Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

A few chapters in, I was prepared to dismiss this as just another collection of idealized, “aren’t we amazing” ways of doing things at a hip, with-it company…but it got better.

The book is written by the head of HR at Google, and describes all of the “Google-ly” things they do for their employees.

It’s interesting. He writes well, and there are larger themes throughout that might make you think about how a company relates to the people that work there. Although, I think it’s fair to say that implementing these policies and benefits would require you to have an enormous amount of freedom and resources at wherever you work. What works for Google clearly isn’t going to work everyone.

In microcosm, you can pick the book apart, but from a distance it paints an aggregate picture of employee relations and engagement that’s inspiring.