7 ms·

At one of my jobs the entire team read at least a book a week, often more and seemingly non-stop. Every standup started with every person talking about what we'

At one of my jobs the entire team read at least a book a week, often more and seemingly non-stop. Every standup started with every person talking about what we'd read that week. I'd never been a huge longform reader (more like a book a month, at best) and rarely had anything to contribute. Sometimes I'd say "our documentation" because that's what I'd been working on, and when I wasn't working _I wasn't reading_ because it was too much like work to enjoy. It eventually got profoundly uncomfortable. My manager raised my non-participation as an example of how my attitude was turning too negative for the team. I'd find out from recorded team meetings when I was out sick or on vacation that they'd crack jokes about it when I wasn't around. It particularly odd because I arguably read as much as anyone else on that team, but I preferred either technical content related to what I was working on, or shorter works like short-story collections and articles for fun. If I wasn't reading biographies and novels, it seemingly didn't count to them.

derwiki 3y ago
That sounds super toxic and weird.
gloryjulio 3y ago
I would change job unless the pay is extremely good. This is almost about privacy invasion. Why do they care so much people do at their own time?
vasco 3y ago
I'll be honest, they sound rude for laughing behind your back, but I really disagree with the notion that you're reading "as much" by reading some reddit articles or docs pages. People who keep up a book per week or month ALSO read those things. I've found many people that don't read have this notion that just going on reddit for an hour a day "is the same thing", but it's nothing like sitting down and properly diving into long form. That being said nobody should feel bad for not doing it. It's like running a marathon, don't say it's the same because you go for a walk with the dog, but nobody should be expected to run one.
- kortilla 3y ago
  People who “read a book a week” aren’t absorbing anything useful for technical work anyway. When I think about the best (as identified by both myself and widely within the org) engineers I spent the last couple of decades working with, exactly 0 of them went through a book a week. Reading that much means you’re just skipping across some other author’s ideas. The person that reads a single article about some new algorithm or research and spends multiple hours internalizing it, trying it, analyzing it, debating it, etc is gaining far more than the book guzzlers.
  - sandspar 3y ago
    Reading a book a week isn't difficult. If you read at a hobbyist reader's comfortable pace then you can finish a medium novel in five to seven hours. Hobbyist readers with full-time jobs who read on the side can read from one to six hours a day. Think of the average person's daily phone screentime.
    - arvinsim 3y ago
      Reading a book a week in a vacuum is easy. Reading a book a week that competes with your responsibilities and other hobbies is a challenge.
      - kaashif 3y ago
        Rather than making absolute statements, let's say that's true if you have a lot of responsibilities and other hobbies. Some friends of mine say they had huge amounts of time to read and do stuff before they had kids, but took it for granted and managed to complain about having no time. Lots of people spend huge amounts of their time on their phones or computers passively browsing, or watching Netflix or whatever. Reducing that time and reading instead is very achievable. This is not true for everyone, others really do still have responsibilities and hobbies that take up too much time to be able to read a book a week. Others read slowly and cannot improve. No advice about free time is one size fits all.
- 3y ago
anal_reactor 3y ago
I can really understand how it feels from their perspective. Work feels much better when we do stuff that makes us connect as humans, and quarterly corporate events don't cut it. They created a culture where they did something fun together and had a conversation topic other than work, and there's this one guy who just refuses to participate and doesn't even try to find a way to include himself in the group. Sure, reading a book a week takes time from your other activities and is way too much to expect, but if you had spent 15 minutes on Monday morning browsing Wikipedia on the topic of literature and brought some trivia, that would have been much appreciated. People often complain about the soullessness of corporate jobs, but when someone tries to do something about it, there's usually huge pushback because everyone wants that something to fit their personal preferences, and since we can't find a thing that everyone likes, we go back to treating job as a pure business relationship.
- xcv123 3y ago
  [flagged]
- castornest 3y ago
  :(
- arvinsim 3y ago
  I do agree that work is much better if you are friends with your colleagues. That being said, one always need to be wary of bad actors that take advantage of people's openness. There is a reason why the advice to not date or get too close to colleagues resonate with many people. There are just some workplaces that are toxic. Sometimes, it is just better to delineate work from your personal life and interests.
- starbugs 3y ago
  > I can really understand how it feels from their perspective. Work feels much better when we do stuff that makes us connect as humans, and quarterly corporate events don't cut it. They created a culture where they did something fun together and had a conversation topic other than work, and there's this one guy who just refuses to participate and doesn't even try to find a way to include himself in the group. Could also say the group failed to integrate a person who had different preferences for their free time and then bullied them when they weren't present at work? I think both perspectives are quite extreme and miss the mark. If reading a book a week in my free time was a work requirement, I would be out and quick. That sounds ridiculous!
freetinker 3y ago
This sounds super toxic - unless you got paid for reading novels.
castornest 3y ago
^^^ I get night terrors thinking about gig in Boston fire city good sea food but wth is up with work environments that lure you in with free books and perks and it's like hell
kwhitefoot 3y ago
> My manager raised my non-participation as an example of how my attitude was turning too negative for the team. I'd find out from recorded team meetings when I was out sick or on vacation that they'd crack jokes about it when I wasn't around. That's workplace bullying.
elzbardico 3y ago
This place was toxic, and those folks a bunch of pseudo-intelectual idiots.
droobles 3y ago
Like... an involuntary book club? As in one person opened up that they read something like The Scarlet Letter? I'm sorry that you experienced that. At an old job I read a fiction series based on a suggestion from my manager but that's because we liked the same type of books, absolutely was not expected to be read to join the "in" crowd. If anything, we were the "out" crowd!

derwiki 3y ago

That sounds super toxic and weird.

gloryjulio 3y ago

I would change job unless the pay is extremely good. This is almost about privacy invasion. Why do they care so much people do at their own time?

vasco 3y ago

I'll be honest, they sound rude for laughing behind your back, but I really disagree with the notion that you're reading "as much" by reading some reddit articles or docs pages. People who keep up a book per week or month ALSO read those things. I've found many people that don't read have this notion that just going on reddit for an hour a day "is the same thing", but it's nothing like sitting down and properly diving into long form. That being said nobody should feel bad for not doing it. It's like running a marathon, don't say it's the same because you go for a walk with the dog, but nobody should be expected to run one.

kortilla 3y ago
People who “read a book a week” aren’t absorbing anything useful for technical work anyway. When I think about the best (as identified by both myself and widely within the org) engineers I spent the last couple of decades working with, exactly 0 of them went through a book a week. Reading that much means you’re just skipping across some other author’s ideas. The person that reads a single article about some new algorithm or research and spends multiple hours internalizing it, trying it, analyzing it, debating it, etc is gaining far more than the book guzzlers.
- sandspar 3y ago
  Reading a book a week isn't difficult. If you read at a hobbyist reader's comfortable pace then you can finish a medium novel in five to seven hours. Hobbyist readers with full-time jobs who read on the side can read from one to six hours a day. Think of the average person's daily phone screentime.
  - arvinsim 3y ago
    Reading a book a week in a vacuum is easy. Reading a book a week that competes with your responsibilities and other hobbies is a challenge.
    - kaashif 3y ago
      Rather than making absolute statements, let's say that's true if you have a lot of responsibilities and other hobbies. Some friends of mine say they had huge amounts of time to read and do stuff before they had kids, but took it for granted and managed to complain about having no time. Lots of people spend huge amounts of their time on their phones or computers passively browsing, or watching Netflix or whatever. Reducing that time and reading instead is very achievable. This is not true for everyone, others really do still have responsibilities and hobbies that take up too much time to be able to read a book a week. Others read slowly and cannot improve. No advice about free time is one size fits all.
3y ago

anal_reactor 3y ago

I can really understand how it feels from their perspective. Work feels much better when we do stuff that makes us connect as humans, and quarterly corporate events don't cut it. They created a culture where they did something fun together and had a conversation topic other than work, and there's this one guy who just refuses to participate and doesn't even try to find a way to include himself in the group. Sure, reading a book a week takes time from your other activities and is way too much to expect, but if you had spent 15 minutes on Monday morning browsing Wikipedia on the topic of literature and brought some trivia, that would have been much appreciated. People often complain about the soullessness of corporate jobs, but when someone tries to do something about it, there's usually huge pushback because everyone wants that something to fit their personal preferences, and since we can't find a thing that everyone likes, we go back to treating job as a pure business relationship.

xcv123 3y ago
[flagged]
castornest 3y ago
:(
arvinsim 3y ago
I do agree that work is much better if you are friends with your colleagues. That being said, one always need to be wary of bad actors that take advantage of people's openness. There is a reason why the advice to not date or get too close to colleagues resonate with many people. There are just some workplaces that are toxic. Sometimes, it is just better to delineate work from your personal life and interests.
starbugs 3y ago
> I can really understand how it feels from their perspective. Work feels much better when we do stuff that makes us connect as humans, and quarterly corporate events don't cut it. They created a culture where they did something fun together and had a conversation topic other than work, and there's this one guy who just refuses to participate and doesn't even try to find a way to include himself in the group. Could also say the group failed to integrate a person who had different preferences for their free time and then bullied them when they weren't present at work? I think both perspectives are quite extreme and miss the mark. If reading a book a week in my free time was a work requirement, I would be out and quick. That sounds ridiculous!

freetinker 3y ago

This sounds super toxic - unless you got paid for reading novels.

castornest 3y ago

^^^ I get night terrors thinking about gig in Boston fire city good sea food but wth is up with work environments that lure you in with free books and perks and it's like hell

kwhitefoot 3y ago

> My manager raised my non-participation as an example of how my attitude was turning too negative for the team. I'd find out from recorded team meetings when I was out sick or on vacation that they'd crack jokes about it when I wasn't around. That's workplace bullying.

elzbardico 3y ago

This place was toxic, and those folks a bunch of pseudo-intelectual idiots.

droobles 3y ago

Like... an involuntary book club? As in one person opened up that they read something like The Scarlet Letter? I'm sorry that you experienced that. At an old job I read a fiction series based on a suggestion from my manager but that's because we liked the same type of books, absolutely was not expected to be read to join the "in" crowd. If anything, we were the "out" crowd!