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A review by pondaholic
Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Malone Scott
1.0
What to say about this book? I didn't enjoy it. Not. One. Bit. I stopped reading it for quite some time, but I had to finish it for a corporate book club. For clarity, that was the ONLY REASON why I finished it. This is a giant book of 8 chapters, three of which just re-hash, revisit, and repeat the first 3 chapters as if the reader had no short term memory and required another briefing of the subjects covered.
A boss is a boss, a manager is a manager, and while it's true no one wants to work for an asshole that publicly humiliates subordinates it's not necessary to have a supervisor hold your hand and coddle you because, why: it makes you feel better about going to work? If your boss doesn't take the time out to give you a summary of how good you're doing at work and pat you on the head, then you should look for another job. In what universe is that sound advice?!
The audience is strangely schizophrenic in this book. Is she writing for subordinates to bring up the "Radical Candor" to their boss--the environment of constant feedback as if the subordinate didn't know "I'm not f*cking up at my job?" If you need a supervisor to constantly tell you you're not f*cking up your job, you've got bigger problems than this book can solve. There is another spectrum of this book that reaches out to supervisors, managers, etc. asking "Are you being radically candid to those working for you?" Here's the thing, if your boss is an asshole, chances are they're not reading this book and will never adhere to the advice administered in this book. If you try to discuss the "radical candor" you've learned after reading this book to said asshole, chances are you're going to be getting a lot of attention at work from now on (and not the kind, reassuring attention you wanted).
My boss isn't my parent, and they shouldn't have to be. This book is telling you that you shouldn't settle into a job where your boss isn't parenting you. I would not recommend this book, to anyone, for any reason.
A boss is a boss, a manager is a manager, and while it's true no one wants to work for an asshole that publicly humiliates subordinates it's not necessary to have a supervisor hold your hand and coddle you because, why: it makes you feel better about going to work? If your boss doesn't take the time out to give you a summary of how good you're doing at work and pat you on the head, then you should look for another job. In what universe is that sound advice?!
The audience is strangely schizophrenic in this book. Is she writing for subordinates to bring up the "Radical Candor" to their boss--the environment of constant feedback as if the subordinate didn't know "I'm not f*cking up at my job?" If you need a supervisor to constantly tell you you're not f*cking up your job, you've got bigger problems than this book can solve. There is another spectrum of this book that reaches out to supervisors, managers, etc. asking "Are you being radically candid to those working for you?" Here's the thing, if your boss is an asshole, chances are they're not reading this book and will never adhere to the advice administered in this book. If you try to discuss the "radical candor" you've learned after reading this book to said asshole, chances are you're going to be getting a lot of attention at work from now on (and not the kind, reassuring attention you wanted).
My boss isn't my parent, and they shouldn't have to be. This book is telling you that you shouldn't settle into a job where your boss isn't parenting you. I would not recommend this book, to anyone, for any reason.