The Joy of Work: 30 Ways to Fix Your Work Culture and Fall In Love With Your Job Again

Bruce Daisley, Penguin 2019

 

In a world in which laboriously long hours, working lunches and weekend emails are becoming increasingly normalised, the notion of the 9-to-5 having the ability to spark joy and bring happiness may be somewhat alien. With The Joy of Work however Bruce Daisely, the European Vice President of Twitter and host of the UK’s most popular work podcast, Eat Sleep Work Repeat, wants to make you believe just that.

The book is split into three sections – Recharge, Sync and Buzz.

Recharge looks at how an employee can begin to improve their personal day-to-day office experience, with a number of ‘quick win’ recommendations ranging from a ‘Monk Mode Morning’ (removing all distractions for a block of time – yes, that includes emails, phone and meetings) to the tactical use of headphones. With Sync and Buzz, the focus shifts to the shared experience of teams and how to get the best out of them (whether you run or are part of one). What ties all three sections together is Daisley’s evident passion and conversational writing style. By combining wit, humour and years of research he presents suggestions that are inspiring and easy to implement.

A must-read for anyone looking for ways to refresh their company’s culture and fall back in love with their job.

Refreshingly, Daisley’s chief focus here isn’t a marked increase in a company’s productivity, it’s on the individual happiness of the employees that make up that company. He believes the improvements in output are consequential, not part of the change.

Reading The Joy of Work helped me consider my own day-to-day office experience in a different light. Daisley’s clear knack for down-to-earth communication is evident in his writing, making this an incredibly accessible read and his recommendations are always succinct, well evidenced and achievable. A must-read for anyone looking for ways to refresh their company’s culture and fall back in love with their job.