The Thing About Work ─ Showing Up and Other Important Matters

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 itwe 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. InThe Thing About Work, Richard 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 manualthose 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.

Richard Moran’s career includes serving as venture capitalist and consultant to Fortune 500 companies as well as being active in the education community in the Silicon Valley and beyond. As an evangelist for organizational effectiveness, he has authored seven best-selling books and is credited with starting the genre of Business Bullet Books” with Never Confuse a Memo with Reality. His clients have ranged from Apple Computer and News Corporation to Silicon Valley Startups and he derived lessons and humor from all. He is a frequent speaker on workplace issues and hosts a weekend radio show on KCBS called In the Workplace.”