy. It has actually brought me into contact with some potential future job opportunities because people notice now that may have dismissed me before.

This brings me to the one point of the book that I didn't like very much, but is a fact of life that one does have to swallow. The rules are all about presenting an exterior that can be superficial. Truthfully though, the world, especially the working world is largely based on superficial impressions. If you look or dress slovenly, people imagine your work to be that way. If you dress sharply and neatly, people perceive you to be on top of your game and organized.

This is a good basic book of rules for most professional areas of work. It might not apply at Google as another reviewer mentioned, but we can't all work at Google, and this provides guidelines for getting ahead where we do.

This is a book about how to manipulate and maneuver among interpersonal relationships in the workplace. I would not like to follow the guidelines in this book because I wouldn't like to work with others who did. Basically, the author recommends that workers employ lip service instead of resisting a bad idea or summoning up plain old dissension with the boss/upper management. While this might lead you down the path to classic brown-nosing, it may be useful if all you care about is keeping your job and not locking horns. I agree that there can be impossible egos in the workplace, however, one is free to seek employment elsewhere when faced with a gargoyle replete-with-fangs supervisor. Such objectionable management should be drummed out of leadership roles. Better yet, I fancy the notion of strategy and solidarity to get the gargoyle boss fired.

The authors would have one present him/herself as a well groomed, on time, diligent, patient, reliable employee and by following all these tenets, the author believes that the worker will rise to the top of the workplace ladder. The problem with the author's advice is that it leaves no room for the trendsetters who pioneered flex-time, job-sharing, or working from home. If everyone followed the author's philosophy, I would still be required to wear a dress to high school that was no shorter than the bottom of my kneecaps. I probably wouldn't be able to vote. I certainly would be relegated to a typing pool. This advice also leaves no room for the spirit of entrepreneurship, original thinking, fun at work, and every Google millionaire grunt with baggy jeans, long frizzy hair, and free snacks all over the desk. Everyone knows that if you want to be average, follow the rules for average folk (this book). If you want to be you (spectacular), don't follow - lead.

While containing a few good reminders that make for a more likable work environment (Don't swear, Don't moan, etc), many of these tips are easier said than done.

To obey the "Rules Of Work" you have to be a guy who never complains, always works really hard all the time, is always put together, stylish, well groomed, and never EVER makes mistakes. That's all well and good, but let's face it, half the "Don'ts" in this book aren't really the kind of things you do on purpose, and half the "Do's" in this book are things you either know already, or are character traits that aren't nearly as easy to turn around as this guy makes them sound. The rest is just stuff to make you fit in, which is pretty shallow and cheap, honestly.

So the book has some genuinely nice ideas, but mostly its a big bunch of shameless tips on social conformity and things that are easy to say but hard to do.

Pretty disappointing, overall.