10 Ideas Proven to Make Work Suck Less

In my 28 years of working (I got my first job when I was 14), I've amassed a random walk of jobs that could best be described as a guidance counselor’s nightmare: I worked in a deli, a restaurant, and a library. I tutored high school students in California and taught elementary school students English in Japan. I was a lifeguard in real life at my college pool, and then I played one on TV (on Baywatch, no less!). I helped start a nonprofit that supported troubled teens and worked at a manufacturer that built construction products. I earned an MBA and joined McKinsey & Company, where I rode the tech bubble of the late '90s all the way to the top - and then all the way down to the bottom - advising companies on how to grow, sell, and "scale" and then how to cut, shave, and "pivot."  

But by 2003, I was frustrated. Frustrated because even the best-designed business plans fell apart when people didn't believe in them. Frustrated because leaders always spoke of putting people first, and then treated them like replaceable gears.

I had held blue-collar jobs and white-collar jobs, been paid minimum wage and a six-figure salary, worked with people who hadn’t finished high school and those with PhDs from the world's poshest universities. I'd worked in an environment where our sole purpose was changing the world and another where it was all about making a buck for the founder. It just didn't make sense to me that no matter where I turned, people weren't treated better in their jobs. We spend more time working than doing anything else in the world. It’s not right that the experience of work, even at some of the best employers, should be so demotivating and dehumanizing.

Crazy as it sounds (and my McKinsey colleagues indeed thought I was crazy!), I decided to leave consulting and find a job in human resources. I thought it would give me the greatest chance of affecting the most people, most quickly (vs. climbing the same ladder as the thousands of other former consultants and hoping to someday become a CEO). I was lucky enough to get an HR job at General Electric because one of their execs, Anne Abaya, rolled the dice on me. I learned a ton from her and my colleagues.

And then three years later a 6,000-person company called Google rang me up to lead what we decided to call "People Operations." The company is almost 10 times bigger today and we've won our share of recognition for our people practices. We've done what we can to advance the application of science to the people side of business, or as my colleague Prasad Setty branded the group he founded in 2007, "People Analytics." 

But the best part has been realizing that Google isn't unique. Lots of other companies – places like Wegmans, the Brandix Group, Costco – in all sorts of industries do fantastic things for their people too. Indeed, Wegmans was the #1 "Best Company to Work for" in 2005, winning the award the year before Google won it for the first time, and continuing to be a personal source of inspiration for me and my team.

What’s more, there’s a tremendous amount of academic research supporting the idea that the strong results these companies achieved weren’t a coincidence: that happy, fulfilled workers and business success actually go hand in hand. And we've found the same in our research at Google.

I figured that if I could bring together this research – and the experiences of Google and other companies – and share it broadly, we might have a shot at making work more meaningful for people everywhere. Out of that desire, my new book, Work Rules! was born. And in the spirit of open sourcing and sharing, I’ve put together a brief guide with what I believe are the ten most important rules for developing a happy, healthy, and productive workplace.

If you find it inspiring, there’s much more in the book, which you can find at www.workrules.net.

Hope you enjoy!