Lab Rats, Dan Lyons
Lab Rats, Dan Lyons
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Lab Rats
How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us

Author: Dan Lyons

Narrator: Dan Lyons

Unabridged: 8 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/23/2018


Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Dan Lyons exposes how the "new oligarchs" of Silicon Valley have turned technology into a tool for oppressing workers in this "passionate" (Kirkus) and "darkly funny" (Publishers Weekly) examination of workplace culture.

At a time of soaring corporate profits and plenty of HR lip service about "wellness," millions of workers--in virtually every industry -- are deeply unhappy. Why did work become so miserable? Who is responsible? And does any company have a model for doing it right?

For two years, Lyons ventured in search of answers. From the innovation-crazed headquarters of the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, to a cult-like "Holocracy" workshop in San Francisco, and to corporate trainers who specialize in . . . Legos, Lyons immersed himself in the often half-baked and frequently lucrative world of what passes for management science today. He shows how new tools, workplace practices, and business models championed by tech's empathy-impaired power brokers have shattered the social contract that once existed between companies and their employees. These dystopian beliefs--often masked by pithy slogans like "We're a Team, Not a Family" -- have dire consequences: millions of workers who are subject to constant change, dehumanizing technologies -- even health risks.

A few companies, however, get it right. With Lab Rats, Lyons makes a passionate plea for business leaders to understand this dangerous transformation, showing how profit and happy employees can indeed coexist.

About Dan Lyons

Dan Lyons is the author of Disrupted: My Adventures in the Startup Bubble, a New York Times bestselling memoir, and Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us. He was also a writer for the hit HBO comedy series Silicon Valley. As a journalist, he spent a decade covering Silicon Valley for Forbes, ran tech coverage at Newsweek, and contributed to Fortune, the New York Times, Wired, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bharath on March 01, 2021

I read Dan Lyons ‘Disrupted’ about his experiences working with Hubspot and found it very interesting. In contrast, this book takes a broader view and discusses why the world of work is so much more stressful and less satisfying today than in the past. Dan Lyons lays the blame largely on the managem......more

Goodreads review by ☘Misericordia☘ on April 05, 2021

Q: Why now? Why has the workplace become a cross between a kindergarten and a Scientology assessment center? Why do our offices now have decor that looks like a Montessori preschool, with lots of bright, basic colors? Why does work now involve such infantilization? ... “It feels like you’ve joined a c......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on September 15, 2018

This is a more important business book than most people realize. In its pages, Dan Lyons take apart the conventional wisdom of Milton Friedman's "burn out and churn out" style of shareholder-based business and shows why the model is completely non-sustainable. If you've wondered why you're feeling le......more

Goodreads review by Rob on November 04, 2018

Boy if there was ever a book every kid planning a career in tech should read this is it, and for a lot of folks in tech, this book suggests you are all idiots for putting up with the amount of abuse a bunch of rich dot-com losers are handing out. This book will piss you off because it is well resear......more

Goodreads review by Marks54 on February 09, 2019

The author is a writer and business journalist. He wrote a book - Disrupted - two years ago which chronicled his time spent with an Internet startup he joined after being laid off at Newsweek. I enjoyed the book and thought it an insightful and humorous memoir of changes in the workplace in light of......more


Quotes

A Guardian Best Book of 2019

An Inc. Magazine Best Business Book of 2018

"I loved Dan Lyons's book Disrupted. With Lab Rats, he takes his critique of the modern workplace to the next level, to show how Silicon Valley's sometimes disturbing ideas about how to treat employees now pervade many workplaces. This is a fascinating, thought-provoking, hilarious, and sometimes harrowing account of current work culture."—Gretchen Rubin, #1 NewYork Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and TheFour Tendencies

"Dan Lyons's Lab Rats defies easy description. It is hilarious, but not funny. I sputtered laughing and choked crying (literally, not figuratively) as I read it. Yes, to an extreme, Lyons gives Silicon Valley the thrashing that it, alas, largely deserves. But in the final third of the book, he offers us an effectively illustrated way out--an approach to work and business that puts people first, profitably serves customers, and makes the world a little bit better in the process."—Tom Peters, NewYork Times bestselling author of In Search of Excellence

"A lively and spirited takedown."
The Guardian

"[Lyons] argues persuasively.... A passionate indictment of brutal workplace culture."—Kirkus Reviews

"[A] darkly funny journalistic look at the contemporary workplace.... By turns sardonic and impassioned, this is an insightful and frequently entertaining guide to the increasingly bizarre world of Silicon Valley and the trends it spawns."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[Lab Rats] exposes the junk science and questionable management practices that have migrated from Silicon Valley to the rest of the economy."—Knowledge@Wharton

"Fair warning: you may need an extra set of hands around while you're reading Lab Rats. You'll need them to help pick your jaw up off the floor."—Houston Style Magazine

"With Lab Rats, Lyons makes a passionate plea for business leaders to understand this dangerous transformation and offers a way out."—BookPassage