Book Review: Office Secrets

A great little book that's packed with useful real-world advice

 

 

I remember the first day I walked into an office, at my first job, almost 30 years ago. Fresh out of college and clueless about the ways of the world. Completely naïve, with no idea of the kinds of people I’d meet at work and the challenges that getting along with them would entail. I knew nothing of office politics. And was entirely unprepared to even understand – let alone deal with – the machinations of aggressively ambitious colleagues, some of whom would have gleefully executed their co-workers and climbed over their dead bodies to get ahead in life.

People are what they are and the world works in ways that we might not always understand. That’s just how it is. The corporate world can be as merciless and unforgiving as the Amazonian rainforest and only the fittest – those who are best able to adapt and improvise – stand a chance of survival. In the corporate jungle, you either learn to be a wolf and lead the pack or prepare to be slaughtered if you’re a lamb.

Am I being overly dramatic? Probably not. In retrospect, the one thing I quite regret is not having been prepared to deal with the perils of office life before wading right into the thick of things. And that’s where Harish Bhat’s book, Office Secrets: 50 Human Truths You Should Absolutely Know, comes in. In this book, Bhat gives us the lowdown on corporate life and what really happens behind closed doors in offices around the world. Among other things, he writes about the kind of colleagues you can expect to meet – and learn to work alongside – in office, understanding human behaviours, dealing with endless meetings, avoiding the tendency to hide behind PowerPoint presentations, learning to thrive in new-age digital workplaces, the importance of asking the right questions and why listening carefully is important.

If there’s anyone who’s suitably qualified to write this book, it’s Harish Bhat, who is a former COO of Titan, former CEO of Tata Consumer Products and current advisor and non-executive director at the Tata Group. Bhat encourages us to think. ‘Most managers are generally addicted to action. That’s what gets our adrenaline going. As a result, we leave little time for thinking. Change this,’ he says. He suggests that we place limits on the usage of digital devices and learn to say ‘no’ where necessary.  ‘Make only the commitments that and you can keep [and] wherever possible, say no to work that you don’t have clear bandwidth to take up,’ he suggests. And he recommends we speak softly. ‘Loud voices are for the streets and shouting is for boors. If you wish to be a distinguished manager, you must speak softly, very softly,’ says Bhat and I suppose a lot of alpha male / alpha female-type managers would do well to pay heed to that piece of advice.

Bhat also writes about the relatively recent phenomenon of ‘work from home,’ and discusses Zoom call etiquette, the human need to make small talk, the importance of coffee breaks (even virtual ones) and explains why humour always helps. He explains some key habits of happy managers and I was happy to note that eating a good lunch is one of those. Others include preparing in advance for the weekend, keeping your presentations suitably brief and learning to keep your mouth shut when you don’t really need to speak. Bhat also suggests that daydreaming might actually help one find solutions to difficult problems at work, explains why writing things down is useful (‘writing focuses our mind and compels us to be clear and precise as possible,’ he says) and encourages you to try and always carry a small notebook and a pen wherever you go.  

In one the most interesting, laced-with-ironic-humour chapters in the book, the author gives us his take on characters we can expect to encounter in most offices. So, we have people who are always asking for more (more money, more budgets, more international travel, more perks…), people who don’t really work too much but are smooth characters and hence easily get away with goofing off, people who are eternally optimistic, people who are eternal killjoys, people who are way too interested in other people’s lives, people who never pay attention and people who are adept at always blaming others for their own failures. The descriptions are amusing and most people who work in an office – just about any office – will definitely be able to identify colleagues who fit at least some of these descriptions.

Overall, the book is an interesting read, with a nice mix of practical advice on how to survive – and thrive – in the corporate world, with some tongue-in-cheek humour thrown in for good measure. It may be an especially useful read for fresh college graduates entering their first job, who are just beginning to learn the ropes and find their way. But even more experienced office-goers will stand to benefit from the book, especially if they pay close attention to Bhat’s advice on leadership, mentoring, inspiring others, improving conversational skills and understanding that in a corporate setting, nobody is indispensable. ‘Often, as I stepped back to observe, I was seized by the humour that percolates so many work situations, and therefore the need for us office people to take ourselves less seriously.’ he says.

From dress codes and how to conduct oneself in office, from being generous to building meaningful relationships and from problem solving to finding the work-life balance that works for you – and much more besides – the book contains advice, suggestions and nuggets of wisdom that many will find useful. Personally, I wish I’d had the chance to read this book back in the mid-1990s, when I was just getting started with my working life. But maybe it’s still not too late.

Office Secrets is available on Amazon