THE 59-SECOND EMPLOYEE: How to Stay One Second Ahead of Your One-Minute Manager

by Rae & Peter Ward AndrÉ ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 27, 1983

AndrÉ and Ward have committed the folly of taking The One Minute Manager seriously. As a send-up, the book isn't as funny (or brash) as the original--itself a parody, unconscious or not, of behavior mod management. As a counterthrust, it's feeble: a mere echo, unwitting or not, of the employee-survival guides that advocate ""managing up"" (like George de Mare's 101 Ways to Protect Your Job, below). After six months of one-minute praisings, one-minute reprimands, and one-minute goal-settings, our anti-hero Dave decides he likes one old-timer's inefficient methods better. How to survive, uncompromised? One-minute techniques won't work--the managers are wise to them. He can't be perfect--he's ""too human,"" mistakes are inevitable. Maybe, like old-timer Hart, he can minimize mistakes--by ignoring his next one-minute reprimand. And the next. In time, he says: ""I would be a much better worker if you would stop reprimanding me and would instead help me learn how to do things right."" When he gets a one-minute praising, he asks for a reward. (Not, astutely, every time.) And before long Dave is indistinguishable from other self-respecting business successes, who say what they believe and concern themselves with ""the company's responsibility to its employees and to the greater community."" The mode continues to be satire; the text turns into a sermonette.

Pub Date: Jan. 27, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION