Artful Work

Awakening Joy, Meaning, and Commitment in the Workplace

144 pages

English language

Published July 1, 1997 by Berkley Trade.

ISBN:
978-0-425-15914-9
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5 stars (1 review)

1 edition

Review of 'Artful Work ' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I read this book during the first Internet bubble, and found it really resonated with me. It will likely resonate the most with artistic people who find themselves trapped executing ideas that don't make sense.

As a business consultant, Richards was brought into organizations trying to infuse spirit and enthusiasm, and (to his horror) observed many examples of managers trying to make their people reflect the larger organization: cheerful on the outside, dead on the inside.

In one example, he finds (unsurprisingly) that a person selling nutritionally-empty breadsticks:

A product manager once told me, “I just can’t get excited about selling those damn pizza sticks. They are vastly overpriced and have zero nutritional value. I won’t let my kids eat them. So I am going through the motions, doing the best I can, and hoping this job doesn’t last much longer.” (p. 23-24)



In a more cheerful example, he talks …