Sense & Nonsense in the Office

Sense and Nonsense in the Office offers no tips, no formulas, no panaceas, no handy hints. You may be wondering what that leaves. What it leaves is a set of prejudices.

You think it sounds unpromising? The good thing about someone else's prejudices is that they either confirm your own, or they make you cross — either of which is a blessing in these bland times.

1. Management Consultants
• I wanna be a consultant when I grow up
• Don't mind me, I'm just the boss
• Breakfast with McKinsey
• Weinstock on consultants
• McKinsey comes down to earth
• The 80:20 principle
• Inside the mind of the consultant
• The gravy train stops
• A hug day
• The lady with the lamp
• The happy ending
2. Fads
• Take your fad and stuff it
• The change myth
• Missions: Full of sound and fury
• How much are you on?
• Badges and Boy Scouts
• Breast implants and the meaning thing
• We are all crazy here
• The simple truth about knowledge
• Whose bright idea was this?
• Dead stakeholders
• Passion fashion
3. Management Books
• Crazy ol' Tom Peters
• The four wives of Tom Peters
• The 2,500-year-old guru
• What do managers do?
• Wolves and wedding
• Truck driver, CEO
• Customer service in 108 easy step
• Management journals dumb down
• I wanna be a powerchick
• F+M=P*R
• Why I love business!
4. Jargon, Euphemism and Plain Flannel
• Buzzword Bingo
• First, trademark your buzzword
• Involuntary separation
• Brains on sticks
• Dream on
• Annual reports and bottom sniffing
• The inner team
• Brilliant stupidity
• I work for JP Morgan no longer
• Disownership
• Lifelong learning
5. Training
• The course from hell
• Let's play Monopoly
• Lay off survivor sickness
• Teenagers head for the boardroom
• The firm's failure to train Diana
• From concert hall to classroom
• Loved the course? Get the video
• Strategic resources and chicken soup
• Message your workmates
• The course from heaven
• Teamwork Pygmy style
6. Leadership
• Who'd be a CEO?
• Why CEOs fail
• Bland British bosses
• Ostrich leaders
• The garden pond enthusiast
• Emotional stupidity
• Prince Philip shows the way
• Leadership in the theatre of operations
• Tips from the top
• In praise of beauty sleep
• Are you a lion or a warthog?
• Forget nice, it doesn't work
7. Consumers
• Consumer choice in shades of pastel
• Bad hair day
• Astound and astonish your customers
• … Go further, get intimate
• Guess what? People don't like queuing
• How to get free money
• Directories, Jane speaking
• Dear McDonald's, we love you
• The joy of customer care
• Customer care gone berserk
• The experience economy
8. Men and Women
• Gender diversity improvement
• Thank God I'm a woman
• Pregnancy and office etiquette
• National Breast-feeding Awareness Week
• Bad management is in the genes
• Boys will be boys (and so will girls)
• Two women, one audience
• Confounded by the office affair
• Sex beyond imagining
• Boy-Boy-Girl-Girl
• The charm of the badly dressed man
9. Another Day in the Office
• Scary about laughter
• Fun by fiat
• Switchboard knows your secrets
• Secretaries and dirty work
• In praise of wasting time
• Go Home on Time Day
• Duvet days
• Management by hanging about
• Smoking can be seriously good for you
• Dandruff and Lord Hanson
• Truth is a bitter brew
10. Managing at Home
• Manage with mother
• Trouble with the non-exec
• Making a meal of family life
• Passionate about your investment banker
• Plumbers and painters
• Kaizen your kitchen
• Defeated by victory
• Click on kids
• Take it easy, leave work late
11. Stress, Health and Self-Help
• Stressed out by the stress experts
• Ode to a screeching nightingale
• The power nap
• Gym etiquette
• Control freaks on holiday
• No fatties, smokers or oldies wanted
• Misery of the mentor
• Mud baths on expenses
• Tap the power within — or burn your feet
12. Office Design
• Don't take my desk away, please
• Dangerous side effects of the no-smoking building
• Secrets of the boardroom table
• Futons and fish tanks
• The new curvy look
• Ensnared in the corporate cordon
• Hard truths about sofas
• Unisex loos
• Office chairs

A funny book about myths and comments on these. Hits it on the nail each time.