Book Club Non-Fiction
When I heard about the book club I have to admit I didn't like the idea. I say that in full disclosure because maybe that colored my view. But I REALLY didn't like that it was "strongly encouraged but not mandatory" . . . I mean, just make it optional and leave it at that, right? If your boss says "strongly encouraged" it really just means mandatory anyway. Of course, I didn't fully understand that until after I skipped the first meeting.
Out of pure curiosity, I started reading the book as soon as my boss sent the invite to the book club meeting. I started even before we got the PDF copies via an email (that seems illegal to me and ironic since we have to be so careful with writing and images we use in our print and web products). I found it on Amazon and contemplated just buying it right then (it was only $10) but (luckily) decided to read the first few pages that Amazon lets you read for free. I was reading it when Tara passed my office and I asked her about getting the soft cover "workbook edition" that was on Kindle or if there was a difference and I should get the other one. She said "I'm not asking you to buy it" and I said "I'm not asking you to pay for it" and that I thought it would be nice for reading on my iPad. She didn't know the difference between the workbook edition and the others and seemed to get annoyed at me asking about it in the first place (though, she did seem to be in a hurry).
I started reading and found it . . . kinda silly. The first chapter is about how "there is no such thing as lone ranger" meaning that it takes a team to do anything great despite what we hear about guys like Steve Jobs (though, since it's an older book he wasn't the example). Fair enough and well, a BFO if there ever was one (blinding flash of the obvious). I've read enough biographies about people (including Steve Jobs) to know they didn't do it alone.
Anyway, I also read in the preamble that it was #1 on the Christian Bookseller List (or something like that . . . I don't care enough to look it up right now). After reading those pages about lone ranger and about how it's #1 somewhere I decided to look into the author (I ran out of free pages on Amazon). The first result, Wikipedia, said he was an "evangelical Christian author, speaker, and pastor". I thought it odd that a guy that has been a pastor all his life was writing books on teamwork in the workplace. As a "non-believer" I really didn't want to read "the bible 2" while at work. While I'll admit it probably doesn't have any Christian or God reference (I didn't check) I still didn't want to read it.
Armed with that, the fact that I didn't read the chapter, and that I had other work I really wanted to get done, I decided to skip the book club meeting. I told Bryan about it and he really wanted me to go. He was careful to say it was "your choice" but that it wouldn't look good if I didn't go. I was willing to accept that . . . and thought my reasons for not going would be accepted and everyone would quickly move on. I regret not going simply for the fact that it probably made Bryan look bad.
During the meeting I guess Tara asked where I was and Bryan said "he didn't read it" or something like that. I got an email from Tara right at the beginning of the meeting saying "you are welcome to join even if you didn't read it". I replied that I had other reasons for not going and she later replied that she would like to hear my concerns.
Later that day I went by her office and asked if she had a minute to talk. She said she did. We talked about something else and then I said I was in there about the book club. I said something like "the book doesn't interest me and all I can think is how I should be reading more about programming". She said, "well, I wouldn't find books about programming or Legos interesting" (and bringing up Lego was thoughtful, since, well, I love Lego and didn't know she knew). I get that and nodded. She said that I "missed valuable conversation" and other things along those lines and I said "if it's more just a chance for us to all chat and it's not about the book I would be happy to join". She reiterated it WAS about the book and how the book is what started the conversation. I brought up the "Christian" thing, I think for the second time but it may have been the first. Her anger grew. I tried to stay silent and get out of there. She talked more about the book and the author and how she's read books from atheist authors. I asked her to name one and she couldn't because she "didn't look into the background of every author of every book she read" but she's still sure she's read from an atheist author. She also said there is no mention of religion in the book. I didn't think that mattered and thought the author being "known more for being evangelical Christian pastor" is objectionable enough. Then she brought up that if I had been at the meeting I would know that the winner of the Workhorse Award will get to pick the next book. So I say "well, you better hope I don't get to pick the next book". That's when she "hulked" (if she would have been the Hulk she'd have been transitioned to huge and green and ready to pounce me). She said . . and this is an EXACT quote . . . "STOP WASTING MY TIME!". It was loud enough for everyone in the area to hear. (She could never get the Workhorse Award herself because one of the core values is speaking at an appropriate volume.) She said she's not going to have the team read about programming or Legos. I didn't mention programming or Lego books for the team to read . . . I just thought it would be funny for me to pick the next book. Anyway, that was the end of that and I excused myself . . . didn't want to waste anymore time.
By the way . . . the Workhorse Award (think "employee of the month" like at McDonalds but no free movie tickets and, well no award at all beside training that we should all be doing anyway) is ESPECIALLY funny since, well, it's like pointing out that one member of the team was "better" than everyone else. That doesn't sound like teamwork to me. Sounds more like the myth of the lone ranger and it sounds like something that would do more damage to team moral that good.
Sheldon