Official Review: If Your Water Cooler Could Talk

[C C 14]

The review is very well written and informative. The book would probably not have much value in my personal life as I do not work in a field where employee satisfaction or productivity would be very helpful, the review peak my interest in the book. I wonder how the same principles of creating a happy and productive working environment would assist in my own daily life. Perhaps the book would be able to teach me something about creating an effective environment for myself or those around me (not necessarily in a corporate world). I would consider reading the book.

[AntonelaMaria]

Love the humor in the title. However, the topic of his book doesn't appear to me. Everyone can agree that the happiness of employees is important. This is a great and informative review.

[tarafarah7]

Excellent review! I really enjoyed reading it, as it was very helpful and well-written! Thanks!!

Today's BOTD focuses on workplace culture and how employee happiness can lead to overall positive changes in productivity. Those interested in improving these areas within their organization will definitely benefit from reading this book. Thank you again for your helpful review!

[SavvyWriter36]

The book title is attention grabbing. I cannot really relate to its content because I am not familiar with working in structured organizations. Great review!

[Brenda Creech]

This sounds like an interesting premise for the story. However, as a whole, people are selfish. Therefore, I'm not sure things would work as well if the focus was on the company and the employee. Having been a manager, I believe to keep your employees happy is to show them recognition. Everyone loves attention! Thanks for the great review!

[Elizabeth_Maya]

The title of the book is thrilling. The review has been greatly written and after what happened to me last week I feel like my boss should read this book .
Since am a fun of roman and fiction, I'll pass.

[María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda]

In If Your Water Cooler Could Talk, Dr. Jim Bohn suggests that asking about the happiness of the individual employee is the wrong assessment. Instead of finding out "what can the company do for the employee," Bohn suggests that a true increase in productivity and profits will result when the organization focuses on what the employee can do for the corporation. He strongly suggests that organizations should focus on "we," not "me." Essentially, he argues that healthy corporations will have a strong focus on mission and will effectively communicate that mission to employees. Employees at weak corporations will not trust their leadership to appropriately reward employees; neither will employees trust the leadership to sustain the company through a downturn.

I strongly hesitate about this. Some of us care about the wellbeing of the company we work for, but I don't think that's something that could be said about most employees. Especially in times like these, where there's so much turnover, loyalty from the employees needs to be earned and not just expected from them.

As a member of my company's research & analysis department, I was on the team that designed a survey tool to measure our company's employee engagement. Thus, this book was of particular interest to me! Not only am I already fairly knowledgeable about the principles behind discovering a company's employee engagement, but I have also seen positive changes made based on the research we did.

Your expertise brings your review to a whole new level. I strongly appreciate you giving your personal input based on real-life experiences.

Dr. Bohn clearly spent much time and effort to come up with his approach to creating healthier companies. As interesting and potentially helpful as the book is, I did question the validity of some of the research behind the statements. In at least one case, research consisted of reading various research studies that have been done on the topic. In other cases, Dr. Bohn conducted his own research. One research study involved his asking questions of 9 executives, 13 middle management, and 22 staff/academics (n=44). Statistically speaking, this small of a study has little overall value.

You're right. Bigger and more representative samples are probably needed.
This is not a topic that applies to my life, but I enjoyed your very professional review.

[Rishi_reviews]

Employees feelings are very important for the work place to function properly. Really well written review, thank-you.

[Gabriella H]

The title of this book is very attractive, and I eagerly got the sample. Now I am very curious as to why that title was used as I was expecting something way different. Your review has made it clear that it won't involve office drama or something like that. Thank you for disabusing my mind. Unfortunately, I won't be going ahead to read the full book, as this isn't in my niche. Congrats to the author on being #BOTD!

[intotheworldofbooks]

Hmm. A book on organizational culture with "we" not "me" concept.
Thank you for the review

[Adelee Grobler]

I find this approach towards what employees want very interesting. If a company treats its employees well, they’ll treat their customers well. Thank you for a very detailed review.

[Luchris_michael]

There is a lot to gain from the book. I like the perspective of the author and I would love to read the book. Thanks for your review.

[Ogwang Ronald 1]

Infact it makes an organizations to focus exclusively on specific elements of organizational behaviors with the greatest impact on performance and employee's motivation but the title seems intriguing.

[Asma Aisha Ansari]

This is a great self-help book that explains and emphasises the importance of 'we' instead of 'me' in a workplace environment.
Thanks for this wonderful review.

[addicted reader]

I agree with the author of this informative book that production of the employees largely depends upon their social environment. Also, Bohn's suggestion that a true increase in productivity and profits occurs when the organization focuses on what the employee can do for the corporation is a true idea. Thanks for this insightful review.