All Up in Your Bizness by Julianna Newland

All Up in Your Bizness by Julianna Newland
Publisher: Fulton Books
Genre: Non-Fiction, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

All up in Your Bizness is my first book (not counting my diary). Although I have written dozens of speeches, testimonials, newsletters, and talking points, they do not contain the wit and whimsy of this book. I have been employed for more than thirty years in several jobs, where I have seen hilarious shenanigans of the men and women who worked with me and the processes and programs that often befuddled us.

A labor of love and giggles, this book is to be enjoyed as a tongue-in-cheek look at many business circumstances, such as the interview, office kiss-ups, performance reviews, working from home, and working in the open office. Practical and useful advice is also provided.

Unspoken rules can be the hardest ones of all to follow.

As soon as the blurb mentioned this was going to be a tongue-in-cheek book, I knew I had to read it. The author had a fabulous sense of humor, and I chuckled my way through her various anecdotes about what Human Resources may claim a business is like versus what it’s actually like to work there. This is a fun choice for anyone who has ever silently wished they could add a few pages to their employee handbook about what it’s actually like to work for their company.

I loved Ms. Newland’s observations about how life has improved for women in the workplace over the past few decades. It would have been wonderful to also have sections on how things have evolved for people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, disabled workers, and other minority groups over time. I was surprised that none of these topics were covered and would have happily gone for a full five-star rating if they were.

With that being said, I was pleased to see the comparisons between various generations in the workplace. Not everyone from the same generation will behave the same way, of course, but there have been some cultural shifts over time when it comes to things like what an appropriate outfit for work looks like or how much overtime a worker is or isn’t willing to do on a regular basis. Bringing these assumptions out into the open is an important part of making sure everyone is on the same page, and it can also add extra humor to the mix if finding common ground is harder than expected.

All Up in Your Bizness made me smile.