Cover Image: The Man Who Mistook His Job for His Life

The Man Who Mistook His Job for His Life

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Member Reviews

I really should have read this before being made redundant. Whilst I was working I just devoted myself to work, now I have such a better work/life balance and am teaching my young adult children the lessons from here.

I was given a free copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

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Unfortunately I did not finish this book. I found it hard going in places, despite the interesting premise.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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I enjoyed reading this book. It was interesting to find out about how things in your past could affect your working life. Many things in this book rang true for me.

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I really enjoyed this and think everyone who works would relate to this book. A very interesting read.

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Shragai makes many salient points about the importance of work in all our lives. The environment we work in and our relationships with those we work alongside significantly influence our well-being.

Shragai argues that we should treat work relationships much the same as any other relationship. We should make a conscious effort to understand why a relationship is not working, what we can do to change things and know when to call it a day.

She argues persuasively the way we work is often influenced by our childhood, where we develop survival strategies. Some of the strategies become ingrained and can often become unhelpful when dealing with our current problems.

I don’t know if there is anything particularly revolutionary about Shragai’s psychological approach, but it is refreshing how she applies it to our jobs.

Shragai writes eloquently, with humour, humanity and honesty. Using examples from her private practice and her personal life, she gives practical advice on tackling problems like imposter syndrome and toxic egotists. This is a book I will be recommending and re-reading.
Shragai argues that it is crucial for everyone who has a job or anyone who works with other people that they can change the many things that make their working lives miserable or difficult. The book’s brilliance is that she makes this change seem achievable while acknowledging that it will often be difficult and painful.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC.

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A very interesting and very useful book. I really enjoyed reading it. My boss could do with reading it as he is definitely influenced by and still affected by his childhood.

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I had the physical book gifted to me after i read this and reread it. I really enjoyed this book and how people take work as their life.

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A professional psychotherapist takes the common trends she comes across in practice and applies them to workplace dynamics. As a concept? Sounds brilliant. The reality is a bit less engaging: there are some fascinating insights, particularly for somebody new to management, but the writing style is so dry - from an author who was once a standup comedian! There’s also a whole chapter dedicated to diagnosing Donald Trump as a narcissist, which I thought was a clinical no-no. It’s definitely a different take on the business self-help genre: just not one I particularly enjoyed.

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This book had some interesting insights, but a lot of is pure conjecture and very little evidence to support some of the observations made. Overall, very disappointing and difficult to get through.

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Unfortunately I had to DNF because the book was a difficult read. Much more of a 'here are lots of facts about yourself' than insightful, thought-provoking ideas. Great title though!

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc.

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This was an interesting book to read. I find it captivating at how some experiences or trauma from childhood can reflect later on our life on our behaviour towards other people. Also it offers some solution to certain problems or feeling we have to deal with in the workplace.

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Gifted e-arc by NetGalley and Penguin.

Unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me - I DNF’d about 20% through. I thought there were some useful observations on what people struggle with at work and why, but I was hoping for a bit more practical advice on how you go about dealing with these topics or how the subjects in the case studies dealt with things with her help. I would have found that a bit more helpful than explaining what impostor syndrome, anxiety etc. are.

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Many of us spend eighteen years or more living with family and building our personality; but most of us also spend fifty years (or 90,000 hours) in the workplace. With the pull of the familial so strong, we unconsciously re-enact our personal past in our professional present – even when it holds us back. Written by business psychotherapist Naomi Shragai, the book helps you transform how you think about yourself and your working life.

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A good advice read for the everyday. Enables you to think objectively of the dramas and hostilities you may face in the workplace and to take your own actions as well as those of others into consideration.

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It is an interesting book but didnt really tell me much I don't already know. If you'd not studied anything in this area before it would be helpful. The book describes the experiences that people may have had that then affect their behaviour. Therefore it might help people understand each other.

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This was an interesting read, which looks at how we deal with things in the workplace that is affected and formed through our childhood experiences. Naomi Shragai is a psychotherapist and uses real-life examples to illustrate and explain such things as why some want to people please, avoid difficult conversations or have imposter syndrome. As a nurse, imposter syndrome is a real thing that I have struggled with. Naomi has done an amazing job at breaking this down and how to tackle it.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

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Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

The examples in this book have given me some useful insight and tools to help me develop in the workplace.

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A couple of chapters in and I wasn't sure about this - I stuck with it and am very glad I did - so much useful insight drawn from Naomi's first hand experience of supporting people with their work-related challenges. I have highlighted countless paragraphs as being particularly noteworthy and am sure I will return to those, and this book in general, time and time again. Highly recommended!

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This book was good, it made me realise a few things about work and life! It’s crazy to think how much our childhood influences our day to day adult life. Sometimes it would be easier to start with a clean slate or retrain our brains. I struggle in the office sometimes and this book helped.

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This book has some interesting points about behaviours at work, and how they are influenced by family relationships and past experiences. There is a lot of food for thought in here.

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