I'm usually not a fan of self-help books because they often give the same sort of advice: work hard, use your time wisely, don't procrastinate, visualize success, etc. They idolize the put-together businessman who's organized and knows what he's doing. He optimizes every second of his life and wakes up at 4am to start work, and anyone who doesn't do likewise should consider imitating him for a more fulfilled life.

Ruettimann's book was refreshing simply because she recognizes this trope and satirizes it by turning it on its head. Instead of idealizing this "magic career" that's right for the reader, Ruettimann is blunt about how working a corporate job can mean spending hours doing busy paperwork that don't serve any purpose. Her job in HR was to travel to different locations around the US to fire people, which sounds absolutely horrible.

Building on this idea, she challenges her readers to learn new things at work, to get a hobby and leave the office when it's time, to take responsibility for the change that needs to happen at work, and to find communities which long for similar systemic changes. The book is full of funny anecdotes that kept me reading, and I was thoroughly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.