The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2)

This is a ridiculously good and thought-provoking book. I bought it on a whim after reading Venkat's blog and other articles on Forbes. I had never watched more than a few minutes of "The Office," but I did so after reading the Gervais Principle so that I could understand the principles better. This book will help you understand office dynamics, religious dynamics and a whole slew of other organizational dynamics. Worth the read, though the book can be a bit disorienting if you really get the principles at a deep level. You will see things in the world much differently. Well, I did. cheers!

Have you ever noticed that a typical American business advice book is targeted at, how to put it charitably, a complete moron? Who Moved My Cheese, One Minute Manager, The 4-hour Workweek, Seven Habits... These things -- I can't even bring myself to using the word "book" to describe such sad excuses for murdering trees -- try to describe a fictional world populated by strange creatures that has nothing in common with what really goes on in corporate America. That's because whatever passes for advice in them can only work in this imaginary universe. Luckily, that's where The Gervais Principle comes in. For the first time ever, this is a book that deals with the actual reality of office life. Building upon Hugh MacLeod's Company Hierarchy Pyramid and "The Office", Mr. Rao exposes the dynamics of professional life through the archetypes of The Losers, The Clueless, and The Sociopaths. The Gervais principle is to the Peter principle is what relativity is to classical mechanics. If you like to think of yourself as an educated person, it's a must read. Unless, of course, you're 100% comfortable in your Peter principle bubble. TL;DR: I envy you. You're in for a treat. Read the book!

There is a lot of here here. Particularly for those who work in the public sector. I am a "Looser" and I have been surrounded by both the clueless and Sociopaths for 10 years now, though I did not know to call them such. This book mostly confirmed and enunciated a lot of what I already knew or instinctively assimilated. But it was nice to give it some structure. The constant references to the office ended up a distraction because I had never watched the show, and he only describes the episode, he does not give the title so I would have to watch 100 hours a video to be able to understand what he was talking about. Unfortunately the extremes intended as satire in "The Office" are common or even weak gruel in my organization, so the show wasn't an escape for me. It was just a reminder of what I went through at work all day, dodging the booby traps and ambushes from Sociopaths, pushing on string to get the clueless to perform. But, 4 Stars for the science behind the book.

Never read the articles when they went viral but stumbled upon this book while looking for more John Gall / Nassim Taleb esque counter-intuitive ways of thinking about systems as pathologies (due to intrinsic chaos, liability transfer, and the vast majority of people totally blind to the pathology).. Rao tackles the organization as a pathological system and fragments its members into 3 buckets of people - the losers, the clueless, and the sociopaths. In terms of org structure they're the low level workforce, the middle managers, and the leaders. All I'm gonna say is when I read the chapter where he extends the buckets of people to archetypal belief systems and the order/chaos paradigm, I thought, Rao is a genius. In a nutshell, the losers are Dionysian in nature (driven by emotions), the clueless are Apollonian (rationalists who believe in the company's rules), and the sociopaths are the ones who ascend to leadership positions by manipulating Dionysian and Apollonian forces in the workplace so that they create the emotional boundaries losers need to be happy and the logical structure the clueless need to be happy.. The ways in which the sociopaths ascend to power is sociopathic because in doing so, they use the organizational bureaucracy to transfer liabilities to the other two groups while taking credit for successes (basically the asymmetrical ethics issue in Taleb's Skin in the Game). Note that this is Darwinian in nature. Rao then leaves it at that - the organization is a naturally unethical, pathological system that can't be fixed. That last part I disagree with, but other than Taleb, I don't know many people who've written about the ethics of asymmetry. But there's something that needs to be said for the fact asymmetry can and does come back to haunt many sociopaths.

Nearly all of this book is available for free online from the author (Google it). I think it's amazing -- some of the best, darkest, most practical yet cynical business advice I have ever read. This includes a breakdown of the movie "Office Space" as well, which isn't as good a match for the McLeod hierarchy -- Office Space is in some ways too optimistic to fully fit the "Gervais Principle" theme. It's as entertaining, but not nearly as enlightening, as the original essays. Which isn't a big deal. This costs what, four bucks? And the original essays are incredible.

It’s great fun to break down the absurd world of the office and watch the author frame it all up in terms of his organizational model. If you’re a loser looking for an exit, this could be your book. If you’re a wannabe sociopath, ditto, read on. Clueless people won’t even read this, but you should be able to detect them when you’re done. You’re in one of those three groups, so settle in. Should we take this book seriously? You be the judge! If we do, will it be the end of corporate life as we know it? Maybe!

Helps to have a philosophy background to read this, which I don't. So after a while I felt bogged down in idea minutiae, and ready to hear more examples. But worth it for the first ten pages or so. I'm studying law, so after a while I'll go back to it, when I expect to get my full money's worth. I really enjoyed the CEO as sociopath idea. While reading, I kind of relived the "loser" role I've always played as I jumped around between corporations and big organizations. Kind of fun to read, but also ate at me because I spent so much time in ineffective roles. C'est moi, et c'est la vie.

In the preface, the author writes "I've had people actually tell me that this series served as a sort of red-pill-blue-pill Matrix moment in their careers." I'm one of the people he's referring to. In 2008, I was an overachieving software guy who had migrated into management. I had found it a difficult transition, to say the least. I kept making what my boss, and his boss, kept calling obvious mistakes. Each mistake I tried to understand, with varying degrees of limited success. Then a friend said, "You should check out this blog, ribbonfarm." Reading the Gervais series was a crash course in what the author calls "organizational literacy". These essays gave me a detailed framework for understanding the roles one can play in a hierarchy, and how to navigate it with some degree of skill. I was able to turn my manager career around, going from disgrace to respect over the following two years. Your mileage may vary, of course. But for me, the Gervais Principle was a pivotal document. I can't recommend it highly enough. The bonus essay was worth the price of the ebook. :)

The book was quite explain using that for general organisational politics must read for people to understand modern corporate life

An overblown and weak attempt to write a book about organisations, with no real knowledge or insight. Ricky should sue. One star only because the minimum allowed.

The book builds on most of the available material on organizational behavior but is lot more fun to read and connect to because of the The Office analogy. Would recommend watching at least first season of The Office before starting off.

I have watched The Office TV show (US version), so the examples were relatable to me. Also, I have worked in offices and corporations where I have seen a lot of these roles. This really opened up a great way of thinking about how people interact in offices, and the roles they play. Of course it's not always 100% applicable to every situation, but it does give a good primer on office/business politics, relationships, and roles.

Good read