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Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead Hardcover – 7 Apr 2015

4.4 out of 5 stars 48 customer reviews

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray (7 April 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1444792350
  • ISBN-13: 978-1444792355
  • Product Dimensions: 16.4 x 3.7 x 24.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 306,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Transform your team and your workplace - what you can do, starting tomorrow (Fortune)

Spectacular (Susan Cain, author of Quiet)

Find a job you love and you'll never have to work another day in your life. Laszlo Bock, Google's senior Vice President of People Operations goes one better - improve the workplace you're in so that going to work is an enjoyable experience. Any business, big or small, local or international, can make these changes (Wired)

Captivating and inspiring (Huffington Post)

Lean In for every manager (Library Journal)

A remarkable book that reveals the secrets of becoming a talent powerhouse (Daniel Pink, author of Drive and To Sell is Human)

Clearly written, evidence-based, with practical guidance and a cogent underlying philosophy, Work Rules! needs to rule the world of work (Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of Power)

A window into Google's approach to management (The Times)

The real genius of this book is in busting myths about why Google works . . . the most important HR book of the year (CIPD)

Book Description

From the brilliant and innovative head of Google's people operations - the ultimate guide to attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and how to ensure the best and the brightest succeed.

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Format: Kindle Edition
Pay Unfairly is chapter 10 of Laszlo Bock’s Work Rules! Ever provocative this book shares the thinking behind Google’s people strategy. What is remarkable is that it is 24 times harder to get a job at Google than to get a place at Harvard University. And three million people a year apply for jobs there.
Bock is Google’s senior vice president of people operations. The most important rule is to hire great people and people who are better at your job than you are. He devotes two chapters to this subject.
Later on we get to the Pay Unfairly chapter where Bock offers four pieces of advice:
- Swallow hard and pay unfairly. Have wide variations in pay the reflect the power law distribution of performance
- Celebrate accomplishment not compensation
- Make it easy to spread the love
- Reward thoughtful failure.
Bock is a very smart man and knows that many of his readers will simply not believe that rules that work for hoodie wearing millionaire software engineers can work in their businesses. But he is adamant that they will work for you too.
Part of the reason to believe him is his personal backstory where his family fled persecution in Romania to find success in America.
“I realise that Google is in a privileged position. I remember working for $3.35 an hour and how liberating it felt when I found a job paying $4.25 an hour. And when I got a salaried job that paid $34,000 a year I felt like I’d never have a financial worry again. After my first paycheck I went out to dinner and for the first time felt flush enough to order an appetizer and a drink with my meal.”
And part is the evidence. For a retail example, Costco pays 55% higher wages than Sam’s Club but each employee generates 88% more profit per hour.
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Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This is a 416 page book about how Google handles their HR function, but this does include extensive footnotes etc.

I really enjoyed it, although you might not buy into everything, it is set out clearly, persuasively, in a fun and balanced way. My main problem with the book was that it was so relentlessly upbeat and positive, that I felt the need for something a bit more acerbic to balance out the syrupy sentiments. Accordingly I read this as a double act with Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, and found it an engaging and informative duo.

Clearly not everyone will want to read a book of this length about human resources management, but there is a wealth of insight and innovation here demonstrating that HR need not be the dismal cul de sac where nice but useless folk end up.
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Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This is such a great book, full of inspiration and practical advice about how to manage the people in your business. Whilst you may not have the scale that Google benefits from there are loads of ideas that are easily transferrable to your business regardless of size. I was especially keen to examine a different way of recruiting and training compiled with both the method and the ROI. A really refreshing look and loads of new ideas for how to put people at the centre of your business and be able to grow as a result. My no 1 management book and I would highly recommend. You also get a great myth busting/confirming insight into google
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Format: Hardcover
I agree with Laszlo Bock that leaders "who build the right kind of environments will be magnets for the most talented people on the planet. But it's hard building such a place, because the power dynamic at the heart of management pulls against freedom...Nobody produces their best work entangled in the Gordian knot of spoken and unspoken agendas and emotions. Google's approach is to cleave the knot. We deliberately take power and authority over employees away from managers." The decisions that managers at Google cannot make unilaterally include whom to hire and fire, how a worker's performance is rated, and how much of a salary in crease, bonus, or stock grant (if any) is given to someone.

This unique policy essentially frees up the managers that Google wants to develop from making certain decisions unilaterally that undermine their ability to help build a culture within which personal growth and professional development are most likely to thrive. As Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt explains, without being concerned about when, how, and why to use the traditional stocks and carrots, managers can focus on serving the "team." This default leadership style nourishes relationships between and among everyone involved.
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Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
An excellent oversight of how HR / People Operations work at Google, but not just interesting because of that. Some of the concepts in there, particularly around taking steps to remove various types of personal bias when making decisions, are applicable to any form of work scenario, e.g. choosing suppliers and other 3rd parties. Some great insight into recruitment vs training, too.

Well written, fun and very engaging. Have already recommended it to quite a lot of people as an essential read!
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