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Hacking Work
Book

Hacking Work

Breaking Stupid Rules for Smart Results

Bill Jensen and Josh Klein
Portfolio, 2010
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Editorial Rating

8

Recommendation

This lively book is not a manual or a how-to guide; it’s a rallying cry for the community of “benevolent hackers” and an attitude adjustment for those who want to join. Bill Jensen, CEO of the Jensen Group, and Josh Klein, a skilled hacker, offer an enthusiastic spirit and an all-embracing outlook – at times to make up for being reserved about specificity, so as not to enable bad hackers – that clearly deliver their message: Courage and flexibility matter much more than technical expertise when it comes to changing oppressive work conditions. The authors walk a tightrope: They imply that you can alter software, networks and processes, but they never demonstrate how outright, and they advocate hacking only within ethical limits. Their obvious joy at circumventing restrictive or idiotic corporate practices, and their welcome conversational tone, makes this a tremendously fun read – one that will open some readers’ eyes to possibilities they might not have considered. getAbstract suggests this gleeful tome to those who feel that work procedures are dampening their productivity and creativity, and to anyone who likes to tweak the nose of authority.

Summary

“Benevolent Hackers”

Workers are fomenting a quiet revolution. They subvert established company policies whenever those rules and regulations make their jobs harder or less efficient. This revolution takes the form of circumventing or replacing outmoded or silly procedures. It enables workers to be faster and more productive, and it allows them to fine-tune work circumstances to suit their own natures, rather than bending to idiotic bureaucracy. The members of this ever-growing community of under-the-radar revolutionaries are called benevolent hackers.

“Broken Businesses” Old business models and processes no longer work. Rigid managers and top-down directives make a company less productive. Yet in uncertain times, most firms tend to be more fearful, more controlling, more rigid and less concerned with employee happiness. But hard times demand courage, not timidity. Workers are fighting back. Evers Pearce’s bosses at Oxford cut his project’s funding to nearly nothing and told him to throw out its furniture and other detritus. Instead, he sold the supposed garbage on eBay and funneled £37,000 back into the project. Such workers are taking control. Well...

About the Authors

Bill Jensen is the CEO of the Jensen Group. Consultant Josh Klein is an expert hacker.

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