Radical Candor is a good book about being a great boss and therefore maximizing your business’ potential. It’s a book that made me reflect on many of the boss’ I’ve had, especially my current one who definitely could use this book. Though if I gave it to her, she’d probably become furious and I would become unemployed. So it goes. While I really appreciate this books message and presentation of important ideologies that I have experienced while working at IKEA (and therefore know it works), I do believe that this book could have been half the length if not shorter.

Now the good is this: it sums up two things that always drive me nuts at jobs. The fact that  I as a worker often feel like my boss is cold and really doesn’t care about me as a human. I feel like an ends to a means that all in all I don’t care about in the slightest. You really think I care about BBQ? No, not particularly. The other point being critique going both ways. I especially like this idea and all of the parts related to this. This is because workers like me, we are in the metaphorical trenches all the time and therefore have an idea of how things are going and could be improved/fixed. Sadly, it often is more the case that I get all the critiquing and it is not a symbiotic relationship. At the end of the day, I hate where I work and so do my coworkers therefore as a byproduct it shows.

That said, I feel like this book could have been shorter. The first chapter summarizes everything very well. The next two chapters expand upon this and fill in the missing details. But after that, it kind of feels like a loop. I feel like the same information is presented over and over but with different wording. I found this unhelpful and drawn out. And I like long things often. I like Tarantino films, I like Miyazaki films, I like songs that go past seven minutes, I enjoyed James Joyce. But all of things furthered a plot or something akin to one, this book just rambles. At the point it just became draining and tedious. Also, as someone who isn’t in charge of other people, this was interesting but uninspiring. There is or was very little I can actively do with this information.

Overall, I agreed with the sentiment. I think that all businesses, small or large, need to realize that the people they employ are just that: people. Just like them, they have lives and dreams as well as a life outside of work. To maximize efficiency I think all bosses or managers should read this book. But I do believe it drags on and to someone in my shoes, doesn’t really fit with what I want to do.