Book Review – 101 Myths and Realities @ The Office

Most management, leadership and self-help books tend to give generic advice and suggestions about how to manage your career at workplace. But in life we find that even similar situations require different actions. The main reason for this is that each situation involves different perspectives, people and possibilities. The book, 101 Myths and Reality @ the Office provides a situational view of our work environment. The book deals with practical situations such as appraisals, hike, promotions etc. And for each situation it gives relevant suggestions to employees as well as managers. This will be a great addition to your office bookshelf as an anytime reference.

Why this book?

The approach taken by Utkarsh Rai in this book is to catalog various workplace situations and highlight what an employee can do and what the manager can do in each of the situations. The book covers myths and realities of everyday situations such as Promotions, Stress, Communication skills, High Performers, Appraisal and Salary to name a few.

Consider the following Myth and Reality as an example:

**Myth – **First let me get promoted and then I will learn the new skills required for the position.

**Reality – **To be considered for promotion you need to demonstrate the necessary skills.

This a classic situation that most of us would have faced in our workplace at some point or the other. Employees want to be promoted in order to enjoy the benefits that come with the promotion. The skills and responsibilities (competencies) associated with the promotion are not fully understood. Managers on the other hand think more about competencies because they know that the employee who has been promoted has to start showing appropriate results. Utkarsh’s book drives home this point and further provides specific suggestions on how employees and managers can resolve this issue for mutual benefit.

Conclusion

The simplicity of the book is its strongest point. You can read the day-to-day office situations in any order that you like. If some events at work concerns you, just check out the book and see if there are any words of wisdom for the situation that you are facing.

It is important for managers as well as employees to understand each other’s perspective in every situation. And this book brings out such perspectives very effectively. As you read “101 Myths And Realities @ the Office”, the myths may seem to be targeted towards the employees and not the managers. But the key thing is that each manager is also an employee. And the manager too faces similar situations as an employee does.

For many companies the appraisal activities are around the corner. This book not only will help you deal with many situations around the appraisal but is also a useful reference for future.

About the Author

I have worked closely with Utkarsh for over 7 years at Infinera. Utkarsh joined Infinera India during early days and played a key role in the growth of India R&D center and the development of the leadership team in India. He has great managerial skills that are grounded in practicality.

Buying Information

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