An eye-opening, groundbreaking tour of the purpose of work in our lives, showing how work operates in our culture and how you can find your own path to happiness in the workplace.
Why do we work? The question seems so simple. But Professor Barry Schwartz proves that the answer is surprising, complex, and urgent.
We’ve long been taught that the reason we work is primarily for a paycheck. In fact, we’ve shaped much of the infrastructure of our society to accommodate this belief. Then why are so many people dissatisfied with their work, despite healthy compensation? And why do so many people find immense fulfillment and satisfaction through “menial” jobs? Schwartz explores why so many believe that the goal for working should be to earn money, how we arrived to believe that paying workers more leads to better work, and why this has made our society confused, unhappy, and has established a dangerously misguided system.
Through fascinating studies and compelling anecdotes, this book dispels this myth. Schwartz takes us through hospitals and hair salons, auto plants and boardrooms, showing workers in all walks of life, showcasing the trends and patterns that lead to happiness in the workplace. Ultimately, Schwartz proves that the root of what drives us to do good work can rarely be incentivized, and that the cause of bad work is often an attempt to do just that.
How did we get to this tangled place? How do we change the way we work? With great insight and wisdom, Schwartz shows us how to take our first steps toward understanding, and empowering us all to find great work.
- 100 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Why We Work
About this book
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Introduction: The Crucial Question
- Chapter 1: The False Rationale
- Chapter 2: When Work Is Good
- Chapter 3: How Good Work Goes Bad: Rules and Incentives over Integrity
- Chapter 4: The Technology of Ideas
- Chapter 5: The Future of Work: Designing Human Nature
- Acknowledgments
- Works Cited and Further Reading
- About the Author
- Watch Barry Schwartz’s TED Talk
- Related Talks
- Also From TED Books
- About TED
- About TED Books
- Copyright
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Yes, you can access Why We Work by Barry Schwartz in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Psychology & Human Resource Management. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.