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The Rules of Work - A Definitive Guide to Personal Success | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Templar
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Category: Book
List Price: £10.99
Buy New: £3.50
You Save: £7.49 (68%)
New (35) Used (17) from £2.12
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 1607
Media: Paperback
Edition: New title
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0273662716
Dewey Decimal Number: 158
EAN: 9780273662716
ASIN: 0273662716
Publication Date: September 27, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 A bit depressing! July 18, 2008
Mr. Richard Brockbank
I quite enjoyed this book. There are some genuinely useful ideas in it (although for the most part it does feel a bit 'old economy' - think 'How to succeed in a large british corporation in the late 80s' and you'll be on the right lines).
It's also a bit depressing on its own - probably best read in conjuction with the Rules of Life, which may actually make you happier, rather than simply making you a man/woman with a nice suit, big salary and a lovely office who's sold his/her soul to get there!
Could be renamed "A realists guide to common sense" March 29, 2008
Dmitri M. A. Hubbard (Hong Kong)
We all know common sense is not that common, or at least easily forgotten. We all know all the truths in this book, even if we often forget them. Some of the advice in the book we do not need to accept - this is one person's opinion on how to succeed. I would say however, if your objective is to move up within a medium to large size company, you would do well to follow MOST of the advice in this book.
This is not in my mind a guide to personal success in business or to running your own business. It is very much directed at "getting ahead" within a system. Most of the advice in this book will work, and even if you don't agree with all Templar's points, you will still gain something from reading this, even if just to understand better how some successful people that you don't like are managing to succeed "despite their considerable shortfallings".
If you don't believe me, try it.
A little retort August 1, 2007
Jez Davis (Saltburn-by-the-Sea)
5 out of 13 found this review helpful
To comment upon the review below:
J.D.L. Bailey certainly seems to be an assertive character, which begs the question: why would this person bother to read such a text?
Myself - I'm a maths teacher, so I avoid reading books on how to teach maths. Of course some sections in them would be, subjectively speaking, 'right' and other sections 'wrong'. I already know what works for me and my students, why pick fault with others' opinions?
Bailey complains of an undertone (current?) of '"American-ness"' [sic], yet begins a sentence with 'Erm...HELLO', clearly displaying a colonial language influence. Fault is also picked with typos (a definite case of 'pot calling kettle') - I won't waste time pointing them all out, 'you will have so much fun discovering them for yourself'. Cringe-worthy arrogance.
The final three paragraphs of speculative and seemingly drunken ranting display a more than obvious 'undertone' of anger (see the increasingly common use of capitalisation) that the reviewer themselves did not write such a book, and a frustration that the author should be making a living from something Bailey himself (herself?) desperately wishes they had the courage, skill and invention to do; the perennial weakness of the majority of critics.
My opinion of the book? I haven't read it.
But I can spot an envious rant from a hundred yards.
 Common sense meets "pseudo phsyco-babble." April 1, 2007
J. D. L. Bailey (Paris)
32 out of 45 found this review helpful
Here is your recipe for success at work: Take one cup of common sense, one cup of smarminess, a tablespoon of hypocrisy and a tub of margarine.
Whisk them all intensely until you have a nice froth - et voilą! You now have success at work, and, in Richard Templar's case, a nice little money-spinner of a self-help book! How wonderful! Buy this book and you will see that my nutshell summary really is not far off the mark!
With so many rave reviews, there has to be some substance to this "international bestseller," and indeed there is. But it's not all it's cracked up to be, and I feel compelled to offer my own critique to counterbalance the sense of undulating admiration that seems to surround this book. So here goes!
If you are obsessed with achieving status through your work but are ignorant of the subtleties / game-playing of everyday office life, " The Rules of Work" may be for you. If your career is being dogged by your own social ineptitude, The Rules of Work" may give you 1 or 2 pointers.
Templar does indeed make some valid points, however it is all little more than common sense and pseudo-psychology that should be OBVIOUS to anyone with a modicum of insight and basic social inteligence!
Templar states that "carrying out the Rules requires honesty and integrity" yet betrays this by encouraging practices which are anything BUT honest. One example of this is where he mentions how you should never get angry at work unless it is "staged" to achieve a specific purpose.
Erm...HELLO Mr Templar.... do you not realising that if you are "staging" emotions and behaviour to achieve your own ends you are NOT displaying honesty and integrity?! You are being DEVIOUS and FAKE!
Templar does this yet again where he states that "you do not have to sacrifice your own identity..." Yet during a passage of blurb about "fitting in" (page 113) he makes the following interesting little statement:
"You don't have to buy into the corporate culture - you don't have to believe in it - all you have to do is fit in. If they all play golf, then you play golf. I know you hate golf, but you will play golf - if that's what it takes to fit in." Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
The whole book is peppered with these funny little anomalies that betray hypocrisy, deviousness and manipulation. I won't point them all out to you - you will have so much fun discovering them for yourself!
Oh but be sure to check out Page 131: "You don't need these things, they're for the sheep. You are the wolf. Think independent, wolfish thoughts." That sums up his attiude rather nicely.
This book has an undertone of "American-ness" about it which seems somewhat at odds with one sentence which begins with the words: "We British like to..." therefore implying that the author is British.
I wouldn't mind betting my apartment that the same passage in the version printed for America reads something like: "We Americans like to...." - all part of Mr Templar's wonderfully clever and cunning masterplan to hoodwink people and get them on side!
You have probably gathered that I do not like this book and what it represents. You are right. I despise it. Yet I know that a lot of what it says works. I have worked in many offices and seen first-hand all his little tips put into practice by people who were clearly only our for themselves. Personally I choose to have a LIFE. I am polite and respectful to people at work, I present myself well and yet I speak my mind. I stage nothing for nobody. Everyone in my office loves football. I hate it. I don't play it. And they know it! NO PROBLEM! This has never impeded my progress, and therefore I disagree with the EXTENT to which Templar suggests you should be tactical for your own benefit.
I will not concern myself with soft-soaping people to achieve favour from people who, frankly, do not matter. My world does not pivot around work!
The Rules of Work is "common sense meets obsessive, pseudo psycho-babble for the Big Brother generation."
Mr Templar appears to believe he is being SO clever, but his facile, often curious and spurious logic ("Loose clothes talk of quality and elegance, tight clothes of poverty and cheapness." Page 32) really fails to impress or fool me. Give it a read if you want a laugh. Oh and see how many typing errors you can see! Muahahahaahahahaha! Jajajajajaja!
Laterz friends ;)
Excellent Human Resources Management Guide February 21, 2007
Jay (Mauritius)
4 out of 12 found this review helpful
It is well organized, and presently in a friendly, easy to read fashion that will make it a pleasant read on a several hour flight, train trip, or rainy afternoon when keeping up with the Premiership Football scores will do. Share it carefully--because its knowledge is the type that will help you succeed, but you don't necessarily want others to know where you gained its valuable insights--let them marvel at your acumen and skill in all social situation--which, as Templar points out, don't really exist, because any social situaiton is really one in which your merits and liabilities will be enumerated and judged by peers, superiors, and subordinates.
This book has a list of 100 Rules at work to improve the chance of promotion. Each Rule is explained in doublespaced 2-3 pages. It seems the author decided to stretch 50 Rules into 100 in order to sell more copies of this book. For example, Rule #11 (Dress Well) is almost the same as Rule #17 (Be Attractive) and Rule #61 (Dress One Step Ahead). The book is most worthwhile read for those who are recent college graduates working in a large corporate environement. For those who are seasoned veterans of climbing the corporate ladder, this book can seem simplistic.
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