Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home

This book is not solely focused on remote work as its title might imply but on a holistic system through which employers give their employees more control over all aspects of the way work gets done and where they place their jobs in the hierarchy of importance in their lives. Journalists Warzel and Petersen (Can’t Even) refer to their proposal as a “work renovation project” that encompasses four concepts: flexibility, culture, technologies of the office, and community. In sections devoted to each of these concepts, Warzel and Petersen discuss ways that employers and workers in the U.S. can reform policies that give too much weight to bolstering the bottom line and shoehorning job responsibilities into more hours in the day. They recommend new practices based on trust and respect that let workers have a say in determining the most necessary parts of their jobs and how best to get those done. Warzel and Petersen’s proposal is intriguing, but it will require a mighty shift in mindset among organizational leaders to bring it to fruition.