Ross McCammonBesprekingen

The book was provided to my by the Goodreads FirstReads program.

This was a fun read. It's a bit more memoir than how-to, which works pretty well. Having personal examples and insights helps make the suggestions easier to absorb and remember. I'd recommend this to a young person just starting out, as a way to learn about some of the possible pitfalls without having to crash into every one of them personally.

I read a lot of these sorts of books since it is my job to develop programing to help people get jobs and succeed in the workplace. Currently I do this at a liberal arts college, but for years I have worked with professionals at every stage of their careers. Generally I do not review these books on Goodreads which is my place for non-work related reading. Every once in a while though, I come across one I think certain people should absolutely read and I break with my general way of doing things. This is one of those moments. If you are a young person starting in their professional path, or are a few years in and just starting to build a network, buy this and read this. If you have a child who is at that stage of their lives, recommend it to them. McCammon gives good advice, and he does it with humor and with solid writing skills. Most of the authors who write about business success lack both of those qualities which makes this book a real treat.

I’m a sucker for “productivity porn.” Whether it’s looking at beautifully structured notes, pawing through articles on time management, or tweaking my own planner usage, I definitely spend more time looking at ways to do things than I do actually doing things. It is a strange affliction, and one that is made abundantly clear by the number of cheesy business help books I read.

I grabbed Working Well with Others by Ross McCammon completely on impulse. It was out on the featured shelf of the library and was on its way home with me before I even read the synopsis. I thought it was going to be yet another business book telling me common sense things under the newest guise of originality, but it wasn’t. It was a super hilarious part-memoir, part-self-help book that I didn’t realize I needed.

McCammon does an excellent job of giving sound advice without actually sounding like he’s giving advice. All of his tips are rooted in personal experience, usually with a funny story to illustrate either their implementation, or the lack thereof. It is endlessly charming, and I actually laughed out loud a few times while reading. And the advice is sound — it just lacks the filter of over-importance that most business books tend to place over the advice they offer.

Working Well with Others is a great read that I would recommend to absolutely anyone in the business world.

This review has been cross-posted to my blog at TheChronicHobbyist.wordpress.com.

I wasn't expecting too much from this book but ended up enjoying it a fair bit. McCammon uses his own experiences starting out and making his way at Esquire magazine to talk about common interpersonal situations and offer advice on how to deal with them. Of particular note are chapters that talk about how to handle mistakes, how to negotiate office parties, and how to deal with small talk. I also liked his comments on having to deal with a naturally sad- or angry-looking face; as the owner of such a face myself, I am used to people asking if something's the matter when I'm merely in deep thought -- for example, wondering whether to have my morning snack now or later. The chapters are very short and can easily be gobbled up in large doses. It is certainly worth flipping through if you're the sort who is impatient with standard self-help books and would like advice that feels like it comes from a real person who experiences emotions other than relentless positivity.

Pithy book that induces lots of eye rolling, but also manages to slide in some great nuggets about things like: how to work with someone who clearly resents you and how to think about clothes.

Some of the advice in “Works Well with Others” was new to me, and it got me thinking about how I interact with other people in workplace settings. I appreciate any book that encourages me to reflect on how to do things better. Even the advice that I’ve heard a million times before was worth reading again because McCammon provides a fresh perspective and personal anecdotes.

McCammon’s writing is amusing when not downright funny (with the exception of the short quizzes, which I thought were lame). It was a quick read because it was entertaining, but also because the book is fluffy and brief (the introduction to the afterword is 236 pages, so the book itself is short, the chapters are short, and there’s a blank page in-between most of the chapters, creating a bunch of annoyingly wasted space).

If you’re looking for a fun and humorous book sprinkled with helpful insights, you’ll love this. It’d be a great gift for recent college grads who are just starting their careers. (It's certainly a lot better than the dry textbooks they just finished with!) If you want lot of detailed, all-encompassing advice written in a serious tone, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Nonfiction, own, random, read