Top Ten

Nonfiction

Not all of these are exclusively about work, but what they do say about it is important either in a historical sense as to how the past has shaped the present (Democracy in America, The Human Motor, Voltaire’s Bastards) or in a practical sense in regard to living a fulfilling life which will contribute to a better work experience (The Conquest of Happiness). The rest are more obviously about work and will be interesting to anyone desiring a better understanding of Corporate Culture, technocrats, the history of working men and women and the decline of genuine leisure in modern society.

Leisure, the Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West by John Ralston Saul
Of Time, Work and Leisure by Sebastian De Grazia
The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang
“Strength Is Ignorance; Slavery Is Freedom: Managing Culture In Modern
Organizations,” by Hugh Willmott, Manchester School of Management, UMIST, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 30, Num 4, 1993, pp. 515-542.
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel
Democracy in America by Alexis de Touqueville
“The Working Day,” Chapter 10 in Capital: A Critique of Political Economy: Volume 1by Karl Marx
The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work by Joanne B. Ciulla
Work to Live: The Guide to Getting a Life by Joe Robinson

More good books and articles in no particular order.

The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisureby Juliet B Schor
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
The Oxford Book of Work Edited by Keith Thomas
The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell
A Great Place to Work: What Makes Some Employers So Good (And Most So Bad) by Robert Levering
Life is a Miracle; An Essay Against Modern Superstition, by Wendell Berry.
The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity by Anson Rabinbach
Waiting for the Weekend by Witold Rybczynski
“Is This Any Way to Train a Doctor: Medical residencies: the next health-care crisis,” by David Ewing Duncan, Harper’s, Vol. 286, No. 1715, April 1993, pp. 61-66.
Chaos on the Shop Floor: A Worker’s View of Quality, Productivity, and Management by Tom Juravich
Empty Promises: Quality of Working Life Programs and the Labor Movement,by Donald M. Wells
Working and Thinking on the Waterfrontby Eric Hoffer
In Praise of Idleness and Other Essaysby Bertrand Russell
The Sane Societyby Erich Fromm
Orbiting The Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Graceby Gordon MacKenzie
Technics and Civilizationby Lewis Mumford
If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Businessby Tom Morris
The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate Americaby David Whyte
Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbookby Scott Adams

Fiction (in progress)

These are not necessarily exclusively about work, but all of them have subplots or themes that relate to some aspect of work, corporations, corporate culture, bureaucracy, technocracy, etc.. They are in no particular order and suggestions are welcome.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
“The Door in the Wall”(a short story) by H.G. Wells
The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Howards End by E.M. Forster
1984 by George Orwell
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
The Trial by Franz Kafka
I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson

Movies (in progress)

These are not necessarily exclusively about work, but all of them have subplots or themes that relate to some aspect of work, corporations, corporate culture, bureaucracy, technocracy, etc. They are in no particular order and suggestions are welcome.