Ask A Manager

Ask A Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work- Alison Green
Ballantine Books/ Random House
Release Date: May 1, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York magazine’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to navigating 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice!
 
There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when
 
• coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it
• you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all”
• you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all
• you catch a colleague in a lie
• your boss seems unhappy with your work
• your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal
• you got drunk at the holiday party

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For all of those people who have wanted advice about any number of potentially awkward workplace discussions, without reading dry tomes on how to be a better person, Alison Green's Ask A Manager is the answer!  Green approaches workplace issues with both experience and humor, and the realization that people are only human- and need to be treated as such.  

Ask A Manager is broken down into 4 sections: you are the manager, you have a manager, you work with others, you're interviewing for a job.  Even if you don't necessarily fall into all those categories (maybe you aren't a manager yet) the entire book is well worth reading.  You get excellent advice about real world situations- and I, for one, always find it helpful to read as many other views as possible.  I felt better about some of my own work experiences after reading this and discovering I wasn't the only one who had ever had to deal with X, Y, or Z.  Since Green is an advice columnist, each section is short and to the point.  She mixes the more general situations ('how do I ask for a raise') to the still common but awkward ('I totally got drunk at the office party) to the (hopefully) less common ('my boss always steals my lunch out of my desk').  Even those situations you haven't dealt with yourself are good opportunities to think about what you would do in a similar situation.

What I really enjoyed about Ask A Manager was the light, humorous, and down-to-earth style of writing Green uses.  You can easily imagine you're having a quick phone conversation with a friend who's giving you the support you need to handle any situation.  Humor and kindness are Green's recipe for handling many of the awkward interactions humans have with each other and I found myself wishing everyone would read this book and follow its advice.  

A fast, fun read that will help give you confidence as you maneuver not just your professional life- this book is full of advice that should certainly be applied to daily life in all aspects!  Not your regular book on how to manage others, but one that makes you reflect on your interactions in a whole new way.  A must read for everyone who has to deal with people.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review