ABSTRACT

  • Why does a CEO who has already made hundreds of millions of dollars continue to work?
  • Why does a rock star who has made a bundle continue to tour?
  • Why do retirees’ miss work as soon as they stop doing it?
  • Why do we all wrestle with our life’s work and talk about it incessantly?

The thing about work is that we love it, we hate it, we need it, we miss it, we measure ourselves by it, we judge others by it—we are addicted to it. Work often defines us and fulfills us. Yet, today’s rapidly changing workplace environment is stressful and confusing to deal with.

In The Thing About Work, Richard A. Moran takes a ground-level perspective on what is happening at work and how to thrive in the new professional world. Through funny, prescriptive vignettes and short essays, Moran finds the “white space” in the company manual—those issues that you encounter every day at work but which are not covered in employee training. He uses hilarious and true stories from his own life and others’ to answer questions like, “Should you take your dog to work?” and “How late is late?” and “What is that foreign object growing in the refrigerator?” This very contemporary view of work will prove invaluable for the modern employee.

chapter |1 pages

The Thing About the Refrigerator

chapter |2 pages

Where the Rubber Meets the Air

chapter |2 pages

The Saddest Three Letters in Business

chapter |1 pages

The “At the End of the Day” Thing

chapter |2 pages

What's the Plan?

chapter |1 pages

Does Low-Hanging Fruit Exist?

chapter |1 pages

The Chickens Need a Raise

chapter |1 pages

Showing Up Still Matters

chapter |1 pages

The Working from Home Thing

chapter |1 pages

Are You Responsive?

chapter |1 pages

What Is That Smell?

chapter |2 pages

How Late Is Late?

chapter |1 pages

Dogs in the Halls

chapter |1 pages

That Double-Secret Probation Thing

chapter |2 pages

All My Mentors Are Dead

chapter |1 pages

The Thing About Getting Hired and Fired

chapter |1 pages

Getting Hired Is a Probability Function

chapter |1 pages

Networking—It's All About Traffic

chapter |1 pages

Words That Matter in the Hunt

chapter |1 pages

Gigs Are a Beautiful Thing

chapter |1 pages

Tell Me About Yourself and Other Lies

chapter |1 pages

Coffee Can Kill a Career

chapter |1 pages

Why Do Interviewers Talk So Much?

chapter |1 pages

Hello? Anyone Out There?

chapter |1 pages

Reference Checking and Your Secrets

chapter |1 pages

The Interns Are Coming

chapter |1 pages

Performance Review Benedictions

chapter |1 pages

When Resigning, Do It Fast

chapter |1 pages

I Don't Love You Anymore

chapter |1 pages

How to Fire a CEO

chapter |1 pages

What Kind of Gone Is Your Job?

chapter |1 pages

Never Resign Before Landing Another Job

chapter |2 pages

My Career Clock Is Ticking

chapter |1 pages

Is It Too Late?

chapter |2 pages

The Make More Money Thing

chapter |1 pages

That Personal Brand Thing

chapter |1 pages

What Do You Do?

chapter |2 pages

Start All Over!

chapter |1 pages

That Ten Thousand–Hour Rule

chapter |2 pages

The Work–Life Balance Thing

chapter |1 pages

Not My Job

chapter |1 pages

The Job Title Thing

chapter |1 pages

Projects, Projects, Projects

chapter |1 pages

The Networking Thing

chapter |1 pages

Talking About Pay!

chapter |1 pages

Working in the Polar Vortex

chapter |1 pages

Is Work Killing Us?

chapter |1 pages

Availability Is Not a Skill

chapter |1 pages

Career Paths Are Accidents

chapter |2 pages

When Playing Hooky Is Okay

chapter |1 pages

They Will Never Survive Without Me

chapter |1 pages

Are You Remarkable?

chapter |1 pages

How to Get a Raise

chapter |1 pages

Sell, Baby, Sell

chapter |1 pages

How Busy Are You?

chapter |1 pages

One Size Fits All?

chapter |1 pages

Wait Until Your Father Gets Home

chapter |1 pages

Saying Versus Hearing

chapter |1 pages

Feedback Follies

chapter |1 pages

Sharing Too Much Can Become a Habit

chapter |1 pages

Pornography Is Not Your Friend

chapter |1 pages

Love in the Elevator

chapter |1 pages

Why Doesn't Anyone Listen to Me?

chapter |1 pages

Love and Hate Relationships

chapter |1 pages

A View into Work

chapter |1 pages

Beware the Buttons

chapter |2 pages

What IS Business Casual?

chapter |1 pages

On Multitasking and Other Sins

chapter |1 pages

Are There Awards for Bad Judgment?

chapter |1 pages

Keep Those Business Cards

chapter |1 pages

Blind Squirrels and Acorns

chapter |1 pages

Keeping Up Is Hard to Do

chapter |1 pages

Get Me Some of That Inner Work Life

chapter |1 pages

Gadgets and Gizmos Galore

chapter |1 pages

The Facebook Thing

chapter |1 pages

Does Facebook Work at Work?

chapter |1 pages

More Than an Abbreviation

chapter |1 pages

Cancel My Subscription, Please

chapter |1 pages

Three Things E-Mail Is Not

chapter |1 pages

Am I Ringing?

chapter |1 pages

Does Cell Phone Etiquette Exist?

chapter |1 pages

Password Pressure

chapter |1 pages

I Forgot My Computer!

chapter |1 pages

That Google Doodle Is Smart

chapter |1 pages

The WTF Thing

chapter |2 pages

About Those Tattoos

chapter |1 pages

I Want My Cubicle!

chapter |1 pages

Apple Store Anxiety

chapter |1 pages

Pluto Is the New Benchmark

chapter |1 pages

Oh, That Sinking Feeling

chapter |1 pages

A Wealth of Webinars

chapter |1 pages

Dancing with Office Chairs

chapter |1 pages

Tech, Tech, Tech, and More Tech

chapter |1 pages

Another Technology List

chapter |1 pages

What's Your Walk-Up Song?

chapter |1 pages

Are Sports Metaphors Dead?

chapter |2 pages

Presentation Poisons

chapter |1 pages

The Praying at Work Thing

chapter |1 pages

The R Word and the B Word

chapter |1 pages

Where Is the Elevator?

chapter |1 pages

Eating in Your Car

chapter |1 pages

Redundant Conversations Again

chapter |1 pages

All Aboard

chapter |1 pages

The Thing About Skinny Suits

chapter |1 pages

Cars and Your Work Persona

chapter |1 pages

Welcome to Abilene

chapter |1 pages

Do Assholes Always Win?

chapter |1 pages

The Asshole Hall of Fame

chapter |1 pages

Being Nice at Work

chapter |1 pages

Management Gurus?

chapter |2 pages

The Corporate Culture Thing

chapter |1 pages

On Powerful Women

chapter |1 pages

What's an Office?

chapter |1 pages

Can You Hear Me Now?

chapter |1 pages

Watch Out for Fibbing

chapter |2 pages

What's Important?

chapter |1 pages

Is That Day Really Necessary?

chapter |1 pages

I Have a Suggestion

chapter |1 pages

THE Worst Boss Announcement

chapter |1 pages

On Ditch Digging

chapter |1 pages

Are We All Bosses?

chapter |2 pages

Some Authentic, Some, Not So Much

chapter |1 pages

People, Pay Attention

chapter |2 pages

Death to Performance Reviews

chapter |1 pages

Business Travel Tango

chapter |1 pages

The E-Mail Thing

chapter |1 pages

Those Best Companies

chapter |1 pages

Hello, My Name Is…

chapter |1 pages

About Those Weekends

chapter |1 pages

Red Licorice Can Kill Your Organization

chapter |2 pages

The Backpack Is the New Briefcase

chapter |1 pages

Unequal Distance

chapter |3 pages

Travel Disasters I Have Known

chapter |1 pages

Business Travel Things

chapter |1 pages

Let's Improve Morale Around Here

chapter |1 pages

Is Sitting the New Smoking?

chapter |1 pages

Stop Reminding Me

chapter |1 pages

Please Stop Doing Stupid Shit

chapter |1 pages

Lunchtime Stress

chapter |1 pages

Is Cycling the New Golf?

chapter |1 pages

Oh, Those Sick Days

chapter |1 pages

How About Gender Appearance Equity?

chapter |1 pages

Guilty As Charged

chapter |1 pages

That Permanent Record

chapter |1 pages

Calling All Characters

chapter |1 pages

The Boss Is Back

chapter |1 pages

Are You Happy?

chapter |2 pages

Reason to Be Thankful at Work

chapter |1 pages

Fist Bumping

chapter |1 pages

The Importance of Being Urgent

chapter |1 pages

What Matters?

chapter |1 pages

Last Call

part |21 pages

Special Holiday Bonus Section

chapter |1 pages

Holidays at Work

chapter |1 pages

Holiday Party Dos and Don'ts

chapter |1 pages

A Holiday Missive

chapter |1 pages

Holiday Homestretch

chapter |1 pages

The Giving Dilemma

chapter |1 pages

The Stress of Holiday Cards

chapter |1 pages

And Goodwill to All

chapter |1 pages

The Halloween Hangover

chapter |1 pages

Will You Be Mine?

chapter |1 pages

Back to School Again

chapter |1 pages

Those Summer Schedules

chapter |1 pages

When to Play Hooky

chapter |1 pages

It's Super Bowl…Monday

chapter |1 pages

Celebrate St. Patrick

chapter |1 pages

A Final Word